souring an old ale

[amartin]

Hey All,

I have an old ale I did recently, and after 2 and a half weeks, it's sitting around 1.019. While that does put that in the normal range for the style, it's still sweeter than I'd like. I had an ESB I did last summer, and two of the three buckets I did got an infection of some sort. I thought at the time that that sucked, but it was a very slight infection and I actually preferred it to the uninfected beer. It wasn't really sour, it just tasted a little drier. I'm thinking maybe I want to do something similar to this beer to dry it out a little bit. My plan is to rack off a small portion of it, around 5% or so, then infecting it, pasteurizing it, and blending it back in to taste.

Thoughts? I was thinking I'd probably use the lactic bacteria on malt, because I don't want to spring for a package of brettanomyces.

[jason.loxton]

If you don't want to sour, just drop the gravity, you can pitch a new round of a more attenuative yeast. If you do so, make sure that the yeast is in active fermentation when you pitch (pitch a starter at peak fermentation). Depending on what your ABV currently is, there are a bunch of off the shelf yeasts that should plow through a few more points.

[CorneliusAlphonse]

I'd be hesitant too with the infection/pasteurization route - pasteurization might affect the flavour

[amartin]

Hmm. That might be a better idea. I have some 1272 in the fridge, but the carboy is kind of full already. Do you think just pitching a packet of US-05 would work?

[mr x]

Repitching into big beers can be frustrating. I'd make sure it's really rocking, preferably racking onto an active yeastcake.

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[amartin]

It's already in the secondary, I don't want to rack again. Maybe I'll make a two cup starter and pitch at high krausen. I only need it to drop a few points.

[mr x]

Good luck. That did not work for me.

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[amartin]

The only reason I can think of that it's finished that high is that it's not warm enough. It's been at the low end most of the time, and since I needed to buy a heating pad for wine in the fall anyway, I just broke down and bought it today. I'll warm it up and swirl it around, hopefully that'll do it. I really don't want this beer to not work.

[mr x]

Once you are dealing with beer as opposed to wort, the complications increase greatly, beyond temperature alone. I would never repitch again, and I used really active yeast btw. Active yeastcake ftw.

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[amartin]

I'm not going to have another active yeast cake for a few weeks, and even then, it'll be the same English yeast that didn't finish this time. I'll see how it goes.

[jason.loxton]

It probably wouldn't hurt to try throwing a properly rehydrated pack of Nottingham in there. That yeast eats through sugar. It's only a $5 investment if it doesn't take hold, so no big deal.

[gm-]

You could always hit it with a pack of brett, could be interesting and maybe even more authentic.

[amartin]

It probably wouldn't hurt to try throwing a properly rehydrated pack of Nottingham in there. That yeast eats through sugar. It's only a $5 investment if it doesn't take hold, so no big deal.

Yeah, I'll try that too.