Kentucky Common Attempt II

[Aubie Stout]

Here's the recipe:

85% eff. OG: 1.053. 5.5 Gal.
7.0 lbs Six Row
2.0 lbs Flaked Maize
.50 lbs Crystal 80
.25 lbs Chocolate Malt

.75 oz First Gold @ 60 mins for 19.4 IBU's
1.0 oz Willamette @ 10 mins for 6.5 IBU's
1.0 oz Willamette @ 5 mins for 3.6 IBU's

Secondary on 4.0 oz of lightly toasted American Oak chips for a week or so.

Mash @ 154 for 24hrs! Actually, set initial mash temp at 154 and let it rest in MLT for 24hrs with the top on. The goal is to sour the mash. The longer the mash the more sour it gets. 24hrs is to "slightly" sour.


Everyone loved the first attempt. I wanted to hops this one up a little more and add a twist with the oak aging. Will advise.

 

[Poobah58]

Not sure 24 hrs is going to be enough. Might turn into a heavy corn flavor. Some people pit a pound or two of uncrushed grain in a bit or water, cover with foil and let it sit for a week. Then dump into mash on brew day...

 

[Aubie Stout]

24hrs is enough to give a slight sour to it.

 

[KYB]

I wondered when KY Common would show back up here. I've since stopped doing any type of souring - just a 90min mash. Hell a couple times 24hr mash was waaaay too much sourness. I feel like it's not historically accurate (who wants to pound back sour beers after working 12+ hours of intense labor?) and I was just trying something different with the little bit of info I found. I've been going by the 1902 American Handy Book of Brewing (something like that), which mentions nothing of sourness. I think I finally settled on a recipe. However, I still enjoyed some of the slightly soured versions I made. It was just impossible to know how sour it would be. Your recipe looks pretty solid. I still need to try a slightly hoppier version, as what I brew is just bittering. Let me know how it turns out. Some friends and I plan to open a brewpub in a few years (we know what goes into it and have a solid plan and connections) and want this to be the staple beer, just a nice easy session beer for anytime, any place, while having our other more intense styles available as well. Hoping everything works out. I've been kegging my current recipe in 1/2 barrels and taking it to friends and family parties. Everyone loves it. I did a trade with you before didn't I? I'd be down to do another trade when you get this brewed up. Let me know. Good luck!

 

[craigd]

Yep, I think I mentioned in the older thread that sourness was very unpredictable when a group of us in my club did a few of these. One guy got very little sourness on a 36 hour mash and on his next one got big sourness. I got moderate with 36 hours on mine but haven't repeated it (though several people liked it enough to request it again.) We did side-by-sides to test this more objectively... I imagine its all a function of the bugs present in the grain to begin with and how well they handle the initial mash. I'm glad you posted this though because i think it's getting to be time to do this again. Authentic or not it was a fun brew and let me play with sourness without the long delays of post-ferment bugs.

I will say that if you want a predictable slight tang without a significant sour note that one of our brewers had some success with acidulated malt. It wasn't the same beer as the sours we were producing but it was very drinkable and just barely tart. It was probably closer to what ODaniel is talking about...

 

[BBBF]

I have a Kentucky Common on tap right now. I went with the partial sour mash method (48hrs) and am happy with the results. I used a handful of crushed grains to provide the bugs, but I'm considering using some yogurt or kifer in the future. I'm hoping this might provide a little more consistancy.

 

[KYB]

You all should try it without the sourness. I hate that I helped spread the souring aspect of it, because like I said I don't think it was meant to be soured. I mean I enjoyed some of the soured versions, but I don't think it's accurate. However, I wouldn't know what else to call it other than a sour common. I'm hoping our potential brewpub can bring it back to what it was before prohibition.

 

[Aubie Stout]

I did a trade with you before didn't I? I'd be down to do another trade when you get this brewed up. Let me know. Good luck!

Yes. You and I swapped some time ago. I've been meaning to get back to this style and haven't had the time until now.

Both the beer I made and the one you sent had very subtle sour notes. Just enough to tell there was something else there, but hard to place it exactly. 90% of the folks that tried it couldn't identify sour as the extra flavor.

As far as the style, the 24hr mash makes sense to me. The long mash would allow for a brewer to continue about his daily business opposed to brewing all day. It does make for an easy brew day splitting up the process.

Have you tried Yazoo Brewing's Dos Peros? It's a Mexican Vienna style beer brewed with ale yeast. It tastes similar to the Common beer.

 

[KYB]

Yea it was very hard to replicate that hint of sourness. Nope, never tried it. We don't get Yazoo here.

 

[Aubie Stout]

O'D,


The oak makes all the difference. It really makes the beer more "drinkable". I used 4oz's of lightly toasted American oak chips on it in the secondary for 7 days. It really mellows the sourness of the beer and makes it more drinkable. I think this is what they were referring to when they created this style.

 

[KYB]

Good to hear. I'm pretty happy with mine but I'd be interested to try that. Sour mashing is fun but just so damn hard to replicate. Sometimes (for me) it would have no sourness, and the next time it would be puckering. Eventually I am going to try the "2% lactobacillus in the yeast" that I have read - I supposed by cell count and in milliliters. It was brewed and drank very quickly so it's not like the lactobacillus really had time to develop much sourness.

Here is the recipe I have been brewing (still working on the site).

http://www.surrealstudio.net/ODanielsBlog/?page_id=277