Yesterday my buddy and I were having lunch and he reminded me that I still hd two carboys in his basement. I totally forgot they were there. One is a sour saison and the other is an attempt at a Rodenbach. If memory serves they both have been there for at least 18 months. When I went to get them yesterday they each had the most amazing pellicle I have ever seen and smelled amazing. Unfortunately, while moving to my house I really disturbed the pellicle. I'm giving it time to settle and will transfer to tertiary and then keg. I'm pretty excited about both beers.
That's awesome, I'm doing everything I can to forget about my sour beers. "Watched carboy never sours," or something like that.
I'm pretty good at forgetting about beers. If it isn't a hoppy beer I am usually not in a hurry to move it. I also only keg and have 5 kegs. This helps me delay since I have to wait for a keg to kick.
I'm less than a year in on a 10 gallon barrel of lambic. I ALWAYS know it is there... Good for you to be able to "forget" and then find it again later.
The key is to keep the pipeline going so you always have stuff on hand. Drink to forget. Depending on resources and how much you like sours, that might be tough.
The problem with forgetting a sour beer is that if the airlock runs dry they can turn into malt vinegar pretty quickly. A big pellicle is usually a sign air is getting in. Hopefully you found them in time!
Ha! No, having adequate supply is not a problem, but having the barrel next to my stored beers probably is. Whenever I go downstairs to go "beer fishing", it's always sitting there looking back at me.
My 10 gallon barrel requires frequent topping up and replenishment of the airlock. Every 2 weeks it drinks another can of Budweiser. My wife thinks the "angels' share" sounds poetic, but it also means I can't really forget about it.
Supply is usually steady. Between finished beer and fermenting beer I have roughly 150 gallons of sour beer. Of course, this includes a 60 gallon wine barrel and a 53 gallon bourbon barrel. I'm not sure I will contradict oldsock since I know he knows his stuff, but my experience has been that oxygen has really helped my sours. Remember that barrels always let some oxygen in and actually helps. My wine barrel doesn't even have a bubbler on it and is simply has a wood bung. I have had a barrel go very acetic but that was after three years and really like that beer to blend with.
Certainly not saying that the ideal is no oxygen, just saying the free-flow of air into a sour beer leads to acetic acid production. The comparatively small amount of oxygen that diffuse through wood/plastic/silicone can certainly be beneficial, but is by no means necessary for a great sour beer. I like barrels too, but a dry airlock is not a substitute.
I wasn't saying I intentionally leave them dry. I just don't worry too much if it happens. Also, if I am using glass, at some point I try to get some oxygen in there otherwise I don't get the complex flavors I like. My beers that have been in glass and no oxygen seem to have just one note.
I can't say that attempting to make a lambic is at all common among the home brewers I know personally. I do receive what I consider to be good instruction from an old hand at it who runs my local home brew shop. He told me that he and I are the only 2 people in the area doing it that he knows about. That said, I have tasted his finished results and will be well pleased if I do nearly as well. We top off our barrels with cheap, leftover, about to go stale beer that doesn't contribute any noticeable color or flavor to the finished product. It is cheap and much more convenient than brewing top-off wort at the volume we are working at, which is well below the standard barrel sizes. I am sure it is terribly unorthodox, but then i didn't do a 9-hour decoction mash when I made the initial wort, either, nor did I just let whatever blow into the wort as it cooled in an open container. I pitched lambic blend to get started, and have added other bugs per a suggested pitching schedule.
Interesting. Thanks for the response. Can't argue with results. Maybe shock top would be a better choice though
I just starting brewing, 1st batch was racked to secondary last night in fact. However, I think I'd like to get a sour going and forget about it; thinking NB Dawson's Kriek. Man I wish I was in your shoes that you've got a developed sour already!
I tried both sours last night and was pleasently surprised. Neither had an intense puckering sour and both were actually very balanced. Too bad I am out of kegs right now or I would be drinking them.
Surprisingly Lost Abbey does (did) something similar. They'd have barrels of their Amigo Lager (a.k.a Mellow Yellow) on hand to top-off other barrels when it was needed. Usiing a dry beer will avoid adding additional fermentables, and if the flavor is bland, so much the better. I try to brew extra initially and just keep the extra beer in a carboy for topping off down the road.
I do the same thing. I will brew an extra 15 gallons or so and have it on hand. I also do single barrel soleras so my barrels get turned over and I am brewing frequently to do so.
i'm using one of East Coast yeast's sour yeast mixes (Flanders Red) and the pellicles i have (2 different carboys) are crazy. bubble gum bubbles. and this is with an airlock that's on and is full.
For those of you who brew extra to top off a barrel, do you just put unfermented wort into a carboy with an airlock, or do you pitch something into that to ferment concurrently with the barrel until it goes in? The reasons for adding the cheap beer for me include 1) My maximum capacity at the time I started the lambic only just filled the barrel, 2) I actually tried a beer that had been maintained this way for 4+ years, and it tasted excellent, and 3) I only need a can every couple of weeks.
