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I made my very first attempt at a wild/sour beer 3 years ago. It was an 66% pils extract, 33% munich extract fermented with US-05 and Brett. It dropped from 1.070 down to about 1.020. I unknowingly fermented in a plastic bucket, and thought for awhile had gotten an acetobacter infection...

Update to this beer. It turned out pretty good, keg was kicked in an hour and half by the party! I let the London III 1318 ramp up pretty warm and got the fruity quality one would expect from a belgian wit. Pleasantly fruity. It was also plenty dry from a low OG and earthy from the british hops...

Late update: I brewed a Flanders Red but used US-05 and really low hops. Then, I blended that 40/60 with the really sour beer. That outcome is a respectable first sour, and I've since brewed a few more sours with even more success (and no blending required). Thanks for the advice to try the...

I think the carrot will be both a funny nod to the snowman reference (we're probably going to give the beer some sort of snowman name), as well as add a sweet earthiness. Since most holiday ales have different types of spices and adjuncts, this is a way to do that in a way that's a little...

I'm brewing a beer for my company's holiday party in a couple weeks. I did some surveys of my coworkers about what flavors they might like, and I got a lot of comments for earthy, woody, and floral things that remind people of the holiday (pine trees, campfires, that sort of thing). The idea of...

Thanks for the advice. Brewed a smallish Flanders Red this afternoon with the plan to blend. Will update this post with results!

The original beer was about 23 IBUs. At two years old, I don't detect much hop flavor now.

I have a beer that is 2 years old and it is quite sour now. Two years ago, a friend and I improvised a grainbill and brewed an amber-colored sour. Kind of like a higher gravity Flanders maybe. The OG was 1.064 and I pitched Wyeast 1214 and WLP650, along with a small amount of dregs from Jolly...

Agree with SHbrewing, just make it again with more hops, especially if you want a "controlled" experiment that doesn't tweak anything else mentioned above. I am a fan of the late hopping strategy, where aim to get more of your IBUs from the aroma pitches. http://www.mrmalty.com/late_hopping.php

If you're going to take the all grain route as many are suggesting, I would point out that you can often find someone on Craigslist looking to unload all of their gear at once, for a decent price. You probably don't need to buy all of that equipment for full price.

Agree with the other replies that there are a few more factors to consider. That said, I have Brewing Classic Styles in front of me and just checked. Blonde - 6% ESB - 7% (15 and 120) American Amber - 14% (both 40 and 120) American Brown - 9% (40 and 60) English Mild - 14% (60 and 120) Seems...

Can you post some more details about your recipe and brew day? I feel like the forum gives a ton of good advice if you post your full recipe, your fermentation temp, and more details in general. 3oz is more than enough to get a good dry hop aroma, but how long did you leave them in? What were...

Thanks for digging up this old post. Was nice to look back on what I did a few years ago. Makes me want to give it another shot too!

Thanks, Agate. I didn't think of this at first, but another "big" difference between the two beers is the fermentation vessel. The sour one is in a 5-gal plastic bucket and the other is in a better bottle plastic carboy. The plastic bucket is probably letting more oxygen into the beer. That...

Thanks for the feedback. It's easy enough to buy some Jolly Pumpkin and add it in! I have no problem doing that. I'm using WLP650. I didn't think it would sour after reading up on it (i.e. no lacto or pedio) http://www.whitelabs.com/yeast/wlp650-brettanomyces-bruxellensis That's part of why I...

I made a sour in March and took a sample to check it's progress (5 months old). It is not sour at all. While not purely scientific with only one variable, I have another (8-month old) sour using the same brett yeast strain which has had a nice tart flavor since it was 3-months old. The major...

CastleHollow - thanks for the reply. I plan to boil the candy at 20 minutes. I updated my original post. RonPopeil - I've done a brown ale before by adjusting the malt bill to try to maximize the nuttiness. It works. I guess I'm just looking for something a little wild to try. There are...

I had this idea (as have others) that the chocolate, nutty, and caramel qualities of a Snickers would be good in a beer. I have a friend who works at Mars, the company that makes Snickers. So instead of just selecting the right malts or adding flavorings, I've decided to throw the whole candy...

I'd like to give this post a bump, as I have the same problem. I'm aware of the typical reasons for overcarbonation: not done fermenting, too much sugar, etc. I just consistently have a lot of carbonation but otherwise the beer is good. I have one thought. Does an underattenuated beer...

Given DannPM's comment about few experiments with Angostura, here's my two cents: I have a rye pale ale conditioning with some oak chips, rye whiskey, and angostura bitters in it. Like some others on the forum have mentioned, I was inspired by the things that go into whiskey cocktails. I've...