Souring beers at bottling.

[Grizz]

Ok kinda toying with an idea. Is it possible to sour a beer at bottling? Could I take pedo or brett and mix a small set amount of it into a set amount freshly fermented beer. Then dose a bottle with a few drops of the mixture after filling it. I know it might take several tries to get a beer that works out. But I like the idea that I can sour only a few beers out of any batch that I think would sour well or one I just want to try soured. One draw back I can see is the beers might get over sour from the possible over dosing.

[Westco]

So you want to take a normal fermented beer and add sour cultures at bottling? If you take let's say a 1.055 brew that finished at 1.011-ish an bottled it with sour cultures you will probably will have exploding bottles. Soooooooo this is what I would do. Get one or two growlers and fill them with your brew and bugs. Wait till the gravity stays the same for a couple of months after the bugs are done doing their thing. Bottle!

Westco

[Grizz]

Growlers are a good idea. Showing my lack of experience with sours at what temp should they be held at during this time? I have limited space for holding growlers or even a lot of bottles for months. Can the beers become over sour from over pitching?

[Westco]

Growlers are a good idea. Showing my lack of experience with sours at what temp should they be held at during this time? I have limited space for holding growlers or even a lot of bottles for months. Can the beers become over sour from over pitching?

65° seems to be a good average temp. Hotter will result in a faster ferment with the bugs but less complexity. Colder is slower but more complex. If money isn't a issue I would buy a 3 gallon carboy to ferment the bug portion of your brew. I wouldint worry about overpitching bugs at this point.

Westco

[AaronWesternNY]

Have you ever thought about dosing with Brett b at bottling? I bottle about a case and a half with normal priming sugar (of 5 gal), then add a couple glugs of a Brett b starter I always have going to the beer that remains in the bucket. Switch out racking canes (use your critter infected one) and finish bottling. I find so far the brett starts to come out 3 months later in my 12 ounce bottles. An easy way to get into Brett and see what it does to different beers.

[spiderwrangler]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but won't over pitching bugs result in less complexity and flavor (similar to a hotter, faster bug ferment)?

[Westco]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but won't over pitching bugs result in less complexity and flavor (similar to a hotter, faster bug ferment)?

Yes you are right. The only reason I say dont worry is because it's his first time working with sours. It's seems that everyone in the world could pitch x amount of bugs into x about of wort with the gravity of x and all have different results. So he could learn from his first pitch to see what his palette likes.

[brewinhard]

If you are considering adding lacto and/or pedio to your finished product I would steer clear of pedio as it can produce copious amounts of diacetyl in a beer. This would make for one disgusting buttered beerssicle. The only way to clean up this diacetyl is with the addition of brettanomyces which will slowly consume this "sickness" (sarcinia I think its called) over time. Lactobacillus additions are definitely a viable option but lacto is a weak, weak bacteria. You would have to make sure to minimize the IBU level in your beer (ie under 8-10) and keep your ABV% under 8%. You could always try adding a minute amount of straight lactic acid to a few bottles first and see if this is the route you want to go in, although the results will not be as complex as using the microorganisms. So, in short steer clear of pedio unless adding brett, and build a huge lacto population if trying to sour your beer.