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Gonna Try A Lambic
Gravities have been steady for 5 days so i went ahead and racked to secondary today.
One key aspect of using Brett, Pedeo, or lacto cultures is oxygen. They do better when they have a little oxygen available. I do my primary for 7 to 14 days in glass with my main yeast and then rack into a plastic bucket and let age with cultures for about 3 months. Plastic is more permeable then a wooden barrel so I wouldn't recommend letting your lambic age past three months in plastic. After that you could either bulk age in glass or age individually in bottles.
As for the dead yeast and trub, as the yeast die they release some amino acids and proteins that the cultures can use so you shouldn't get off flavors from some settled yeast in secondary, just don't go crazy with the amount of yeast and trub carried over and you'll be fine.
Hope that helps!
Chris
Thanks.
Down the drain it went. I cracked the lid to find a 1 inch layer of mold................
Aw, man. That sucks. This thread made me excited about lambics and I'm thinking of brewing one myself. I've never actually tasted one so I'll have to include that in my research. Can you pinpoint where it went wrong?
It had to have come in on the fruit.
that is a pissah, brewski. all that time just to have it mold on you.
I don't want to sound like I am being retarded or condescending because that is not my intent, but are you aware that when brewing a lambic you do "infect" it with bacteria/wild yeast, and that these "bugs" cause what most would see as an infection? The bugs create a variety of stuff from slime, to ropes, to even mold looking stuff. I am wondering if what you saw as mold was really the bugs doing their work....
The method I use when brewing a lambic, or any sour ale, is to ferment it for 7 or so days in glass, then add in bugs/fruit/wood/whatever and secondary in plastic and just let it sit for 3 months (without peeking), then back to glass for another 3 to 18 months. That way I don't see the "sick" beer and worry about an infection (cause worrying is one thing I do well).
For fruit, I steep in 155 degree for 20 or so min. but if you don't mind cloudy beer you can boil it for about 5 min.
I really don't have a lot of experience brewing sour ales, I've done one cherry lambic and one flanders red ale, but I spent about a year researching the hows, whats, and whys 'cause 6 to 18 months of waiting had best be worth it!
Anyways, don't let this stop you from trying again, brewing and fermenting a lambic is a blast!
It was mold. White mold w/ black spore bullseyes. The kind you can get from curing meat at too high a temp, but not high enough to dry it. I don't mind infecting beer but when it grows legs and ask for a smoke I draw the line.