Can I sour a carbonated beer?

[PhillyBrewer]

I brewed the BCS witbier about 2 months ago. I had read WLP400 takes some time for the sulfur flavor to subside so I've let it sit for a month. I just tried it and it doesn't taste much like a wit. I get a slight brett flavor from it, but I don't think it's an infection. I think it's just a combination of the yeast, spices, and who knows what. It tastes like it would be good if it were more sour. At this point, is there any way I can pitch brett to it and just try to make it a sour beer? If so, what would be the best procedure? Thanks!

[ipaisay2.0]

did you keg your beer?

I just made a belgian wheat beer fermented with wine yeast. I kegged it. pulled about 4 pints off of it as it cooled for 10 days (to "filter out most of the wine yeast") then slowly "pushed" it back into a glass carboy under low Co2 pressure. Let it warm up and pitched it with Brett Brux. after 14 days with the brett brux in carboy, it is starting to smell like a nice beer similar to Orval (not that Orval has wheat in it or uses Brett Bux). ...fingers crossed, it should be ready in 9 - 12 more months!

[PhillyBrewer]

Yep, it's kegged. That sounds like a solid process. Thanks. I'll give it another few days to confirm this is what I want to do then give it a whirl.

I understand there are no "rules" as to what beers you can sour, but how well would a witbier sour? Can you suggest a few different bacteria/blend options and mention what type of beer it would produce? I've only used Roeselare and I've yet to taste the results. WLP655 Belgian Sour Mix 1 looked pretty good...

[garbs]

You could buy some lactic acid from your LHBS and dump a little of that in. I ended up going that route on a bland tasting belgian pale ale and it actually turned out quite well. You won't get a lot of the complexities of using something like brett, but you will get some nice sourness.

[ipaisay2.0]

Both BBKF and I have also made some sour beers by adding whatever dregs of sour beers we have consumed by then adding them to our fermentor. I do believe we have all of the Russian River "bugs" in at least two different sour beers. Always keep a living culture!

[PhillyBrewer]

Using dregs vs. a vial of yeast takes the same amount of time to finish, correct?

[ipaisay2.0]

Using dregs vs. a vial of yeast takes the same amount of time to finish, correct?

depends what you consider "finish"ed.

using brett yeast (or other nontraditional yeast/bacteria) is an art. really, there is no finish to your beer. Enjoy the taste of time!

[PhillyBrewer]

A little update. About 6 weeks ago I pitched the dregs of Geuze Boon and Lindemann's Geuze to the ~3.5 gallons of carbonated witbier gone bad. Here's what it looks like today:



I figure I'll give it a few more months then give it a try.