Beer too sour? Remedies

[MOAleworks]

I can't seem to find a thread that addressed this.

I have a couple batches of blond sours (mostly pils with 5% malted wheat) that I gave 2 weeks at 70 with belgian abbey ale yeast and then pitched roselare and a homemade lacto starter. I also added 0.5 lb per gallon of figs and apricots, respectively into secondary at the time of racking. That was 5 month's ago.

I tasted it this week and they are both very tart without much brett funk to back it up. Both are in 1.005 gravity or so. I'm not too interested in sweetening this. Aside from blending, is there anything that can be done? A vigorous brett starter (I don't want oxidize)?

Thanks!

 

[MrE_the_Great]

Purely speculation as I've yet to dip into sours, but would more age mellow this out a bit?

 

[youreanimpulse]

I don't think it will get less sour with age, maybe less harsh, from tannins dropping out. I would make the same base beer but ferment dry with 3711 or something else that'll eat anything. Then blend to taste at bottling. You could even fruit the blender if you don't want to dilute fruit character. I know I know you said other than blending .

 

[dantheman13]

It may get more palatable with age, but probably not less sour. If you have a light Sacch + Brett beer that is well fermented and doesn't have acidity, it takes a very small amount of non-sour beer to dilute the acidity. Like half a pint.

 

[poptarts]

blending will work good. I have read about a lot of success using chalk if your beer is carbonated.

 

[505-Brewer]

Carbonation does wonderful things to a sour. Without a pH value its hard to judge what "tart" is but given the title of this thread it sounds like blending with a heavily brett'd beer may be what your after.

 

[dantheman13]

Carbonation does wonderful things to a sour. Without a pH value its hard to judge what "tart" is but given the title of this thread it sounds like blending with a heavily brett'd beer may be what your after.

Very true, carbonation changes a lot. But I find that beers taste more acidic when they are carbonated.

 

[505-Brewer]

Carbonation does wonderful things to a sour. Without a pH value its hard to judge what "tart" is but given the title of this thread it sounds like blending with a heavily brett'd beer may be what your after.

Understandingly so. You can blend it flat or after carbed if you have extra kegs and cold storage. Im still trying to calibrate a flat sour beer to my pallet. Im always amazed at how much more lively they are.

Do you have a pH value per chance?

I have 10 gals of wonderful bret'd but not sour consecration clone. Sounds like we need to swap beer.

Cheers

 

[MOAleworks]

Thanks for all the feedback! I do not have a way to test ph (currently). It is quite tart, but moreso out of balance given the lack of earthier notes. Picture a fruited, tart berlinerweisse. However, I'm going for something much more complex given the 5+ months of mixed fermentation.

I think I may get some orval or oro de calabaza, de gas it, and experiment with blending. If it really only takes a bit, I should be able to do a quick 1 gallon batch with a healthy starter in a few weeks.

 

[finsfan]

However, I'm going for something much more complex given the 5+ months of mixed fermentation.

Unfortunately, 5 months wont create much complexity unless you used a large and diverse group of microbes. I would most likely look at the addition of the lacto as the cause of the high acidity. The sours mixes, Roselare included, typically have both lacto and pedio in them to create acidity, so the straight lacto addition on top of that was not necessary unless you were looking for an acid bomb. IF you are after complexity, start adding dregs of viable commercial sours or brett beers that you enjoy and think would go well with what you currently have. Time will also help in gaining complexity. 5 months does seem like a while for a beer, but a year or more is really needed to create what it appears you are looking for in this sour. Funk from brett is also known to increase under pressure (in the bottle), so do take that into consideration when sampling this beer. Blending is also an option though. I would give this more time though, especially considering that you added the bugs after primary fermentation.

 

[Owly055]

I just emptied the first 1.5 gallon Tap-a-draft of my first really successful sour, a saison that was done "sour mash". I resorted to sour mash because I'm a "control freak"...... I knew exactly what I wanted, and with sour mash or kettle sour, you stop the process when you want it stopped........because you sour BEFORE the boil.

I have no interest in letting it "do it's thing"....... I knew what I wanted, which was a sour saison ..........with just a touch of sour.

The brew ended up more sour than I wanted, so I brewed an identical non-sour brew, and fortunately a 50/50 mix gave me exactly what I wanted.

Friends and neighbors who drank it insisted that it was a shandy.......... It was a hit, mainly because I micro managed the process to get exactly what I wanted.........It worked out great in spite of my mistakes.

I'll blend again.


H.W.

 

[MileHighBrewer]

5 months is nothing. Give it time....much more time

 

[bovineblitz]

Brett character tends to really come forward in the bottle or keg, under pressure.