Sour Styles

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tarmenel

tarmenel

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Hi there,
Just wondering if there is a list of sour styles and also the appropriate time frames. New to the whole sour style and starting to learn. Also I don't see a section just for sour's that I could put it under.

So far I have

Berliner Weisse
Lambic ?? Could contain many
Gose
Gueuze
Belgian Red
Saison

I'd like to fill a list of styles to concentrate on but obviously want to start with the "quicker" sours to get some experience with these wilder fermentation's.
 
Here is a forum dedicated to sour and wild brewing.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=127

Lots of good info there.

Brewing sours and "quick" usually do not go together. Most sours take a very long time. You can look into kettle souring, which can produce a sour beer fairly quickly. However, to get a good complex sour just takes a lot of time.

A Berliner and a gose can be made fairly quickly but neither are very complex IMO. They can be tasty and easy drinkers though.

If you want a good book on sours, pick up "American Sour Beers". Really informative. It is even available as an e book.
 
There are ways to quickly sour a beer, like beer golf mentioned. They work well, but provide an entirely different sour. Not better or worse, just different. Here's a write up on one technique:

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2013/11/sour-experiment-1-two-week-sour.html?m=1

Make one batch with brett, lacto, and pedio, and let it sour for a year. Experiment with other techniques while you wait. But I second beergolf's recommendation to read a American Sours. Great resource.
 
I don't consider Saisons as a sour beer style.

The list of styles is pretty small::

- Berliner Weisse
- Gose
- Lambic/Gueuze (Gueuze is basically a blended, bottled, and carbonated version of Lambic).
- Flanders Red

If you do it right a Berliner and Gose can be drinking in 6 weeks. If you do it wrong, it may never sour no matter how long you leave it.

Lambic and Flanders styles take a year(s).

Use the link provided by beergolf; there is a lot off information there.

'Wildbrews' by Jeff Sparrow is also a good resource.
 
if you want to experiment with souring, get some 1 gallon jugs. you can brew up a 5 gallon batch of stout, weizen, saison, red ale, or any other style light on the hops and and add different combos of Brett, Lacto, Pedio to the gallon you pull off before pitching yeast. if it turns out like crap then you only lose 1 gallon. but, it it turns out great, you only have 1 gallon. pros & cons, bruva.
 
If you want to do a quick sour, the best way to go is a Berlinerweisse (or maybe a Gose?). It can be ready to drink in 3 or 4 weeks, if you do it right.

Either do a sour mash or sour in the kettle, then do the rest of the process like a regular simple ale with a clean ale yeast and you're good to go.

Pretty much any other sour takes a good long while.
 
Thanks for the feedback. I'm currently trying to perfect my Berliner Weisse, it's in its 3rd version. I brew 10 liters a week so it's small batches that I try to incrementally improve. Thanks for the reference to the specific section for the sours. I did see it but wasn't sure if it was dedicated to sour's. Will dig a bit deeper there. I have already thrown out a few questions. Is there any way of moving this question to there?

As for the time issue I'll just have to take the plunge. My issue like everyone else is space. Trying to create a chill room hooked to the aircon, that way I can keep the temperatures stable. My main issue in Israel is finding the Brett, Lacto and Pedio. This is why I'm trying to do my homework now before jumping in whole hog. As I brew weekly the whole waiting a year might be an issue to know if I've messed something up, that's why I wanted to build up to it.
 
tarmenel said:
Thanks for the feedback. I'm currently trying to perfect my Berliner Weisse, it's in its 3rd version. I brew 10 liters a week so it's small batches that I try to incrementally improve. Thanks for the reference to the specific section for the sours. I did see it but wasn't sure if it was dedicated to sour's. Will dig a bit deeper there. I have already thrown out a few questions. Is there any way of moving this question to there?

As for the time issue I'll just have to take the plunge. My issue like everyone else is space. Trying to create a chill room hooked to the aircon, that way I can keep the temperatures stable. My main issue in Israel is finding the Brett, Lacto and Pedio. This is why I'm trying to do my homework now before jumping in whole hog. As I brew weekly the whole waiting a year might be an issue to know if I've messed something up, that's why I wanted to build up to it.
Click to expand...


I have yet to purchase isolated sour cultures, they are way too expensive and don't contain as many viable cells as Saccharomyces cultures. However, I've managed to brew 4 sours (and 1 accidental sour lol) with mixed fermentation and bottle dreg starters, so it's really not that challenging. If you can get your hands on unfiltered and unpasteurized commercial sours, you can make pretty much anything under the sun.

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/p/dreg-list.html?m=1
 
tarmenel said:
My main issue in Israel is finding the Brett, Lacto and Pedio.
Click to expand...

If you can get unpasteurized sours, you can use the dregs to make a sour beer. The bugs from a relatively fresh commercial sour are generally thought of as being superior to the ones you can buy for homebrewing.

For a simple sour like a Berliner, you can use grain to get the lacto, or you can use probiotics tablets, even yogurt base. Do some research.

Temp control really isn't an issue for sours. The bugs prefer higher temperatures. If you are going to try a Berliner, you will want to keep the temperature closer to 100F for a week.
 

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