Wild Cultures in High Gravity Beers

I've pitched a huge amount of very healthy bugs at primary along w/ sacch. that was with an OG of ~1.086

remember that attenuation will be, in general, higher with a mixed culture vs. sacch alone, so you won't need the equivalent OG to hit finished higher ABVs as well sacch fermented beers. cuvee de tomme is ~11%abv, I believe there's a recipe in wild brews if you have that book handy.

dont' be afraid of using sugar to help drive attenuation, as well. there are upper abv limits for these bacteria and yeast, but there really isn't much information available.

for more experience: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/cuvee-de-tomme-clone-group-project-142449/

 

an alternative safety net method would be to reserve some quantity of wort to separate out from the main volume. stack the souring deck in this separate quantity by pitching strictly souring microbes, which then allows you to blend back to titrate up the acidity of the main volume to achieve what you are shooting for vs. just chucking it in and crossing your fingers.

 

I did a Belgian Strong last January that started at 1.075 and finished at 1.021. I reserved a gallon of it and pitched dregs from Matilda, and Reinhardts Flemish Wild, then added dregs from RR Supplication. After a year it took the FG to 1.002, abv is near 9.6% and was at just over 7% when the bugs/Brett were added. It tastes amazing, slightly oxidized cuz I couldn't stay out of it, but nice and sour, funky, fruity, light acetic, oaky, but flat. Carbonation will be an issue at that gravity and pH.

 

the bacteria will die out as you get into higher abv (10+) but the brett should still be active much higher. I know WY/WL strains say they can handle up to 10% I believe, but Ive taken them higher. The problem with the high alc environment is that it seems to stress the brett quite a bit and they make some rather unpalatable esters that take a lot of time to smooth out. Ive noticed that the time till it tastes good grows exponentially with the OG. But I guess thats not too big of a concern.

I would start with a strong souring culture, fresh cake from a red or similar, and add it to a reasonably high gravity base beer 1070ish, to which you can later add more fermentables (sugars, malt syrups etc)

 

The biggest sour I have made had an OG of 1.101. It was a belgian dark strong. I wanted to do a consecration/CdT inspired beer. I first pitched a belgian strain and did a primary ferment with that. After it finished FG 1.017 it was at 11.4% ABV. I racked to secondary and I then pitched belgian sour mix one from white labs and roselaire blend from wyeast. I got little bit more fermentation and the gravity went down a couple of ponts over the next few months. however the beer never got that sour. I started throwing in cantillon, RR and cascade sour dregs and not much more of a change. I know that RR and cascade have their own pedio/lacto strains that are a bit more alcohol tolerant. After about 12 months it started to get sour. I then added 5 lbs of raspberries. I waited a few months and sour started coming out. 24 months into the project, I was happy. The beer is pretty lactic and tart, same level of sourness or if not more then consecration. I think the key is first being patient and about 8-12 months in added some fruit or other sugar source for the bacteria to eat. Normally my sours take 16-18 months to make but this high gravity sour in total 24 months. I carbonate my sours with Champaign yeast and priming sugar, it carbonated this high gravity sour in weeks with no issues. I also have a few of these bottles left and it has been a year since bottling, no gushers and no bottle bombs.