sorghum and sour beers?

[mergs]

I was flipping through the latest BYO magazine and they've focused quite a bit of content this month on sour beers.

I tend to enjoy a good sour beer and this got me to thinking: would the sorghum twang lend itself to a sour beer recipe ?

I was thinking that the answer might be yes and was considering altering some sour beer recipes in the mag to be GF using sorghum and/or other GF fermentables.

A worthwhile endeavor or fool's errand?

 

[Osedax]

I say go for it. My experience is that it is kind of gross. My brett c/milo(sorghum) batch was not alright.

Do a small batch and let us know how it goes. I would be interested. Right now I am trying to find out if millet wort compliments sourness. I did an all millet apricot imperial berliner weisse that was really good. Smelt nice and funky.

 

[mergs]

I say go for it. My experience is that it is kind of gross. My brett c/milo(sorghum) batch was not alright.

Do a small batch and let us know how it goes. I would be interested. Right now I am trying to find out if millet wort compliments sourness. I did an all millet apricot imperial berliner weisse that was really good. Smelt nice and funky.

Neat. Berliner Weisse was one of the spotlight articles in the mag and I know my wife likes them so that's exactly the kind of thing I wanted to attempt first. I'll work on it and report back if I get anywhere with it.

I'm interested in other fermentables besides sorghum too, whether it be honey or brown rice syrup to offset the % of sorghum in the recipe. I'm not against giving millet a try but I haven't used it yet and I believe there's only the all-grain option there (no millet extract that I've seen)?

I like the idea of a test batch too. I've only done 5 gals at a time but if I'm going to start experimenting like this, I need to focus on 1 or 2 gal batches to dial stuff in.

 

[dcp27]

i've been meaning to try this out, but i havent yet as my GF friend that I make it for doesn't like sours. The other issue is the normal sours I make use dregs from commercial stuff, which isn't doable in a GF beer. The lab stuff is slow and Wyeast is not GF. I see no reason it shouldn't work well with enough time tho and interested in hearing how it comes out.

I say go for it. My experience is that it is kind of gross. My brett c/milo(sorghum) batch was not alright.

brett C alone wouldn't make a sour beer

 

[Osedax]

It was sour. Milo has a fairly prominent sourness and the mash was slightly soured. Brettanomyces does create a bit of sourness depending on how it is utilized. Not much but, in conjunction, it was enough to be gross.

 

[dcp27]

It was sour. Milo has a fairly prominent sourness and the mash was slightly soured. Brettanomyces does create a bit of sourness depending on how it is utilized. Not much but, in conjunction, it was enough to be gross.

how did you slightly sour the mash?

with all that going on seems fairly bold to blame it on the brett. unless you exposed it to a lot of oxygen, it wasn't the brett's fault for any sourness. it'd also be acetic acid

 

[davemacrunnel]

I say go for it. My experience is that it is kind of gross. My brett c/milo(sorghum) batch was not alright.

Do a small batch and let us know how it goes. I would be interested. Right now I am trying to find out if millet wort compliments sourness. I did an all millet apricot imperial berliner weisse that was really good. Smelt nice and funky.

Hey Osedax, Did you use a White Labs culture for the Brett? Or did you grow it up somehow to be GF? I want to start experimenting with some funky gluten free beers and I'm thinking I might "wash" the WL Brett vial using a two step rice solids starter.

Have you posted that apricot imperial berliner weisse recipe anywhere? Sounds awesome.

 

[Osedax]

It was White Labs. WLP645? I did the same thing you are thinking of doing. I just washed it until it felt right. Now I just use the same culture for all of my brett beers. I think it is on generation 6 or 7. It seems to get better the more generations I put on it. I am sure there is a limit but, I haven't found one yet. I will be using it to infect a barrel soon.

I don't know if I posted that recipe. I feel like I did. I will look into it.

As an FYI, don't use those bulk dried apricots. They contain sulfer. That batch smelt like eggs for a while.

 

[davemacrunnel]

As an FYI, don't use those bulk dried apricots. They contain sulfer. That batch smelt like eggs for a while.

I really wish I would have read this a couple hours ago! I just brewed an all grain gluten free Apricot IPA (based on Aprihop from Dogfish Head) and dumped the whole carboy because it smelled like sulfur... The wort tasted so good too. Also my brew day was 9 hours thanks to a mash that would not convert until I added extra enzymes. Next time I won't be cheap, and will go with good puree from the LHBS.

Luckily I live 20 minutes from Grouse Malting so I guess it's time for another trip to see Twila.