It has been one week since primary fermentation started. All three started on the same day - roughly 30 hours after the yeast was pitched. The Roeselare and Belgian Wheat yeast versions seemed to have a more vigorous start than the Brett L.
About 36 hours after I saw signs of fermentation being under way, the Belgian Wheat was very vigorous and almost needed a blow off tube as some of the fermenting beer was shooting into the airlock. It seemed to calm down about 24 hours later and for the past 3-4 days little to no airlock activity. I measured the gravity on Monday and it was at 1.010. Pretty impressive for the Belgian Wheat yeast. The sample I took was a bit lemony with some tartness while having a small trace of the Belgian Wit flavors you would probably associate with the yeast. It was transferred to the secondary tonight and oak cubes that have been soaking in Riesling wine were added once the transfer was complete. It may take a bit longer for this one to clear up but the current plan is to let it sit in the secondary for 2 weeks. If more time is needed it may sit up to a month. Remember, the target timing for this "quick" sour is 5 weeks so I do not want to stray too far from this just so all of the testing is consistent.
The Roeselare seemed to really slow down after about 4 days. I have not seen much airlock activity in the past few days so on Monday I decided to test the gravity. It was at 1.020. Still a bit high. I will let this sit in the primary for another 4 days and recheck the gravity to see if it is moving. I will agitate the carboy once or twice a day to add some carbon dioxide which seemed to help my last quick sour that was stubborn to finish. I did not sample this one at this time so I am not sure of the flavor at this time.
The Brett L. carboy has been a pretty slow fermentation so far. It was the last beer to take off and never really created too big of a krausen or never really caused the airlock to fire away. Since I checked the other two for a gravity reading I checked this one as well. It was also at 1.020. Again, the plan now is to let it sit for 4 more days. I am also going to agitate this one for added CO2. I did sample this one and it was pretty intense. A lot going on. I guess this should be expected since the Brett is a slower working yeast and that the Lambicus creates the "strongest" Brett flavors. It was sour. That's for sure.
So far the fermentation cycle is a 180 degrees of how the Flanders Red went. The 100% Brett B fired off first and was a ferocious - making the airlock click at a high pace for a solid 4-5 days. The Brett L. in the Blonde was the last to start and has showed the slowest fermentation to this point. Also, the Flanders version of the "clean" yeast (Saccharomyces only) took 3 days before any airlock activity was present and was a bit slower on the fermentation than the others. This Belgian Yeast has been the strongest ferment so far with the Blonde Sour.
More to come once the Brett L. and the Roeselare versions switch over to the secondary.
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