cranberry wheat sour

I wanna try a sour mash with a cranberry beer I currently do from extract any suggestions are welcome. will be stating the sour on Thursday and mashing on Sunday.

a few questions.

how does sweetness effect the sour. If i mash on the higher side will the sweetness negate some of the sour?

I assume the tartness of my cranberry's will be a good match for the sour.


here is my plan

the stuff

5 lb Belgian pill
3 lb wheat
2 lb cranberry's
Some dry yeast( did no picked yet)
2 oz hallerau 4.5 aa (won these with a cranberry ale so it just seems right)
irish moss

Thursday

mash 2 lb pills at 160 for 40min then mash out at 170 let the temp fall to 120 and sprinkle on some fresh grain. cover with plastic wrap and push out any air. leave this sit for 3 days.

Sunday

mash at 152 include soured grains

60min boil
1.25 oz hops at 60
.5 oz at 30
.25 oz at 15
irish moss at 15

ferment at 65 2 weeks then secondary add berry's secondary for 1 month

I plan on a long secondary because i really don't brew much this time of the year i will not brew again till mid January unless I feel the need to blend this.

Many people do a sour mash but in my opinion you should go with a known culture as opposed to just relying on the lacto that is all over the grain. If I were you I would exclude the cranberries initially, make the wort keeping the IBU's very low (5-10ish) and do a 90 min boil to drive off DMS and also drive off as much hop flavor and aroma compounds. They do not compliment sour ales like this very well at all. Cool to 70F and pitch a Wyeast Lambic Blend and park that bad boy in the dark for about 6 months or until the pellicle falls keeping the ambient temp between 60-70F. Then place the cranberries into another carboy and rack the beer onto them. You will want to use about 5-10 lb in a 5gal batch. Let it sit for about another 3-6 months and you will have yourself a damn fine sour ale worth bragging about! Good luck in whatever you choose to do.

A lambic is slightly farther down the road for me.

If you are looking for a quick sour ale go with a Berliner Weisse. There was a great article about them in a recent issue of BYO

would it basically be a Berliner Weisse if i reduced teh hops ?

Yes pretty much. I would up the wheat to 50% and keep the IBU's between 3-8 and pitch Lactobacillus Delbruckii instead of a sour mash. Then you will have a Berliner Weisse. Rack it onto those cranberries and enjoy! BTW traditional boil time for a Berliner weisse is about 15 minutes =) enjoy the short brew day!