Roeselare question

[northern brewer]

I am looking at making a flanders red this weekend in the style of rod. grand cru. I am going to use jz's base recipe but I want to use the roeselare as the primary fermenter rather than going with 001 to start in order to increase the sourness.

Question is this: Smack the wyeast, make a starter, or just dump it in when I transfer to the ferm vessel?

[oneal66]

I brewed this one recently and just smacked and pitched. I think the blend is balanced properly from the start, and a starter may throw off the balance.

[jamilz]

Yes, just toss it in. I do think the fresher the pack, the less sour the finished product. If you have a really old pack, you might want to also pitch a pack of some neutral ale yeast.

[Brancid]

On the topic of sour beers; people say to keep extra to top off barrels after evaporation. Should it beer fermented beer or sterile wort?

[BadRock]

I think in the case of a full sized barrel either one would be fine. But usually it is fermented, beer.

[wezil]

I top mine with unfermented. I think this helps very slightly with oxidataion and it also seems to add sourness since you will get more fermentation.


Brad