re: Homebrewing Thread: Volume II

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where did you get your lacto from? i normally use l.plantarum pills for my kettle sours but am looking to try others

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I brewed a kettle sour yesterday and currently have Bootleg biology’s sour Weapon p. It’s a pedio strain that quick sours incredibly well. It’s my 3rd or 4th time using it.

My ph meter broke so I’m completely relying on the pack suggestions for souring. Usually I pre acidify but because I couldn’t measure the acidity, I skipped that step. I’ll also be bringing it up to a boil after 23 hours. Pitched the bugs at 98. It’s currently sitting at around 85 or so.

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I got a new device in the mail today. I had backed a kickstarter maybe two years ago for $45 for a stainless autosiphon. I had forgotten about it for a while until I got an email a few weeks back saying it was about to be shipped out. This thing is a beast. I could kill several people with it. I bought it because I wanted something that has a good seal and that can also be broken down and boiled. It'll get a good test here soon when I have to transfer some funky things followed by a clean batch or two. I've never liked the cheapness of the plastic autosiphons and I've been through half a dozen over the years.

can i buy one?

LINK how much did you pay. it is 100$ on their site

Fantastic, thanks. I'm still new to this but I think that might be my next brew.

Rainy day and I was stuck inside, so I kegged 4 beers.

1) Saison brewed last week. Sitting at 1.006. I'll let it sit room temp for another week before throwing it on tap.
2) Cherry sour brewed about a year ago and a couple months on cherry puree. I probably should have kegged it sooner. It has a little acetic thing going on. Not much, similar to an oude bruin, but not something I was wanting in it.
3) Funky cider. Aged with brett and pedio. It could be funkier, imo.
4)Spontaneous beer. Not sure how this one's going to turn out. Probably not good. It has a lot of medicinal/rubber phenols to clean up, and I'm not sure it has the strength to push through. We'll see. I'm going to let it ride because I have nothing better to do. It's only 5-6 months old, so who knows?

Bonus funky cider pic:

That's an interesting glass.

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I pitched my brett to ferment and im hoping these are not dead. I know that ferment slower but will i see a krauzen head to know it is fermenting or do i just need to watch the airlock?

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You'll see krausen. I used a gigayeast brux blend with a starter before pitching in my kettle sour and i didn't see activity until day 2 - 3. It just takes a bit longer to get going.

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also i want to pitch some biotrans hops then a dry hop to basically make this a sour NEIPA(this is what i pulled off of)

Is this doable?

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I'm sure it is. I'd maybe wait until day 4 or 5 before pitching your biotrans hops, assuming you have activity going. Just remember, biotrans typically do better pitched at peak fermentation. Well with 100% brett fermentation, complete attenuation could take 3 weeks or longer. So just gauge it that way.

My personal opinions, is i'd be careful with hops and sours. I don't find bitterness and sourness compliment each other. I know you're using mostly if not all dry/late hops, but there are studies out that show that dry hopping/late hopping does still contribute to perceived bitterness.

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Sour Weapon L and Funk weapon #3.

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I used Sour Weapon P for majority of my quick sours and it works great. I have Sour Weapon L, but it is from last August. I'll need to make a starter for it before my next kettle sour.

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I plan on pitching about 6# of apricots at the end too. And im willing to incorporate another fruit, like blueberries but i cant make up my mind.

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1.5 to 2 lbs/gallon should get you some nice apricot notes. Blueberries are pretty faint, so i'd do 2+ lbs/gallon. If your using both. I'd say 1.5 for apricot and 2 for blueberry.

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This is my first kettle sour by the way. I have my long aged sour kegged and taste really really interesting. It was in the fermentor for 11 months.

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Nice. Did you naturally carbonate it or force carb'd in the keg?

I've been bottling all of my long aged sours. I've bottled 3 so far. 2 with brett, 1 with wine yeast. I prefer the brett as the beer is always changing with age. The wine yeast does the trick, but what you taste at packaging is what you get in the bottle.

I have 2 more mixed ferm sours i have to add some oak to, then bottle. And 2 more doing there thing.