beer Ozzy's Sour Program

Ozzy2001

Ozzy2001

This past year I just started to really like sour beers.  So it's about time to start making them.  After doing a fair amount of research, I'm going to go about it slowly.  
 
To start this off I already brewed a French Saison.  I mashed the temp high on purpose to hopefully get more unfermentable sugars in hopes that the saison yeast can't eat them all up and the Brett yeast I'm going to add will have something to chomp on.  
 
Anyway, the saison yeast was tougher than I thought.  
OG 1.062
After primary 1.009.  
That gives me a 6.96% beer at the moment.  
 
Now I added 2 strains of Brett to the secondary.  
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I will let this sit in the basement and check on it every few months and check on how it's coming along.  It will take quite awhile for the transformation to occur.  I fully expect it to take until next summer to get what I'm looking for.  In the mean time I will probably brew another Belgian style beer and put a different strain of Brett into it and let it sit as well.  That way when the time comes, I will have another beer that I can blend with this first one, to get the best tasting beer possible.  With any luck, it will turn out great and then I can decide if I want to add some fruit to it as well.  The fruited sours have been my favorite.  
 
Updates to follow  :metal:



 
 
If you like sours try finding some Grimm sours or anything from hermit thrush and the coolship series from Allagash. All three make amazing sours, one of my favorite styles to drink. Cheers 
 
FreeportBum said:
If you like sours try finding some Grimm sours or anything from hermit thrush and the coolship series from Allagash. All three make amazing sours, one of my favorite styles to drink. Cheers 
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I'm looking forward to seeing how you like my newest sour, since you are such a fan of them. I have been getting a lot of positive feedback about my sour aged on blackberries.
 
FreeportBum said:
If you like sours try finding some Grimm sours or anything from hermit thrush and the coolship series from Allagash. All three make amazing sours, one of my favorite styles to drink. Cheers 
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Unfortunately, no distribution down here. Read a lot about both though. Allagashe's coolship environment is nearly identical to many of the big Belgian companies.
 
Ozzy2001 said:
Unfortunately, no distribution down here. Read a lot about both though. Allagashe's coolship environment is nearly identical to many of the big Belgian companies.
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I can get Grimm pretty regularly here next time I grab some bottles I'll send you one. I had their passion dome just the other night and it was amazing. Only thing that sucks about allagash is it's usually a two bottle limit. Cheers
 
FreeportBum said:
Got them today my friend, very much appreciated. I'm going to drink them with a friend who is also a sour head and will report back. Cheers
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I hope you guys dig it! It has a solid pucker to it, with a nice blackberry flavor on the back end.

I used this yeast/slurry to ferment it. It is seriously quality stuff!
 

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Thegreenchilemonster said:
I hope you guys dig it! It has a solid pucker to it, with a nice blackberry flavor on the back end.

I used this yeast/slurry to ferment it. It is seriously quality stuff!
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That sounds really good! if they are anything like the last ones i'm sure they are most excellent mt friend. cheers 
 
Thegreenchilemonster said:
I hope you guys dig it! It has a solid pucker to it, with a nice blackberry flavor on the back end.

I used this yeast/slurry to ferment it. It is seriously quality stuff!
Click to expand...
So with a yeast like that do you just brew like normal then use that yeast?

Or do you kettle sour that?

Then how long does that have to ferment at?

How low does that finish?
 
Ozzy2001 said:
So with a yeast like that do you just brew like normal then use that yeast?

Or do you kettle sour that?

Then how long does that have to ferment at?

How low does that finish?
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Yeah, no kettle souring required with this yeast. I just brewed as normal. I mashed at 158, 6 lbs. Pilsner malt, 6 lbs. Wheat malt, and 2 lbs. of flaked wheat. I also poured a half gallon of raw local honey into the carboy, before transferring the chilled wort, and aerating.

One key thing is that I used no hops at all. Since the lacto strains are sensitive to hops, I didn't hop at all. No hops during the boil, whirpool, or dry hop.

I just direct pitched the vial of TYB Sour Blend, and due to all of the Sacch strains, it was raging fermenting within 12 hours or so.

It took 5 months for the gravity to get down to a fixed 1.002. I then added the blackberries, and let it sit for another 3 months. The Brett and bacteria ate through the blackberries really quickly, but I let it go for the full 3 months, to get as much flavor and funk out of the fruit.

I bottle carbed the beer with sugar, and half a packet of EC-1118. It took a month to be fully carbed.
 
Cool. I wish I hadn't thrown away the bag of old whole leaf hops I had. Those would have been great for these sours. They were like 2 years old. Would have lasted forever too since you don't need any or little.

Have you tried using Goodbelly to kettle sour? I've seen a lot of people use that too. Still warm here and I'm hesitant on pulling the trigger on a yeast order.
 
Yeah, those old leaf hops would have been perfect for non kettle sours.

That is definitely an advantage to kettle sours, is that once the wort has been lacto soured, you can reboil the wort, and add hops/dry hops to your hearts content. You could still pitch Brett once kettle soured, reboiled, and hopped, for some of that added funk.

No, I haven't used Goodbelly. I've had such good success with the Omega lacto blend, that I haven't felt the need to try something different.
 
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