Sour Advice

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bessieflames

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Hi all-- I have been brewing beers for a while and I have been avoiding brewing a sour for fear of contaminating my other batches. It seems like whenever I go to a bar that has a sour available, I get it and enjoy it immensely. Haven't had a sour yet that I didn't like. I want to brew one and want some advice. I tend to like krieks and sour reds that don't have a lot of brett funk, but are very tart. I am a noob when it comes to sours, so I don't know if this is a Flanders style or a limbic. I have a few questions, so please be nice when answering them because I know they may be elementary. Yes, I did do researches much as possible, but still need advice.

Since I like more sour than funk (more lacto than brett?), should I use Roeselare blend? Would you recommend doing it in primary, or in primary with US-05, or in secondary after a US-05 primary fermentation?

I was thinking about doing a 1.060 red with US-05, racking to secondary and adding Roeselare. Then adding cherries and boiled oak chips a few months into secondary. Any suggestions? Should I add the dregs from a sour that I like as well?

Any tips for bottling? I usually keg but I don't want to have to sanitize afterwords.

All suggestions are appreciated.
 
Simple sours are relatively easy to make. Getting decent fruit flavor is a lot more effort.

Find a decent Flanders recipe (red) brew it, and add any decent Belgian yeast and any bottle dregs and leave it alone for at least 6 months, preferably a year. Alternatively, pitch Roselare blend, or any other sour blend.

Wait at least 6 months, or more if you are going to pitch onto fruit.

I do not find Brett very dominant in sours. It is there.

1.060 is on the high side. Lacto and Pedio tend to shutdown when the alcohol reaches 8%. Might want to aim closer to 1.055 or even 1.050.

I don't keg, so someone else might be able to comment. But I would not think it a concern. Any beer you put in a keg will have alcohol in it, Brett, Pedio, and Lacto are very slow to work in environments with alcohol already in it. At cold temperatures, all of these are dormant. You would need to store it in the keg for a long time to get an y impact from any small amount of 'contamination' that might be present in a 'clean' keg.
 
Thanks fro the response. Another question has to do with the trub. Should I ferment with US-05 and then rack to secondary and add Roeselare so that it isn't sitting on the trub for a year? Will that affect the flavor? I am concerned about pitching Roeselare immediately and then if I rack to get it off the trub, I will be leaving behind the most flocculating bacteria and yeast that needs to do work for a year. Any ideas?
 
Thanks fro the response. Another question has to do with the trub. Should I ferment with US-05 and then rack to secondary and add Roeselare so that it isn't sitting on the trub for a year? Will that affect the flavor? I am concerned about pitching Roeselare immediately and then if I rack to get it off the trub, I will be leaving behind the most flocculating bacteria and yeast that needs to do work for a year. Any ideas?

I would start it with roeselare from the start, wont usually get sour enough unless you do this, racking off the cake is fine there are millions of bacteria in suspension in the beer even when it looks clear

Racking will also help to reduce the funk of brett, oak chips arent really needed as reds arent really supposed to have an oaky flavor, the barrels are used for their beneficial aging properties (small amts 02, cellulose for brett, etc) not for their oak flavor (big reason why used barrels are what traditional producers age sours in )
 
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