Proposition: Dreg Swapping

This is an interesting idea. I suggest using sanitized White Labs vials to ship the dregs from one homebrewer to another.

 

Best option might just be a plain old beer swap. Brewers that make a batch with the dregs ship a couple bottles out to others around the country,who do the same with ones they can get. This will get fresh viable dregs, larger cell counts, and feedback on the beers brewed.

 

This is exactly how I got my hands on hill farmstead dregs.

 

I'm pretty sure he was suggesting a homebrew swap, IE I brew a beer with Allagash dregs and trade with you for some homebrew made with Crooked Stave dregs.

 

The dregs came from another homebrewer who gave me a couple bottles of his saison brewed with HF dregs. I believe that's what @jbakajust1 was trying to get across, but maybe I misread, that we should use dregs from homebrews that are bottled with the dregs we desire.

 

That is exactly what I was saying. It would take longer for people to get what they want, but it is much easier than trading. Say a few people want Cascade's Lacto or a Block 15 culture. I can get a bottle of those beers, brew a beer with them, and dispense bottles from a 6 pack when it is done. If I want Jester King, someone from TX gets a bottle, makes a beer with the dregs, and when it is done sends me a bottle of the beer they made with the dregs.

Essentially, what this does, is give the person with access to the desired beers the ability to pay for one bottle of said beer and create up to 52 new bottles for swapping.

 

So, with all this being straightened out... I have a saison in the works right now, I have no qualms pitching HF or CS dregs instead of BBT and DuPont. Looking at a bottling timeframe of near may.

 

Were you able to harvest anything from what I sent? Those Jolly Pumpkin dregs are seriously robust.

 

I got the pumpkin and the Solera ones for sure, I seem to remember that the Solera one was ECY. Planning on using them soon here. Trying to do the same singular recipes over and over right now to get my flagships in order. Need to find a couple play days in line too.

 

I like the idea of a dregs homebrew swap. That way you get to try an interesting homebrew and judge for yourself if you like the beer the dregs produced before you commit a whole batch to an unknown. Sure there are many variables, but it seems safer than pitching dregs blindly.

I would also be interested in homebrews that we're not a single pitch of one source of dregs. For example, someone who took a saison brewed with WLP 565 and pitched Hill Farmstead and Cantillon dregs into the same batch to sour it up. I have a saison brewed with a combo of Hill Farmstead and Tilquin dregs that I just bottled last weekend, which fits this description.

 

How did your Hill Farmstead dregs turn out? I've had trouble growing up their dregs even to pitch in secondary because the bacteria in their beers is so aggressively sour if not pitched late and/or at bottling. I had a table beer go from pH 3.8 to 2.9 after pitching into secondary for two months. So sour. I don't know if it was the simple sugars with bottle conditioning or something else, but that one should be used carefully. Same goes for Fantome.

 

Having the dregs manipulated once is best.. pass beer along, it's safer and easier.

I can help with Wicked Weed and Bruery Dregs.

 

I was about to pitch stepped up Allagash dregs from Midnight Brett in a Saison at bottling, but could be persuaded to switch to something else local if someone is interested.

 

I forgot, I also have access to De Garde, and I have some Ale Apothocary dregs already (too expensive to buy a new bottle).

 

I wish it was a little more sour, but not terribly far from ideal. I found it changed dramatically and quickly the first 6 months, but very little after that. I do not have a pH meter to test, but I doubt it is anywhere near 2.9. That's some serious sourness.