G.Y.O. – Rare Barrel, Firestone Walker, De Garde Dregs

Posted on December 14, 2015 by Nick Ladd

G.Y.O. – Grow Your Own

Step One: Enjoy sour beer.
Step Two: Propagate live mixed-culture from the sample.
Step Three: Build up the propagated culture, and use it to brew your own sour beers.

Harvesting commercial dregs offers incredible utility to homebrewers of sour beer. By implementing cultured bugs into your recipes, you’re able to add a diversity of characteristics simply not available from commercial lab cultures.

For example, some cultures can produce tremendous acidity without any attenuation (The Rare Barrel). Others are highly attenuative, but only moderately acidic (De Garde). Taking advantage of these individual attributes, I believe it is possible to create custom blends that express the best features of individual cultures. I’ve completed sensory analysis for three sour cultures harvested from some of the best sour breweries in the country. All cultures were stepped up gradually from bottle dregs and allowed to ferment for two weeks before tasting and measuring gravity and pH.

The Rare Barrel – Forces Unseen

The Rare Barrel – Forces Unseen

OG: 1.040
FG: 1.040
Apparent Attenuation: 0%
pH: 2.69

Sensory Analysis Spidergraph

Firestone Walker – Sour Opal

Firestone Walker – Sour Opal (Barrelworks)

OG: 1.040
FG: 1.014
Apparent Attenuation: 65%
pH: 2.91

Sensory Analysis Spidergraph

De Garde – The Duo

De Garde – Duo

OG: 1.040
FG: 1.008
Apparent Attenuation: 80%
pH: 3.01

Sensory Analysis Spidergraph

Grow Your Own – Sante Adairius Cellarman

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Nick Ladd

Why just drink sour beer, when you can also grow up the dregs in the bottles, propagate the sour cultures, and then use them in your own beers? This is the premise of my new ‘Grow Your Own’ series. The idea is simple. I’ll be propagating the dregs from some of America’s best sour beers and then do some basic analytic and sensory analysis on the resulting starter beer. My goal is to eventually maintain a library of unique mixed cultures that have data associated with them which can aid in their selection for future beers. I have created an evaluation form for each culture that captures analytic facts such as pH and specific gravity, while also allowing space for notes and sensory data via a spidergraph chart.

Procedure for Sour Dreg Propagation

1. Spray the cap and a portion of the neck of the beer you’re culturing with isopropyl alcohol. Light it on fire and let the flame burn out.

2. Open up the beer and carefully decant into a glass. Save approximately a 1/2″ of beer in the bottom of the bottle.

3. Pour into the beer bottle approximately 200ml of sanitary 1.030 specific gravity wort. Place a sanitized stopper and airlock on the bottle.

4. Let the dregs begin fermenting at room temperature. It may take up to 3-4 days to see much activity. Let the culture do it’s thing for about 1.5 weeks.

5. Prepare 200ml of sanitary 1.060 wort in a 500ml Erlenmeyer flask. Cool and pour all contents from the bottle into the flask. I am starting with a high gravity wort at this point, as I am counting on the contents of the bottle it is combining with to dilute the sugar content. Let the culture ferment out 2 weeks.

5. Prepare 1000ml of sanitary 1.040 wort in an Erlenmeyer flask. Decant the spent beer off the culture and pour into the new starter wort. Let this ferment for a couple days at which time it is ready to be used in a beer.

Sante Adairius – Cellarman

Sensory and analytic analysis form completed for the Sante Adairius culture.

To begin this project, I started with a phenomenal beer call Cellarman from Sante Adairius Rustic Ales in Capitola, California. This was one of my beer highlights of 2015 (thus far), and I’m really stoked to have their culture in my micro-library. The culture was very fresh and took off quickly. While fresh, the beer was able to develop some mild acidity, and lots of spicy and slightly funky Brett notes.

In terms of fermentation, the culture performed well:

Starting Gravity: 1.040
Terminal Gravity: 1.008
Apparent Attenuation: 80%
pH 3.78

You can read the full analytic and sensory analysis for this culture, here.

Developing House Sour Cultures – A Bioreactor Approach

Posted on August 16, 2015 by Nick Ladd

Previously I've been keeping my house sour culture refreshed with frequent feedings of starter wort.

I have typically been keeping my house sour culture refreshed with frequent feedings of starter wort.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve cultured and grown up bottle dregs from a variety of commercial sour beers to complete several different projects. These dregs are a great way to add biodiversity to the commercial blends (like Roeselare) that I typically start a sour beer with and tend to produce a more interesting final product. As I acquired these cultures, I began combining them with the intent of developing a variety of house-mixed cultures of bacteria and yeast that I can maintain and use to completely ferment out sour beers. The intent is to continue shaping these mixed cultures until they get to the point where they can consistently produce quality sour beer in a predictable time frame. I fully expect the blend of microbes within the culture to drift, but hope an eventual homeostasis will take hold within the culture. Currently, I have built three different mixed cultures around a spectrum of cultured microbes harvested from commercial beers.

One of the biggest tasks in maintaining a culture like this is the frequent feedings required to keep a culture viable. The idea of maintaining my cultures through periodic feedings of fresh wort that would eventually provide the steady byproduct of sour beer seemed like a great idea. And so, the idea of a sour culture bio-reactor was born. The idea is pretty basic. I’ve put together a schedule of brew days that in theory will consistently provide nutrition for the culture as well as produce a steady stream of sour beer for evaluation. Every four months I brew a different 3-gallon batch of moderate gravity wort that gets split three ways to feed one gallon of fresh wort to each of my three mixed cultures. On brew day I transfer the previous batches of now fermented beer off the culture to a clean glass aging vessel where it will continue to develop for another 8 months (1-year total fermentation time) before packaging. The cultures are then transferred to the freshly brewed wort for a new round of fermentation. After the initial one-year cycle, the bioreactor will consistently output three, 1-gallon batches of sour beer every four months. The beauty of running three cultures in parallel with the same wort is that I’ll be able to compare side-by-side the impact each different culture has on the finished product. My hope is to experiment with different grain bills to better understand the interrelationship between grain bills, mash temperatures, and mixed culture fermentation.

I initially started this project using a single mixed culture. To date, this culture has been through 3 generations of wort. I’ve tasted the first two generations (currently 4-months and 8-months old) and the results have been pretty outstanding; and consistent within the limited sample thus far. I’m optimistic that with some luck and diligence I’ll be able to shape these cultures to the point that they produce sour beer that is both delicious and unique to my brewery.

The first round in the bioreactor ready for fermentation. The initial recipe was 90% Pilsner, 10% Carapils, and had a starting gravity of 1.054.

Brambic – Spontaneously Fermented Wild Homebrew

Posted on May 2, 2015 by Nick Ladd

Against what may or may not be good logic, I’ve begun a new sour beer project. My goal is to successfully create a delicious sour beer fermented only from airborne yeast and bacteria. There is something beautiful about the idea of successfully producing a delicious sour beer that reflects the micro-flora present where I live. I love the tangible connection that can be made with world-renowned Lambic brewers who continue to brew traditional spontaneously fermented beers (as well as American craft brewers like Allagash, Jester King, and Russian River). I am keeping this project as wild as possible; I will not be culturing yeast from fruit, grains, bottle dregs, or any other source, rather only what I can capture across the cool evening breeze.

Brooklyn wild. What fermentive creatures lurk in our Gowanus air?

The Internet is full of stories both of success and failure when it comes to truly spontaneous beer. Whenever I attempt a technique that includes a high probability for failure, I try to set as many variables in my favor as possible to get a successful end result. There are no guarantees for success in a project like this, but taking a few simple measures can greatly increase your odds. Using this logic, I decided that running multiple samples and testing their qualities before pitching into a full 2.75 gallon batch of beer was the way to go. This was especially important given the fact that I live an dense urban environment with little vegetation and no fruit bearing trees that could be attractive homes for wild yeast.

My Process

Initially I prepared (3) 8 oz. samples of sanitary 1.030 OG wort and placed them boiling hot into pint sized mason jars. I added 0.3 ml of 88% lactic acid to each sample in order to acidify each below pH 4.5. My goal is to inhibit pathogens from growing in the wort as well as non-pathogenic bacteria that can produce objectionable flavors. Since I would be tasting the wort, I wanted to minimize terrible tasting samples as well as ones that could potentially make me sick.

Each of the three samples were placed around my apartment. One was located on the roof of my building, one in front of an open window at the rear of my apartment, and one in front of an open window at the front of my apartment. Each were covered with a couple layers of cheese cloth to prevent any insects from entering the sample and then left to cool for approximately 24-hours. After 24-hours I fitted each jar with a lid and airlock to create an anaerobic environment, providing control of another variable and putting selective pressure on the organisms growing in the wort.

I completed this experiment in the late fall, which according to American Sour Beers offers the best probability for culturing yeast and bacteria that will have a positive fermentation character.

After approximately one-month, I completed a sensory analysis of each sample (smell and taste). In hindsight, I should have also taken pH and gravity measurements.

Sample A – In Front of Window – Small filmy pellicle. Cabbage, some baby diaper. No apparent alcohol flavor.

Sample B – Outside on Roof – Small filmy pellicle. A couple spots of white fluffy mold. Some alcohol on nose. Light rubbery phenol.

Sample C – In Front of Window – Small filmy pellicle. Cabbage. Some oniony aromas. Pretty sweet, low alcohol.

Encouraged by the initial results, I stepped each into a three new 300-ml sanitary starters. Each were allowed to ferment for another month under airlock.

Sample A – Very sweet. Didn’t appear to ferment much. Clean.

Sample B – Quite sour. Some definite plastic-like phenolics and slight alcohol. Some pleasing barnyard notes.

Sample C – Reminiscent of pickle juice. The most sour. Definite alcohol on nose. Not very pleasant.

After the second round of fermentation, I decided that Sample B (the sample pulled from my roof) was the most pleasing (or least offensive). I pitched it into a fresh 1200 ml starter (also under airlock) and made preparation to brew a full 2.75 gallon batch. For my recipe, I decided on a simple golden grain bill to act as a clean slate for the culture to express itself.

2014 Brambic Recipe

Size: 3.25 gal
Efficiency: 75%
Attenuation: 90% (estimated)

Original Gravity: 1.049 SG
Terminal Gravity: 1.005 SG (estimated)
Color: 3.33 SRM
Alcohol: 5.71% ABV (estimated)
Bitterness: 0.0 IBU

Grist:
4.0 lb (64.6%) Dingemans Belgian Pils
2 lb (32.3%) Briess Flaked Wheat
3 oz (3.0%) Weyermann Acidulated Malt

Mash Regiment:
A turbid mash regiment (basically a thin decoction) was completed through the steps below. A Ferulic acid rest was completed to encourage the formation of 4-vinyl guaicol which Brettanomyces can theoretically convert into 4 ethyl-guiacol which produces some of the ‘funky’ aromas and flavors that Brettanomyces is known for. A short Beta rest was followed by a very high Alpha rest to encourage a dextrinous wort and protracted secondary Brettanomyces fermentation.

113 °F – Ferulic Acid Rest – 10min
136 °F – Protein Rest – 5min
150 °F – Beta Rest – 20min
162 °F – Alpha Rest – 30min
168 °F – Mashout Rest – 5min

Water Treatment:
Extremely Soft NYC Water
4g Gypsum (to mash)
4g Calcium Chloride (to mash)

Hopping:
1.25 oz AGED Cascade (0% AA) – 90 m

Kettle Additions:
0.5 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – 15 m
0.5 tsp Wyeast Nutrient – 10 m

Yeast:
1200ml Brambic Spontaneous Culture
Fermented at ambient temperatures (70°F or so)

The beer will be allowed to ferment for at least a year until packaging.

Wild Cider Review

Posted on August 2, 2014 by Nick Ladd

Tasting Notes:

This cider started off as a 1-gallon experiment in which I took a preservative-free farmer’s market apple cider and fermented it with a mixed culture of microbes grown up from a number of different sour beers. The cider went from 1.050 OG to 0.99 leaving behind a whopping 7.84% ABV.

Aroma (6/12)
Initially there is a faint whisper of bruised green apple which is quickly overcome by the by-products of fermentation. There a pleasant barnyardy Brett character that is slightly musty and borders ever-so-closely to the mousey descriptor often used in funky beers with negative connotation. There is just a hint of tannic/earthy apple skin on the nose. There is no hint of the phenolic plastic / adhesive strip aromas that seem to dominate many of the Spanish / Basque funky ciders.

Appearance (2/3)
Straw yellow — almost looks like a white wine. There is a light haze. Bubbles form around the rim and quickly dissipate, much like a sparkling wine.

Flavor (10/20)
Apple character is almost non-apparent and comes off slightly watery. Austerely dry with no apparent alcohol. The is an interesting grain-like nuttiness reminiscent of Cheerios that is somewhat intriguing, but perhaps a touch out of place. The funky Brett character perceived on the nose isn’t quite as intense in the flavor.

Mouthfeel (3/5)
Moderate carbonation that quickly dissipates. The combination of carbonation and acid leaves the cider with a slightly sharp impression.

Overall Impression (6/10)
This was a fun experiment and good foray into the world of funky ciders. In the end, the amount of apple flavor left behind was a bit disappointing. Additionally, the mixed fermentation did not create as much acid as I had hoped. Further back-sweetening to enhance the apple character, as well as a dose of acid would dramatically improve the overall impression of this cider. In future experiments, using a blend of apples selected for their suitability in hard cider production would likely create a better end-result.

Total: 27/50 Good