Yummy Sound Sour Stout

From a few requests lately and people who had my Sour Stout really enjoyed it. Some even said it was better the Jester King's Funk Metal which is a great comment. Now on the recipe:

Mash Temp: 154
Ferment Temp: 75-80
ABV: 8%

Malt:
12lbs 2-Row
1.5lbs Flaked Oats
1lb Special B
1lb Honey Malt
8oz Chocolate
8oz Roasted Barely

Hops:

1oz of Horizon (9.1%) @ 60mins (you can use any to get the the IBU's)


Yeast:
A Yeast cake of previous sour which was a stepped up dredges from Jester Kings Buddah's Brew


For the yeast, I harvested bottle dredges from a Jester Buddahs brew. I stepped up from 500ml to a 2L starter. Once that sour was done I racked this beer on top. I left the beer to sit and sour for about 8 months. I go on my taste buds and decide when it is ready. At the 8 month time it was ready because it had a huge cake to take advantage of.

Tasting Notes:

This puckering sour stout has notes of dark cherries and chocolate. After the initial sour the beer turns malty and chocolaty. Not too much, Just enough to let you know it's there.

I love this brew. One of the best ones I have brewed and God its a good sour.


I entered it in to a competition and hope it does well.

If you have any questions, please ask

I can't get jester king in Maine... any idea what's in their SCOBY mix?

I dont know for certian what in there. I think they got wild bugs from the air. The rumor they used 3711 a lot. This particular bottle was fermented with english ale then bugs. It probably has brett, lacto/pedio in it.

Thanks for posting this DC! :rockin:

No problem. Everyones will be different because of the yeast but i think this is a solid base for a sour stout. People who tried loved it

This is definitely going to get brewed. I've got a bottle of Funk Metal I was saving. Looks like I have some drinking and bug collecting to do. Thanks for sharing!


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Thanks for posting DC! And I've got some funk metal bugs coming to me as soon as Hawgwild gets to drinking

wobrien said:

Thanks for posting DC! And I've got some funk metal bugs coming to me as soon as Hawgwild gets to drinking

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You bet!


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

DisturbdChemist said:

I dont know for certian what in there. I think they got wild bugs from the air. The rumor they used 3711 a lot. This particular bottle was fermented with english ale then bugs. It probably has brett, lacto/pedio in it.

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Buddha's Brew was the beer/kombucha combo, right? Who knows what it picked up from the kombucha SCOBY.

Was this just a standard stout recipe, or did you tailor it for souring?

BGBC said:

Buddha's Brew was the beer/kombucha combo, right? Who knows what it picked up from the kombucha SCOBY.

Was this just a standard stout recipe, or did you tailor it for souring?

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Yep. I sent an email to JK about that. They just added the kombucha at bottling so more than likely there is no SCOBY in this just the tea.

I made the recipe. The only thing i really tailored was the IBUs and dialing back the roast a little. I made this recipe for this brew. I havent made it without souring yet. It was also my first attempt that was successful. Damn ill be sad once i drink it all

Im getting the recipe together for this and had questions. Did you use flaked oats or oat malt? Is the honey, honey malt or actually honey? I figured malt for both but wanted to clarify.

I'm assuming the opposite. Let's take bets!

Haha can I change my bet to flaked oats?

finsfan said:

Im getting the recipe together for this and had questions. Did you use flaked oats or oat malt? Is the honey, honey malt or actually honey? I figured malt for both but wanted to clarify.

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So the looser owes me money? aka beer lol Edited the recipe to clearify


I used flaked oats and honey malt. I need to rebrew it because my friend keep asking me to make it again lol. Got a sour yeast cake i need to use and take advantage of. :rockin:

DisturbdChemist said:

So the looser owes me money? aka beer lol Edited the recipe to clearify


I used flaked oats and honey malt. I need to rebrew it because my friend keep asking me to make it again lol. Got a sour yeast cake i need to use and take advantage of. :rockin:

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Awesome! Thanks for the help man, im very excited to try this one. Ive never had a sour stout but why not make one.

Dang, both wrong, haha.

This is a delicious brew!!!!

How did this do in the comp?

finsfan said:

How did this do in the comp?

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Not too well because morons judged it. "Its too light of a stout.. more of a porter". Those are the exact words these morons judged my beer. Its sour. So there will be little to no body/roast to it. Everyone who had it loved it but this comp had a bunch of idiots judging it and that is not the most retarded things said.

I go by the reviews for my friends and who tried it not some moron that they think they know beer

DisturbdChemist said:

Not too well because morons judged it. "Its too light of a stout.. more of a porter". Those are the exact words these morons judged my beer. Its sour. So there will be little to no body/roast to it. Everyone who had it loved it but this comp had a bunch of idiots judging it and that is not the most retarded things said.

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I had a similar experience recently. I sent my RIS into a comp and they said it should have been placed in the smoke beer category and also got the too thin comment. FG was 1.022! Certainly no smoke to it at all. Luck of the draw I guess.

finsfan said:

I had a similar experience recently. I sent my RIS into a comp and they said it should have been placed in the smoke beer category and also got the too thin comment. FG was 1.022! Certainly no smoke to it at all. Luck of the draw I guess.

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They are. If you get BOS you just got the right judges. I do not brew to style so that always hurts me but i dont care. I brew what i want.

Some people get smokiness because of the roast. It is all opinions

DisturbdChemist said:

They are. If you get BOS you just got the right judges. I do not brew to style so that always hurts me but i dont care. I brew what i want.

Some people get smokiness because of the roast. It is all opinions

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Exactly, I dont brew to style either. I only entered it because I really enjoyed it and thought it could win something haha. Apparently Im drinking thin smoke over here!

EDIT: BTW, I think im going to add a lb of lactose to this recipe and make a sour milk stout. Can bugs or brett eat through lactose?

finsfan said:

Exactly, I dont brew to style either. I only entered it because I really enjoyed it and thought it could win something haha. Apparently Im drinking thin smoke over here!

EDIT: BTW, I think im going to add a lb of lactose to this recipe and make a sour milk stout. Can bugs or brett eat through lactose?

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They might but not really sure. Lactose might be too big but maybe some of it will be eaten

DisturbdChemist said:

They might but not really sure. Lactose might be too big but maybe some of it will be eaten

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I figured either way I would enjoy it. If the bugs can eat it, more diverse food for them. If they cant, more mouth-feel for me. Win win, potentially.

finsfan said:

Exactly, I dont brew to style either. I only entered it because I really enjoyed it and thought it could win something haha. Apparently Im drinking thin smoke over here!

EDIT: BTW, I think im going to add a lb of lactose to this recipe and make a sour milk stout. Can bugs or brett eat through lactose?

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Lacto can convert lactose (think sour milk or yogurt). I have also read that some strains of Brett are able to convert it as well, but have seen conflicting reports and don't have anything to cite.

DisturbdChemist said:

Not too well because morons judged it. "Its too light of a stout.. more of a porter". Those are the exact words these morons judged my beer. Its sour. So there will be little to no body/roast to it. Everyone who had it loved it but this comp had a bunch of idiots judging it and that is not the most retarded things said.

I go by the reviews for my friends and who tried it not some moron that they think they know beer

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I am a judge DC and have had the opportunity to taste this beer. Didn't do an official score sheet or anything but you can certainly link the review I did for you on this one.

Finally going to brew this up tomorrow night or thursday!

Gosh.. Finally. What took you so long? Already made a batch 2 and soon a batch 3 lol. I need to do a massive brewing weekend. Got 2 barrels to fill!!

Other beers got in the way haha. Gonna try and get four beers brewed by the end of this week to catch up.

finsfan said:

Other beers got in the way haha. Gonna try and get four beers brewed by the end of this week to catch up.

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Were you able to brew this one yet?

I have a red ale I brewed a couple of weeks ago that got a pitch of Nottingham and a big cake of Wyeast lambic and various dregs.

I'm kind of thinking it would be nice to have a sour stout finish around the same time and blend some of it to make a sour brown.

burninator said:

Were you able to brew this one yet?

I have a red ale I brewed a couple of weeks ago that got a pitch of Nottingham and a big cake of Wyeast lambic and various dregs.

I'm kind of thinking it would be nice to have a sour stout finish around the same time and blend some of it to make a sour brown.

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Yep, I brewed it on Dec 3rd even though I was sick as a dog. Couldnt get 4 beers in that week but I did get this one in. Havent tasted it yet and probably wont for awhile but I imagine it is chugging away nicely.

finsfan said:

Yep, I brewed it on Dec 3rd even though I was sick as a dog. Couldnt get 4 beers in that week but I did get this one in. Havent tasted it yet and probably wont for awhile but I imagine it is chugging away nicely.

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What'd you pitch? Unlike the last sour, I wouldn't have a cake ready for this one. Might have to cobble together something, if I don't buy a fresh pitch.

burninator said:

What'd you pitch? Unlike the last sour, I wouldn't have a cake ready for this one. Might have to cobble together something, if I don't buy a fresh pitch.

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I keep close to ten different sour strains or cultures going in my basement so i always have something i can step up for a fresh pitch. For this one i used b44 as the sacch, thats Imperial yeasts wit strain. Then used ecy20 and cantillon yeast for souring. All pitched in primary.

burninator said:

What'd you pitch? Unlike the last sour, I wouldn't have a cake ready for this one. Might have to cobble together something, if I don't buy a fresh pitch.

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You can step up bottle dreges like I did. You can pitch a sacc strain and add the stepped up dreges when they are done.

finsfan said:

I keep close to ten different sour strains or cultures going in my basement so i always have something i can step up for a fresh pitch. For this one i used b44 as the sacch, thats Imperial yeasts wit strain. Then used ecy20 and cantillon yeast for souring. All pitched in primary.

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Maybe I'll do the same. I have a couple of wild mixes I've been storing. Pair one or both of them up with some abbey yeast or something, and let it rip until next winter.

burninator said:

Maybe I'll do the same. I have a couple of wild mixes I've been storing. Pair one or both of them up with some abbey yeast or something, and let it rip until next winter.

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Just make sure you do a starter with both and taste before using. Ive had some sour cultures go bad on me over time, most will be perfectly fine though, just dormant.

finsfan said:

Just make sure you do a starter with both and taste before using. Ive had some sour cultures go bad on me over time, most will be perfectly fine though, just dormant.

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Good call. I've used both in prior batches, but one has been stored a couple of months since last taste.

Hope I haven't threadjacked, OP. Just want to explore results of different cultures for this beer, since it doesn't seem to be standardized.

what makes a sour beer sour? (newb question haha)

Anthonie said:

what makes a sour beer sour? (newb question haha)

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Essentially you use a souring bacteria (lacto or pedio) to bring acidity into the beer, and that is normally accompanied by brett, which in technically a brewing yeast, that lends a funky or barnyard type flavor to the beer as well. All three of these "yeasts" are different from the yeast (sacch) that you use for a clean beer. Clean beer is a majority of the styles you see: pilsner, oktoberfest, pale ale, stout, porter, wheat, saison, bitter, etc.

Here is a good short article that may explain that better than I can. Let us know if you have further questions!

http://www.boxbrewkits.com/blogs/ne...hings-to-know-about-face-puckering-sour-beers

Alright gentlemen, I'm in.

After a trip down to Austin, TX from where i live in South Jersey (where sour beers are virtually unattainable), I acquired quite the appetite for sour beers. I was also fortunate enough to visit Jester King's brewery and try some of their bell-cow beers such as Ol' Oi and of course Funk Metal, as well as other short-term selections. I was also smart enough to purchase a bottle of Ol' Oi and Funk Metal, which I still have.

So naturally, now I'm highly interested in brewing my own. First, I'm still fairly new to homebrewing as an overall practice, and have never attempted to make any sort of sour or wild beer. There's tons of info in this thread, on this forum, and on the internet as a whole, but I do still have some questions.

I plan on stepping up the dredges from my Funk Metal bottle to use for this brew to make it somewhat similar to that delicious nectar. I've done some research into souring beers, and it appears there are several methods between sour mashing, kettle souring, etc, but I'm just unsure on how the dredges from an already sour beer come into play. Usually the other methods include both a normal brewing yeast AND some form of souring (lacto, brett, what have you), but would these dredges act as both?

After reading through this thread, it seems like the OP just used the yeast cake from a previous beer, which was stepped up dredges from a different Jester King selection, and nothing else. I could be wrong. Other posters mention doing the dual approach I just mentioned. I'm also a little confused because from what I've read I'm under the impression that those methods usually involve some form of pasteurizing fairly early in the process to stop the souring, which was not mentioned by the OP.

So If I do rely on my Funk Metal dredges, which will not be a cake from another beer, just a straight starter from those dredges, will that be sufficient? Like I said I'm totally new to this practice and I apologize if my question was answered in a previous post.