13
votes
Accepted
Pediococcus contamination--Will brett get rid of the ropiness?
Without a photo, it sounds like you have the makings of a pellicle, although the statement "a thick ropiness below the surface" is a bit confusing. Pellicles form on top of the beer, and ...
11
votes
Accepted
Consecutive (lacto?) contamination with different fermenters
I'd put my money on the wooden spoon. Legend is that in days of yore, brewers used to stir the wort with a "magic stick". If they didn't, it wouldn't ferment. The reason was the yeast imbedded in ...
6
votes
Accepted
Is brewers' Lactobacillus heterofermentative or homofermentative?
Don't know if there are other species used in homebrew, actually I've never gone that way before, but the two species that you cited above, Lactobacillus delbruekii and Lactobacillus brevis are ...
6
votes
Sour beer, lambic, et cetera
It is indeed not just lactobacillus, but usually a mix of lacto, pediococcus, enterobacter, acetobacter, Brettanomyces, Saccharomyces, &c.
There are a number of excellent US sour producers in ...
6
votes
What to do with my (accidently) sour saison?
As a suggestion:
Heat your beer to 70 deg. Celcius (sorry, I'm metric and don't do Church-of-England units but I'm sure you can convert it to Farenheit yourself) in order to kill yeast and bacterial ...
6
votes
Why my saké turned out sour?
Based upon your answer in the comments, I suppose that your sake has been contaminated by acetobacter. These bacteria convert ethanol into vinegar. That means you now have nice sake vinegar. As such ...
5
votes
Sour Ale With Pedio but Without Brett
You're right on the common combination of pedio and brett due to diacetyl production. But pedio doesn't start working for 2-4 months, and has a time-frame of 4-9+ months. So you have plenty of time ...
5
votes
Should I keep my batch?
smelled horrible -- like butyric acid, so I know it got colder than the recommended temperature
Butyric acid producers like Clostridium favor temps around 104°F (37°C), which is also a similar temp ...
5
votes
Accepted
Why are lambic and other sours/wilds bottled in green bottles?
There are very little hops in a lambic so it's much less susceptible to being light struck.
They also tend to use aged hops and full duration additions.
Basically there is very little alpha-acid if ...
5
votes
Accepted
Can I reuse a bottle that had a sour lactobacillus beer in it?
Bacteria like to hang out in soft surfaces like rubber and plastic, which for us usually includes things like buckets, hoses, and o-rings. Also any metal fittings for your valves, etc.
Glass bottles ...
4
votes
Consecutive (lacto?) contamination with different fermenters
Another thing to consider along with the wooden spoon is if you grind your grains in the same room as you brew.
Lactobacillus comes from the grains and while grinding or even pouring out of the bag,...
4
votes
When should you treat your water for pH for a sour beer?
You are perfectly correct, the mash adjust to around 5.2 is for conversion efficiency and to assure that minimal tannins are extracted out of the grain husks (especially important in dark beers). The ...
4
votes
Accepted
Droping beer with Brett in Carboy
Brettanomyces comes in many forms, leading to many different flavour profiles. The main three you will come across commercially are:
B.Claussenii - Fruity with mild funk
B.Bruxellensis - Tasty Horse ...
4
votes
Sour beer at home?
Like anything in brewing, it can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it. I'll provide only the simple answer because I prefer to keep things simple.
1) First, you need to read How To ...
3
votes
Kettle souring with lactobacillus - hot plate?
Wort
It will be good, if you will have a good way to stir. In 30 liters I found temperature differences of more than 20°C to be possible, and ones around 5-10°C to be pretty common. So make sure some ...
3
votes
Accepted
LME Sour Recipe Suggestions
Sour brewing doesn't mean all grain brewing by any stretch. Sour beers start with wort just like anything other beer; how you get your wort doesn't matter. Of course all-grain affords you more ...
3
votes
Pediococcus contamination--Will brett get rid of the ropiness?
An unorthodox (by today's standards) way to deal with it is the really old school way of using mustard seed.
When beer turns ropy without being sour, it is
easily restored by mixing in the ...
3
votes
Accepted
What are the impacts of mashing with a low pH?
The enzymes beta-amylase and alpha-amylase have ideal ranges. Doesn't mean they will not work they just take longer if a little too high or low.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4460087/#!...
3
votes
Brewing a fruit beer with WLP648: keeping it on primary for an extra three weeks before adding fruit
You should be ok to rack onto fruit once you return. If you're worried about not having enough yeast, you could rouse the beer a bit before racking, or add more yeast along with the fruit. If you keep ...
3
votes
Droping beer with Brett in Carboy
Brett beers can be very interesting, and aren't necessarily sour unless the source also was sour. Brett usually gives more of a leather or "barnyard" character which can evolve with longer aging. ...
3
votes
Re-use my harvested yeast from primary after secondary finished on acetobacter
To eliminate any risk at all, you could discard the harvested yeast. I agree with you, that most likely the acetobacter came from the raspberries. However, it's possible also that it simply flew in ...
3
votes
Accepted
Re-use my harvested yeast from primary after secondary finished on acetobacter
Brettanomyces will make acetic acid in the presence of ethanol and oxygen. You'd need to determine if there is actually acetobacter present in the harvested slurry to know for sure if it was "clean". ...
2
votes
Accepted
How do I correct acidity/tartness in a fermented beer?
There are a couple things you can try adding to a glass of the beer. The sodium and chloride in salt will aid in the perception of sweetness, so you could try adding a bit to a glass. Too much, ...
2
votes
Make Sour from Previously Kegged Beer
I don't see why this won't work, though it's unconventional. I probably would just let the carbonation off-gas naturally. You might also want to hold off on the fruit until nearer the end of the ...
2
votes
Can you help me read this complex Yeast recipe? (Sour Beer help)
Brett has very low flocculation, so unlike a Sacc. starter, where you can only pitch the concentrated sediment of flocculated yeast, with Brett you'll need to pitch the "bottom half" of the starter ...
2
votes
Accepted
Sour Starter From Dregs
This is a very broad question but here's some direction:
...and the usefulness of this answer depends on whether you are planning on starting a long term barrel project or a medium term sour beer or ...
2
votes
Pomagranate mead sour
I can think of two reasons why your mead is sour:
Pomegranate juice is sour, with a pH of around 3.0. Assuming you've made 1 gallon batch, 16oz of pomegranate juice is enough to be noticeably tart. ...
2
votes
Accepted
Sour Ale With Pedio but Without Brett
You can certainly pitch the Brett later. As mentioned the Brett will help with diacetyl, but it also helps with the ropey dextrinous 'gunk' that Pedi starts to throw in there. Without Brett that ...
2
votes
Why does my lactobacillus batch smell so bad?
Addressing your homefermentative comment, how do you know this Yakult pitch is a single strain of microbes? It could have some other strains to a smaller % and they are giving you your off smell. ...
2
votes
Accepted
Ceramic heating bulb for pets as fermentation chamber heater
AFAIK one of those puts out a lot of heat. You could also consider a Fermwrap heater, which goes on sale once or twice a year for $10 or so.
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