sours

[riverbottom]

any homebrewers here ever make a sour? im thinking of attempting one, but my research leaves me scratching my head, there seems to be so much going on and so many variations. im looking for personal experiences with this style. or maybe if you think just buying the northern brewer sour kit might be a healthy start just to get my hands in there and see.

[Chris]

no they are on my list of beers to make next. still doing my research on them

[Skooooooby]

I brewed a sour saison for the 2011 NHC. I used a normal saison recipe but pitched what, at the time was, a white labs platinum series yeast, but is now knows as WLP 655 Belgian Sour Mix 1.

It came out great and was super easy to make. I had to replace all my rubber bits afterwards though

[ShoreWoodBrew]

Hey River,

I brewed my first sour on New Year's Day in 2013. Fairly easy really, but you generally want to give the bugs something to chew on after the easy fermentables are eaten up. My Lambic had 40% unmalted wheat in the grist (the rest 2 row) and a splash of crystal 40 (4-6 oz).

I've heard one of the better commercially available sour bug blends is Wyeast's Roselare. I went the route of buying a few bombers of sours with active bugs and pitching the dregs. The Jolly Pumpkin (any Artisan series) and Odells Deconstruction were what provided all of my souring bugs. Jolly Pumpkin (out of Michigan I believe) dregs work really good. I pitched them at the same time as I pitched my regular beer yeast. For more info on how to make them and which beers have live bugs, see the MadFermentationalist blog. He has a big list.

As it was a Lambic, it stayed in a glass carboy primary for the first year, seems weird I know. I kept it upstairs in the winter (68F) and downstairs in the summer (65-70F). The bugs feed on the dying yeast so you don't really get any autolysis. Then I bottled it up and have snuck a few at 13 and 15 months. The sour flavors are more pleasant and there is a funk from the Brett. I am guessing the really good flavors come out at the 18 to 24 month mark. Patience is the key with sours. Cheers!

[riverbottom]

thanks shore - i am brewing it tomorrow. decided on an oud bruin style as i dont care for super sours. im still unsure on how to harvest/store dregs so i am using wyeast roselare. planning on 18 months in a glass carboy without transferring at all to keep all bugs in one place - and then 18 months in the bottle. hoping for something similar to monks cafe sour.