fruiting a sour?

have you tasted it? Don't rush the beer, let it sit and do it's thing. My peach sour sat for 9 months before fruit, another 4-5 months with fruit, and then another 2-3 months in bottles conditioning.

 

No rush here, bruddah. I brewed it in November, 100% brett b, c, and L, peaches went in last month. I want to pull a bottle off, let it carb and see what that does to it.

 

Gotcha, just suggesting letting it sit longer if it is smelling off

 

I tasted it a few months ago, not sure when, but I plan on sampling it soon to see what the peaches are doing. I couldn't go wrong with peaches @ $0.69/lb...and they were ripe.

 

Wait for a little while. Brett is aerobic and would appreciate a little extra O2, though after a few months I'd age it in a more air-tight system.

 

To all those saying not to put a sour beer in a plastic container for a long period of time because plastic is permeable to O2, while glass is not - this is causing some confusion for me. Wood barrels would be the classic place to age a sour beer, and certainly would be more O2 permeable than plastic. So, while their may be reasons to avoid plastic long-term, can O2 permeability really be one?

 

Yes, a plastic bucket is umpteen times more permeable than a full sized barrel, particularly french oak. A little O2 is helpful, a lot is not. That's why some have suggested initially aging in bucket and then transferring to glass, but it's not a technique I've tried myelf. With either a better bottle or a glass carboy, the greatest source of O2 permeability is the bung and what type you use makes a diference, at least according to the info on BB webpage and in Wild Brews.

 

The other huge difference here is in the amount of beer being aged. Think about the ratio of surface area to volume for a 5 gallon batch vs. a 55 gallon barrel.

 

Sorry to threadjack, but I also have a peach related lambic question. I just picked some up and cut/froze them (about 8 pounds for 3 gallons). I was talking to an experienced mead maker (professional) and BJCP national judge, he said I should have peeled them prior to cutting as the skins add an astringency that will be unpleasant. Any ideas, or should I just go for it skins and all?

 

Mead maker and BJCP judge, that's two strikes. I've never heard of skinning peaches for beer.

 

what session DDG are you going to?

 

He is my go to guy for fruit questions as that is what he does professionally- hydro and melomel.

I believe him, but still want some other opinions. Any validity?

 

Sunday morning. You will recognize me by my tree trunk-esque arms and the dark side corruption.

 

There is plenty of validity to this concept (however my guess is that the reality is that the difference is very small). In most fruits (especially grapes) the skins contain a much higher concentration of tannins. The amount of time a wine remains on the skins is very precisely controlled to determine the amount of tannins desired.

With that said, getting all your sugars from a fruit source (like wine) is much different than adding fruit to a beer. In most cases fruit is being added to sour beers that benefit from whatever tannins will be extracted from the fruit.

Only way to truly tell is to split the batch and do half with skins half without and tell us if you can tell the difference.

 

me too, I can bring a peach & honey sour for you. I will be the person who looks average, has a slight beard and is probably wearing some beer related shirt. I should be easy to spot.

 

If adding fruit after a long period how do you the sugars fermented out and thus how much priming sugar to add before bottling ?

 

I would leave the fruit for 3months or so then bottle as usual. The simple sugars in the fruits will be consumed by the bacteria and Brett.

 

Too late now, but maybe next time you can secondary on fruit in a Cornelius keg, then after 6 months aging just crash cool and rack to serving vessel or bottling bucket. This is good for a few reasons: stainless steel, airtight, wide opening, you can manually vent pressure as needed, easy cleaning.

 

How do you keep the fruit pulp from clogging you dip tube and/or post/QD?