Just curous how high of a temp I can reasonablly ferment and store a sour at this summer. I plan to brew 12-15gal for furture fruting and would like to store it in our outside shed. During the summer that could mean 115-120 degrees though. It shouldn`t get that hot for another 2-3 months though, so the bugs would have a good head start. Would that be too extreme or reasonable?
I installed an AC unit when the "barrel-room" in my basement hit 82F... non-porous fermentors are less of an issue than wood barrels, but Brett can get very Band-Aid phenolic when allowed too much time in the 80s. 115-120F is likely enough to kill most of the yeast and create some pretty unpleasant flavors. Trinity Brewing is the only one I've ever heard talk about using yeast well above 100F.
Hmmm killing the yeast would obviously not be a good option. For extended storage, 9-12 months, would there be any issues keeping the beer between 65-70? I just want to make sure I give the yeast what it needs to ferment out since there will be nothing but bottle dregs doing the work. My original intent was to grow starters, but on Sour Hour the other night a guy mentioned having great success just pitching dregs and letting them run wild for a while before fruiting.
@trevord13 , did the guest on the Sour Hour do a primary ferment with dregs only? Also, at such high temps, wouldn't Acetobacter be a concern? Or is that only for porous vessels that intake O2 (ie. oak barrels)?
Dregs were the only form of yeast used. I`m pretty sure he said 12 months on the dregs, then 3-4 months on fruit before bottling. No mention of fermentation temp, but he mentioned they were stored in a garage. He also used plastic buckets to allow the yeast to continue receiving oxygen.
Acetobacter won't do much without oxygen, but if that airlock goes dry at 80F+ it'll likely be malt vinegar in a few weeks (or less). Dregs without anything else can work, but it is really risky. No harm in pitching a healthy culture of brewers yeast along with the dregs to ensure nothing really nasty gets a foothold. Especially if you aren't using dregs from really fresh low/moderate-alcohol sour beers - Jolly Pumpkin for example. 65-70F is just about perfect in my opinion.
My barrel is in my basement, and due to my climate zone this means the highest temperature it has seen in the nearly 3 years I have had it has been about 65°F. It is usually closer to 60. I would be nervous as to what would happen at the higher temperatures you are indicating.
One of the great things about sour beers is that there are very few right and wrong answers. Mostly just depends on your microbes and flavor preferences. What flavors/benefit were they suggestion you'd gain from the hot fermentation? Russian River keeps all their barrels in the mid-low 60s, and they do alright. My sours have gotten better and more consistent now that I have a temperature controlled space to age them. They don't have the rough/harsh edges they did when they were aging up into the 80s when I lived in an apartment.
As I recall he suggested "more funk" and a brighter sour if the bugs spent time above 90F, but I seem to have not saved his slides. I'm completely uncontrolled... 40-110F. Mixed results
Can you shed a little light on these conditions? Are we talking fermentation time or conditioning time? A long time for a beer would be a few weeks. A long time for a sour would be a few months?
I had bad luck with some 100% Brett fermentations in the 80s (others, like WL Brett C were fine). Not sure how much of an issue long-term Brett secondary at high temperatures would be.
