Odd/fun project question.

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by bmcalister1897, Feb 11, 2022.

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  1. bmcalister1897

    bmcalister1897 Devotee (350) Jan 23, 2013 Wisconsin
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    a little background first.
    I almost exclusively make wild ales. With wood barrels and bottle condition and all the stuff that comes along with making wild ales.

    I have an empty barrel that I have been looking to fill. I very shortly will have the opportunity to get enough out of date commercial craft beer to fill said barrel. It’s going to be a mix of Pilsner and ipa and other fairly low alcohol, low hops type of beers.
    So my question is has anyone ever made wild ale/ Brett beer from beer from packaged commercial beer? In my head I think it may work.
    Most beer that type still has some residual sugar left in it for the yeast to eat.
    My house yeast culture is probably going on about it’s 200th generation at this point, so it chews through pretty much any sugar and gets wort down to 1.00 fairly easily. so I’m confident it will ferment the beer the rest of the way. Should I add some honey to kick start everything? Or will that just add more alcohol that I honestly don’t really want? Should I add anything else to help the situation?
    As the title states it would be just a fun project to see if it works. If not I can dump it without any remorse since it will be almost zero dollars down the drain. Thoughts?
     
  2. MrOH

    MrOH Grand Pooh-Bah (3,331) Jul 5, 2010 Maryland
    Pooh-Bah Society

    What is your goal?
     
  3. bmcalister1897

    bmcalister1897 Devotee (350) Jan 23, 2013 Wisconsin
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    Just to make a good drinking/blending beer. I guess I was just looking for any ideas that I may not have thought about. I’m am more than likely going to do it regardless. Also was curious if anyone had any anecdotal tips from doing something like this.
     
    unlikelyspiderperson and MrOH like this.
  4. Beer_Life

    Beer_Life Initiate (0) Dec 5, 2020 New York

    I did something vaguely like this once - I brewed a porter that turned out kind of boring, so I spiked it with Brett and let it ride for several months. Not much happened. This was early in my brewing career so who knows, maybe I screwed something up. The final product was basically the same porter I started with, drinkable but no great shakes.
     
  5. PortLargo

    PortLargo Pooh-Bah (1,737) Oct 19, 2012 Florida
    Pooh-Bah Society

    How do you plan on getting the beer in the barrel without oxidizing it?
     
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  6. bmcalister1897

    bmcalister1897 Devotee (350) Jan 23, 2013 Wisconsin
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    im not real concerned about oxidizing they beer as it will sit in a wood barrel for probably atleast a year. From what I have found is Brett tends to eat up many oxidation tasting notes.
     
  7. jbakajust1

    jbakajust1 Pooh-Bah (2,528) Aug 25, 2009 Oregon
    Pooh-Bah Society

    I'm with @PortLargo oxidation is going to be a huge issue. On top of that, you are going to have issues pouring carbonated beer into a barrel. It is going to foam like crazy. One thing I have learned in my years of brewing wild ales - throwing Brett and bacteria at a garbage base beer is not going to result in something magical in the end. A blend of oxidized stale Pils and IPA is not a good starting point for a wild ale. Can Brett scavenge oxygen, yes, but it can also interact with too much oxygen resulting in a ton of ethyl acetate... nail polish remover. If I were in your situation I would brew a beer to put in the barrel, and drink the out of date beer while you wait.
     
    PapaGoose03, MrOH and billandsuz like this.
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