My PI is looking for lambics from which we can recover the bacteria for educational purposes. We’re hoping to do some 16S sequencing on them and identify the species for a food fermentations class he teaches.
A year or two ago, we attempted this with Lindemans and had no luck. I’m not certain if they have a pasteurization step in their process, if the bacteria were simply dead, or if it was something wrong with the class’ process or media choice. (We did some of the steps with anaerobic plates and MRS media, as I recall.)
I would appreciate any suggestions for varieties of lambics that would be available or could be shipped to my department at Purdue in Indiana. (We have a liquor license, though I don’t know the details of it.) Ideally, these would be actual open-fermented products, not recreations of them.
I totally agree with you. I’m trying to get some information on what distributor people in the department use for wine, as they may be able to order what I want. There’s nothing but Lindemans Frambroise available locally, to my knowledge.
You don’t have a Binny’s, Friar Tucks or other good liquor store with a selection of craft brews?
You could also purchase a pack of lambic blend or Roeselaire blend from an online beer supplier like Northern Brewer. They even sell the bacteria separately if you want to skip the isolation process, but wheres the fun in that.
If there’s a good liquor store for craft brews in town, I have yet to find it. No LHBS either. Plenty that stock a few good micros, one that now has some IPAs thanks to the constant nagging of my old roommate, but not much for lambics that I’ve seen.
In this case, the fun is going to be in trying to see what bugs were floating around in the Belgian air, more than attempting a multi-year project at making the stuff.
ETA: I can swing trips to Indianapolis and Cincinnati easily. Either hubby or I does the trip between home and Cincy every week, but we don’t know that area very well yet. Suggestions are welcome.
Kahn’s or Crown Liquors in Indy has a selection of lambics and guezes that should be beyond your Lindemans finds. You’ll have to make a road trip of it!
Check out Jungle Jims on Dixie Hwy in Fairfield (northwest of Cincinnati) for a nice selection also.
Another homebrewer/science type person active in BJCP and in W. L. is Linda Swihart, but I’m not sure how to contact her. She posted here a couple times in the past. Maybe she’s listening?
Also consider getting some gueuze instead of straight lambics - since they are blends with younger lambics, I think they would be likely to have more viable cells.
I know Oud Beersel has live components, I’ve brweed with dregs of that and a couple others. I think the OB bathc came out tooth enamel-removing super-acidic. I’m saving that for blending. I think the bacterial components will survive better than the yeast.
You should be able to find Jolly Pumpkin around those parts. It has quite a bit of live, sour bugs, especially acetic bacteria. I would be interested in what you actually find in some of these beers.
St. Somewhere bottles Saison Athena with Brett B. if I remember correctly. Shelton Bros. or JJ Taylor distribute in Indiana.