Just getting ready to brew a Berlinner Weisse and a question came to me: has anyone ever brewed a soured mead? Would a sour mead even be good? Just wondering if anyone has ever tried it and what their results were like. I'm tempted to make a 1 gallon trial batch just to see how nasty it is.
Sour/Funky Mead?
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I recently brewed a mead with Brettanomyces lambicus and a sour lactomel (mead with whey and yogurt culture); the former has a lot of promise and just needs some aging, the latter... well, it might be my first failed experiment. I think brewing with non-Sacch cultures has got a lot of promise in meadmaking. Sour beers are usually pretty dry due to the 100% attenuation (due to the Brett and Pedio), so I don't think it would be that different an organoleptic experience between a sour mead and sour beer.
You should definitely give it a try, I think you'll be surprised; the more people trying it, the quicker we'll figure out how to do it well, haha! I'll be trying a sour blueberry melomel once the blueberries are out; pretty excited about it.
You should definitely give it a try, I think you'll be surprised; the more people trying it, the quicker we'll figure out how to do it well, haha! I'll be trying a sour blueberry melomel once the blueberries are out; pretty excited about it.
avidhomebrewer
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I agree with mccann; give it a go and report your results. I would think it would just be a bigger sour brew. I bought 10# of honey yesterday for another brochet; I think you got me thinking about a sour brochet.
bubbachunk
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I have thought about it but have yet to find a local honey source since I moved.
You try your local farmer's market? That's my go-to honey source.
avidhomebrewer
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How much honey and how many pounds of cherries? Also, what did you use to sour it? I have a sour beer going now that I was thinking of taking a cup or two of dregs for my next brochet.
4kgs of honey in a 40L batch and 2.5kg of cherries in 10L.
it was kind of a mistake how it soured, i no chilled and the cube started to swell with ether roselare or brett ether way it tasted good so i fermented it out with sweet mead
it was kind of a mistake how it soured, i no chilled and the cube started to swell with ether roselare or brett ether way it tasted good so i fermented it out with sweet mead
Anybody ever follow through with this? Any results to report?
I just brewed up a sour traditional. Really excited to see how it turns out.
I just brewed up a sour traditional. Really excited to see how it turns out.
It still needs aging. It's got a lot of that young mead (fusel) taste still.
brewski09
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giving this one a bump. i'd love to hear how these aged and what yeasts/bugs people used. was it wild, sour bugs only, or yeast and bugs? also, what bugs (brett strain, lacto, pedio etc)? thx.
i'm especially interested in the blueberry one as i have a blueberry mead running now that I may want to partially sour...
i'm especially interested in the blueberry one as i have a blueberry mead running now that I may want to partially sour...
MarshmallowBlue
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I've got a few going. I'm not the OP but here's my logs
• Lambic 1st gen : http://hivemindmead.blogspot.com/2013/05/lambic-mead.html : WYeast Lambic Blend
• Lambic Second Gen : http://hivemindmead.blogspot.com/search/label/Second Generation Lambic Mead :Cake from the first gen + wine yeast + Dregs.
• Brett Blend Mead : Still fermenting : http://hivemindmead.blogspot.com/search/label/Brett Claussenii & Bruxelensis Mead : Brett C + Orval Dreggs + Wine yeast
Overall. These are becoming my favorite meads. They are really complex. The one I've bottled is tart with moderate to high funk coming through. If you can't handle the brett, you may want to just sour with just lacto (pedio needs brett). I brought a bottle to my last homebrew club meeting and it went really fast and got a lot of compliments, and questions. So I must have done something right...
While your bug cultures are young, you may want to add maltodextrin as any Saccharomyces will chew through the sugar before you get anything. But Maltodextrin is too complex for regular yeast to convert. I didn't need to add any maltodextrin to the second round.
I've also been flirting with the idea of a Berliner style sour mead. But maybe I won't kill the lacto when I add the yeast because I <3 Lacto
• Lambic 1st gen : http://hivemindmead.blogspot.com/2013/05/lambic-mead.html : WYeast Lambic Blend
• Lambic Second Gen : http://hivemindmead.blogspot.com/search/label/Second Generation Lambic Mead :Cake from the first gen + wine yeast + Dregs.
• Brett Blend Mead : Still fermenting : http://hivemindmead.blogspot.com/search/label/Brett Claussenii & Bruxelensis Mead : Brett C + Orval Dreggs + Wine yeast
Overall. These are becoming my favorite meads. They are really complex. The one I've bottled is tart with moderate to high funk coming through. If you can't handle the brett, you may want to just sour with just lacto (pedio needs brett). I brought a bottle to my last homebrew club meeting and it went really fast and got a lot of compliments, and questions. So I must have done something right...
While your bug cultures are young, you may want to add maltodextrin as any Saccharomyces will chew through the sugar before you get anything. But Maltodextrin is too complex for regular yeast to convert. I didn't need to add any maltodextrin to the second round.
I've also been flirting with the idea of a Berliner style sour mead. But maybe I won't kill the lacto when I add the yeast because I <3 Lacto
