Bottling sour beer blended with brown ale

[timcook]

I have a sour beer that's been in the carboy for 14 months. The Final Gravity of 1.006.

I have an American brown ale that's been fermenting for three weeks. The estimated Final Gravity is 1.014.

I am planning to blend 3.5 gallons of the brown with 1.5 gallons of the sour. I have only bottled one other sour. I used some champagne yeast. I figured that I will do that again, but was curious if others would carbonate this a different way?

Any thoughts or ideas are appreciated,

Tim

 

[crane]

If you bottle as is you can risk overcarbonation and possible bottle bombs. Even though the sour may have sat for 14 months, any Brett in it could wake up and start fermenting again after blending. The entire blend may drop back down to 1.006 which would be way too much sugar for bottle conditioning.

You may want to blend and let it sit in a fermentor until you see a stable gravity for a month or 2 straight before bottling.

 

[eric19312]

If you bottle as is you can risk overcarbonation and possible bottle bombs. Even though the sour may have sat for 14 months, any Brett in it could wake up and start fermenting again after blending. The entire blend may drop back down to 1.006 which would be way too much sugar for bottle conditioning.

You may want to blend and let it sit in a fermentor until you see a stable gravity for a month or 2 straight before bottling.

+1

When blending sours best practice is to blend in carboy, allow time to deferment, then bottle.

An alternative I’ve never tried would be to kill the bacteria through pasterization like New Belgium does. You could just heat the sour to about 140 and hold it there for a while...look up a pasteurization table...then blend it with the brown. The yeast in the brown should be ok to ferment out your priming sugar.

 

[505-Brewer]

Be aware that blending in carboy can lead to increased sourness (back to the pH of the sour beer portion) thereby altering your blend. If u can keg it and keep it cold and enjoy. Best way in my opinion. A sour beer w some body and a head that lasts for days is possible.

 

[timcook]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to think it over. I'll check back with any progress.

I previously made a very similar sour that also finished at 1.006. I added raspberries in a secondary and the final product was very acidic & seems thin with not much body. my goal with this one is to add some body & more flavor. That's why I decided to blend it with a brown ale