Laurel
Well-Known Member
Hello Folks!
I used to post here often, but after buying a house and having a couple tries at all-grain(upgraded my setup right before buying the house - I figured that beer equip would be a low priority after we closed) flop, I kind of lost interest in brewing. A good friend is interested in brewing, and asked about making a beer sometime. Being terrified of failure, I just bought an Irish stout recipe kit from a local homebrew store and was super careful about my mash temps (I'm pretty sure high mash temps were the culprit on my (way too sweet) failed brews) and it turned out fabulously. We're running it on nitro and HWMBO has been drinking it like water. Really. A glass with breakfast, one with lunch, and all through the afternoon.
Anyway, we will be brewing in a couple weeks again and were planning on doing another batch of something similar, and something that will require more time-consuming aging. So far, I have it narrowed down to a bourbon-barrel aged stout or something sour. The idea of sour is so very alluring to me, we're huge fans of very sour beers (though not huge fans of funky belgian-y ones), and admittedly don't know enough about any of them to speak with any level of authority.
The problem - I don't know anything about the process other than it generally involves making something pretty low on the bitterness scale, fermenting out in primary with a neutral yeast, then racking into secondary and letting it chill for several months while a pellicle forms and the beer sours. After that, all the equipment needs to be sour-only (racking cane, etc). As such, I imagine we'll probably be bottling instead or tearing apart the kegerator to replace everything once that one keg's gone. So.... what do I need to know? Basic styles and their characteristics? Where do I go for good recipes? Things that I'm missing?
Thanks!
I used to post here often, but after buying a house and having a couple tries at all-grain(upgraded my setup right before buying the house - I figured that beer equip would be a low priority after we closed) flop, I kind of lost interest in brewing. A good friend is interested in brewing, and asked about making a beer sometime. Being terrified of failure, I just bought an Irish stout recipe kit from a local homebrew store and was super careful about my mash temps (I'm pretty sure high mash temps were the culprit on my (way too sweet) failed brews) and it turned out fabulously. We're running it on nitro and HWMBO has been drinking it like water. Really. A glass with breakfast, one with lunch, and all through the afternoon.
Anyway, we will be brewing in a couple weeks again and were planning on doing another batch of something similar, and something that will require more time-consuming aging. So far, I have it narrowed down to a bourbon-barrel aged stout or something sour. The idea of sour is so very alluring to me, we're huge fans of very sour beers (though not huge fans of funky belgian-y ones), and admittedly don't know enough about any of them to speak with any level of authority.
The problem - I don't know anything about the process other than it generally involves making something pretty low on the bitterness scale, fermenting out in primary with a neutral yeast, then racking into secondary and letting it chill for several months while a pellicle forms and the beer sours. After that, all the equipment needs to be sour-only (racking cane, etc). As such, I imagine we'll probably be bottling instead or tearing apart the kegerator to replace everything once that one keg's gone. So.... what do I need to know? Basic styles and their characteristics? Where do I go for good recipes? Things that I'm missing?
Thanks!
