A Sour Tale, My First. Please Critique.

[mlg5039]

I have been doing a lot of reading and research lately, and I have decided to begin brewing sour and funky beers. I don’t brew as often as I used to, and my taste preference has shifted from hoppy IPAs to more complex Belgian beers. I have chosen and tweaked an oud bruin recipe that I would like to be my first sour. I would like some of the more experienced wild brewers to chime in if they see anything out of line.

Grain Bill
6 lbs Belgian Pilsner malt
6 lbs Munich Malt
2 lbs Flaked Wheat
4 oz Special B Malt
4 oz Chocolate Malt

Hops (hop packages have been open for longer than 6 months, they have almost no aroma)
1.0 oz German Sapphir at 90 minutes
0.5 oz Goldings at 60 minutes

Yeast
WLP500 vial, and a starter of JP dregs, pitched at the same time.
Other JP Dregs added over time.

Mash 90 minutes at 154 degrees. 90 minute boil.

Anticipated OG: 1.073
Anticipated FG: 1.008
ABV: 8.3%
IBU: less than 15

I plan to let this primary for 4-6 weeks, then transfer to a secondary with some oak cubes and more dregs for at least one year. How does this look for a starting point? I am making it a goal to start a sour brew every 2 months from now on. I will brew this today as a starting point.

 

[mlg5039]

24 hours later, the temperature inside the fermentation chamber was 65, and a krausen had formed. I will keep it at 63-65 for a week and then let it raise to 68-70 for the duration of primary fermentation. After 4 or so weeks, I'll transfer it into a carboy with some oak.

 

[Calder]

If it were me, I'd leave it where it is on the yeast cake, or rack it before the Sacc has finished fermenting to carry over some of the sacc. The Brett feeds off the dead sacc cells.

 

[mlg5039]

I'll try to make sure I siphon some of the cake over into secondary.

 

[ryane]

If it were me, I'd leave it where it is on the yeast cake, or rack it before the Sacc has finished fermenting to carry over some of the sacc. The Brett feeds off the dead sacc cells.

In the case of a oud bruin, I would leave the cake behind. As much as I enjoy bretty flavors, bruins have a bit more of a clean profile and could benefit from slightly less brettyness and more malt

 

[mlg5039]

I think I will be leaving the majority of the cake behind, and just picking up some of the sacc from the cake to keep things interesting.

 

[mlg5039]

Well after a month of primary, it's ready to rack to the secondary and I find this:

The gravity has dropped to 1.015 from 1.072. It tastes good, not very sour yet, but i can smell sour notes and she looks promising. I'll let you know in a year

 

[smokinghole]

If it were me, I'd leave it where it is on the yeast cake, or rack it before the Sacc has finished fermenting to carry over some of the sacc. The Brett feeds off the dead sacc cells.

I think flanders are transferred 2-3 times to keep off the dead yeast whether sacch or brett. One way or the other dead autolysed yeast will contribute to the flavor whether it's sacch yeast or brett yeast, they're made of the same stuff. So you'll always have that brettty bitter funky bite unless you are very good about constant oxygen free transfers. The brett doesn't NEED the dead autolysed sacch to feed on, it can use the wort sugars just fine, along with the wood sugars from his oak that he put in there.