Hello, Next week I have a my standard 7 gallon brew day, 5 gallons to my "normal" size fermentor for typical fermentation and 2 gallons will go for experimentation- this will be my sour beer. I will brew 7 gallons of the following: 90% belgian pils 5% caramunich 5% munich single mash at 152F, and 60 min boil. 10 IBUs of saaz at 60 min for buttering and one ounce of saaz at 5 min to go. My 5 gallons will be fermented with Wyeast 3522. I am confident in this component of the brew. Its what to do with the next 2 gallons that gets me worried. I think the obvious answer for a first attempt is buy something like Wyeast3278, a pre blend of microbes. But, I hear lots of people in other forums saying you need dregs, or should start with standard brewers yeast. I have also never tried dregs and would like to give it a try. Would it be possible to fully ferment a 2 gallon batch with say 4-6 sets of bottle dregs? This sounds like an interesting experiment as well. On a side note, I have started brewing 7 gallons of beer because I realized I can on my system, that is why recently i have been doing lots of 5/2 splits, 5 standard and two for experimenting with.
Just adding one more point, i would like to ultimately produce a substantially sour/funky beer, not something akin to 100% brett
For your experiment, I'd just pitch the 3278 and see if you like the results. It may take many months to develop the sour profile that suits you. I would do bottle dregs as a different experiment, maybe take a small amount of your 2 gallon experiment wort and try to gradually grow a starter, eventually using the results in a new 2 gallon batch. The bottle dregs may or may not produce any sour effect, depends how old they are and which brand of beer. Wyeast says that repitching the sour blends will change the proportion of the yeasts and bacteria and your results will then be different. if you mix your bottle dregs from "4 or 5 bottles" and the 3278, you probably won't be able to replicate that in the future. I think a useful experiment would be to keep making the 2 gallon experiments and pitching different sour yeast blends and then keep track of how the flavors change over time.
I've brewed with 3763 and no dregs and enjoyed the result. Never used 3278. You might find adding dregs enhances your enjoyment, but how will you know if you don't try it both ways? The thing with sours is that they take a while to develop, so you can easily have several going at once if you are willing to invest in the extra fermenters. Perhaps that facilitates for you the type of experimentation I suggest, and when they are done in 9-24 months, you'll figure out which way you like it.
My advice would be to do a 5 gallon batch. If you're going to invest the time into doing a sour beer and it turns out great you're going to be sad you don't have more. There are many different ways of brewing a sour. The way I've always done it was to do a primary fermentation with clean yeast and then add bottle dregs during fermentation or after it has finished. I mash high to provide left over food for the bugs. Normally I leave everything in primary because when the yeast go through autolysis it provides food for the Brett. If you choose to go the bottle dregs route, make sure the bottle actually has bugs in it and try to use a fresh bottle. Best advice I can give is reduce exposure to oxygen and patience is key.
I'd just use some Roselare, ECY01, Yeastbay sour blends, or even the Wyeast-PC blends for this summer. I think there's a faster souring blend they have. Add dregs of things you like if you so choose. Also- you'll probably benefit from a higher mash if you want the sour to get plenty sour and funky. Maybe even add in some maltodextrin or something for the bugs to eat on if you don't want to have a bigger body on your main beer.
Never brewed one but I am reading this book. http://www.amazon.com/American-Sour.../ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid= its got a forward written by Vinny OF Russian River. good tips so far. I will make 1 before the year is out, lol maybe this 1 http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2012/09/stolen-microbes-lambic-with-3-fonteinen.html good luck on yours. good stuff here http://www.themadfermentationist.com/p/recipes-for-beer.html
Thanks everyone for the advice, I will probably do split batches, 5 gallons BPA, then 2*1 gallon soured.
