Lactobacillus Brettanomyces Pediococcus and All Things Funky!!

[Mike Neilson]

Anyone had any success with brewing with these bugs?

Im thinking of brewing a Saison/Belgian Pale Ale fermented with Lactobacillus to get some acidity into it and once its at my taste of acidity I will ferment it out with the approriate yeast. Im Hopping it will make a refreshing (tart) pint in the Spring!!

Anyone got any storys or advice in brewing with these bugs? I have done abit of research and have experimented a little (adding bugs to fermented beer) with a little success, but want to go crazy with them now!!

[denimglen]

You forgot acetobacter ;-)

[Mike Neilson]

No Vinegar here!!!!

[denimglen]

Oh common! It counts, pedio is some nasty diacetyl producing monster and you included that :-P

[Reviled]

Bro, youve definately gone crazy ;o) I know that Bconnery on AHB brews some amazing crazy sour beers, in fact he doesnt brew normal beers lol, maybe post a thread up on there as theres a few people over there using bugs...

[Chris Mills]

I'm looking to use some sourdough bread culture I've got going in a Belgian-style ale. Seems a bit mad, but then I figure that the lovely floral smell I am getting from the bread culture might sit well in a beer. Why not?

[Reviled]

Youre right, it does seem mad, itll most likely be bacterial will it? Allthough I know theres stuff like lacto and maybe brett in flour, so youll most likely have a melting pot of different bugs in the sourdough??

My advice would be to try to make a starter out of it, let it ferment out, then taste it with caution before you go pitching it into 20 odd litres of beer...

[denimglen]

Sourdough is a lacto culture anyway, and usually includes some baking yeast strain.

From wikipedia - "...The yeasts Candida milleri or Saccharomyces exiguus usually populate sourdough cultures symbiotically with Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis..."

My thoughts are that the lacto could be ok, hard to say what exactly it would do (besides sour the beer) as I doubt it would be one usually used in brewing. Bread yeast is generally pretty crap for making beer from what I've heard.

Try it bro, worst comes to worst it will be shit. I'd just do a small 5L batch first with some D/LME or something first before you commit to a full size batch.