hopbrad
Well-Known Member
I have a Golden Sour going, about a year. The yeast/bugs was from a harvested sour cake. The original pitch was on a flanders where I co-pitched dregs I stepped up a few times of Jolly pumpkin bam biere and some wlp500.
This round I have also dumped in dregs from a few russian river sours and another Jolly Pumpkin.
Ive sampled it a few times and it has a nice brett/funk character but it is lacking tartness and acidity. I added fruit about 2 months ago. 4 lbs of a blend of frozen Raspberries, blackberries and blueberries.
The best way to describe it is flat/muddled. It needs that acidic bite and tartness to pop.
side note - my flanders behaved the same way. nice brett/funk, not much acidity. Maybe old dregs and the lacto/pedio never grew.
and the water profile on this was soft, a touch of gypsum and Calcium Chloride but mostly acidulated malt for the mash.
my thoughts are to either:
1. let it ride for another few months, possibly add more frozen berrys
2. add some lactic acid
3. bottle and have another mediocre sour on hand.
4. other options?
Im really interested to see if option 2 would get me there and people's thoughts. I do love tongue puckering sours, but I'd be happy with that extra backend tartness which I think will help make the fruit pop too. wonder if adding a touch more brewing salts in conjunction would lower pH and help the fruit and beer pop. or if the mineral-iness alone will help things pop. or some oak chips soaked in red wine for more tannins?
I've read overdoing lactic can give it an artificial twang anyway, so I'd give it a small dose.
This round I have also dumped in dregs from a few russian river sours and another Jolly Pumpkin.
Ive sampled it a few times and it has a nice brett/funk character but it is lacking tartness and acidity. I added fruit about 2 months ago. 4 lbs of a blend of frozen Raspberries, blackberries and blueberries.
The best way to describe it is flat/muddled. It needs that acidic bite and tartness to pop.
side note - my flanders behaved the same way. nice brett/funk, not much acidity. Maybe old dregs and the lacto/pedio never grew.
and the water profile on this was soft, a touch of gypsum and Calcium Chloride but mostly acidulated malt for the mash.
my thoughts are to either:
1. let it ride for another few months, possibly add more frozen berrys
2. add some lactic acid
3. bottle and have another mediocre sour on hand.
4. other options?
Im really interested to see if option 2 would get me there and people's thoughts. I do love tongue puckering sours, but I'd be happy with that extra backend tartness which I think will help make the fruit pop too. wonder if adding a touch more brewing salts in conjunction would lower pH and help the fruit and beer pop. or if the mineral-iness alone will help things pop. or some oak chips soaked in red wine for more tannins?
I've read overdoing lactic can give it an artificial twang anyway, so I'd give it a small dose.