Alright so I'm going to be taking the plunge into making my first sour beer. Base beer is going to be a simple wheat saison style, potentially aged on cherries and blackberries OG: 1.061 FG: 1.013 ABV: 6.21% IBU: 14 SRM: 6 6.6# Light LME 2.0# Wheat DME 1.0# Vienna 8oz Carapils 0.25oz Columbus @60 0.5oz Saaz @10 1- I don't want to do a sour mash or any "quick sour" methods. My current thought is pitching a standards saison yeast strain then transferring to secondary. Once in secondary pitch bug culture and let it sit for roughly a year. Is there any point to doing this now that blends like Wyeast 3763 Roselare exist (Belgian ale strain, with pedi, lacto, and brett)? Is there any benefit to getting the beer off of the yeast cake and just having the bugs do their stuff? 2- Which do people prefer for long term aging Better Bottles or Buckets? 3- How long can beer age on fruit before producing weird/off flavors? If you have any suggestions on the base beer, that's appreciated as well. It's just something quick and simple I put together to allow fruits and bugs/yeast to shine.
A few pointers. Your FG will be closer to 1.003 than 1.013, so the ABV will be much higher than 6.2%. 1 - You can use Roselare alongside a Sacc Saison pitch, but I personally wouldn't. Those blends cost good money. I would rather buy an amazing sour beer from a great brewery and pitch the dregs. WY won't give you a beer with that pitch. 2 - Better Bottle or glass, not buckets. Buckets aren't designed for extended aging as they have a higher permiability to O2 and will become oxidized faster. O2 in a sour can also lead to copious amounts of Acetic Acid which is bad enough, and Brett can esterify that to Ethyl Acetate which is nailpolish remover. 3 - Add the fruit after your beer is done souring so that you know what the flavor profile is like. Use a fruit that will go well with the beer once you know what it will taste like. Once there, you can age for 4-6 months on the fruit.
I have not had much luck starting with a Saison strain. Most saison strains attenuate so well that there isn't much left for the microbial culture in secondary. Although starting from extract may be different. I have only done it all grain and maybe should have gone for a more dextrinous wort. Others may have had better experience starting with Saison.
I had good results with Roselaire + dregs. Soured and got to a very low gravity within a couple months.
@gcg49 I do have some Rare Barrel and Side Project beers in the fridge. With pitching dregs are you stepping them up at all (i.e. yeast harvesting style)? Or just pitching the dregs?
What @jbakajust1 said: save moola and decrease your OG. I usually do a primary sacc, plus blend, plus dregs as a primary mixed ferment. Transfer to secondary with more dregs. More dregs along the way. Dregs! If you pitch bugs at secondary, things may not sour as quickly as you want it to. I've had success in aging sour beers in buckets, with the longest I let them go was ~ 9 months before transfer to glass. This was a primary ferment for 9 months, mind you . . . the Brett scavenged/used the extra O2 from transfer through the plastic. I usually do glass, though. Once your beer is ready, after 1-2 years, you can rack on fruit. I usually leave on fruit for 2 months. For your hops: skip the late addition. It'll be LONG gone by the time the beer is palatable. Dregs!
I have done both ways. Starter will increase the amount of Lactic bacteria. I also agree with @jae Dregs! Add them numerous times throughout.
I just throw them in. Pour off the beer in one swell fwoop, flame the top and throw them in: primary secondary, tertiary and every where in between!
