Flanders Red - Puckering Sour

Pitched the Roeslare Blend into this thing. After about 4 months it was frigging perfect. Just perfect. But of course, I had to mess.

I added a couple of pounds of currents. Then, 2 months later, 2 pounds of cherries. I was hoping to add some fruity dimensions to this sour beer.

Right after I added the currents, it went from pleasantly sour to darnright tart sour. It's very drinkable, and I love a sour beer, but I think it went too far.

Question: would it have been better to add the fruit earlier?

Maybe the cherries added to the tartness? And if you don't like it I'm sure you can find a few happy new homes for it among the HBT members.

Maybe the tartness will mellow out with time?

You might have happened to toss in the currants right when the acid producers were at their peak. Of course, it's also possible that the beer would have tarted up even without the fruit. I haven't tried adding fruit to a sour yet, but I'm planning to drop a bunch of tart cherries in a soured quad here in a couple weeks when the harvest starts.

AKnewbrews said:

Maybe the tartness will mellow out with time?

Click to expand...

Tartness almost never does.

I should point out that I sorta like it, but it's a sipper

My theory is that the additions of fruit actually allowed more oxygen in and that let the acetobacter run away with it a bit.