English ale work for sour?

electric_beer · 10-07-2009, 07:15 PM

I've been interested in sour beers as of late. I just brewed a simple one gallon Smash recipe (German Vienna & cascade hops) and pitched some safale s-04. I was wondering if it would taste good if I added some sour yeast or even just pitched the dregs of an old saison after a few days of fermentation? I have read that most sour beers aren't very hoppy, but wondered what it would taste like to have a bit of hoppy character with the sour. Is this a really bad idea? So far the base beer smells great and I don't want to wreck it for no reason if its going to taste crappy. If it is I'll just postpone my experiment until I get the proper grain bill for a nice saison. What do you think?

Orangevango · 10-07-2009, 10:21 PM

I think it would be a nice experiment

One of my favorite sours is wild devil which is an IPA with bret

I would go for adding a pure brett culture rather than the saison dregs.

ryane · 10-08-2009, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orangevango

One of my favorite sours is wild devil which is an IPA with bret

I wouldnt really consider wild devil a sour, its a bit funky but definately not sour.

But I do think that some brett in there could make a really nice beer, personally Id pitch some B Lambicus

Orangevango · 10-09-2009, 12:44 PM

Id go with brett only as well, probably B-claussenii since its english in origin.

Yeah I know wild devil is only a quasi-sour, but I mentioned it because its probably more like the direction he should take this beer.

electric_beer · 10-09-2009, 04:17 PM

So then my next question is, do I go to the LHBS and get some brett (and of which variety) or do I pitch some orval dregs since they bottle with brett? I only ask for curiosity sake as I have little experience with wild brewing and have heard that using dregs can add more character.

ryane · 10-09-2009, 05:20 PM

Each brett strain is pretty distinctinve

C - is fruity and very mild
B - is pretty horsey and funky
L - funky and a lot of sour cherry in the nose and some in the taste
orval - itll remind you of orval

electric_beer · 10-09-2009, 05:36 PM

AH THANK YOU! Short and sweet. That's exactly what I needed to know. Even though I've brewed quite a few beers, I still have a ways to go when it comes to yeast knowledge. Especially wild yeast.

Jaymo · 10-20-2009, 05:20 AM

Brett C is very mild, as in you may not even know is there as a secondary yeast in some beers.

On the other hand, Brett C makes for amazing fruity beers with little to no funk whatsoever when used as the (only) primary yeast.

Munsoned · 10-21-2009, 09:30 PM

Not sure about Orval, but there are a lot of other beasties out there in commercial breweries that white/wyeast simply don't have in their strains. If you add dregs from this and that, you might get some other varieties of bugs (a good thing) that you wouldn't get from the lab guys directly...

jdinger29 · 10-21-2009, 09:34 PM

I am pretty sure I have an unintentionally sour Ordinary Bitter in the bottle right now. I had a bottle last night and it wasn't too bad... I am going to sit on the other bottles for now and see what develops... I noticed "The Ring Of Death" on several of my bitter bottles last night, that's what tipped me off. Nice flavor though.