Brainstorm - Secondary Addition to Sour/Wild Brown

[cactusgarrett]

Hey all. Soliciting brainstorm ideas for what to do with a portion of a sour/wild brown I'm nearly ready to package.

I've got a solera going of something very similar to New Belgium's La Folie, and after a year am ready to remove/replace a portion. The larger removed portion (5 gal) I plan on aging a few weeks on red wine-soaked oak. However, where I'm coming up blank is the smaller, 3 gal portion. I'm not a creative person, so would like all your ideas. A lighter, lambic-type beer seems more versatile, but this being a brown or oud bruin-like has me coming up blank.

So far, I've considered dry hopping (unsure with what, though), or adding peaches. Peaches might be a no-go, since it's not peach season in the midwest. Other thoughts?

 

[BRGriffith]

How about blackberries? I think the toasty malts in a brown base would play well with the tart dark fruit profile of blackberry. Almost cobbler like

 

[brownni5]

Can't go wrong with raspberries in a dark sour. The two were made to go together, and frozen raspberries are an easy find anywhere and any time of year. Dry hopping a dark beer sounds interesting, but I wouldn't know where to start. DH a light sour? Amarillo.

 

[505-Brewer]

Whats the pH? How sour does it taste? Will you need to blend it? All considerations that can alter your path.

Cherries, raspberries would be my first pick w blackberries a nice alternative.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Thanks for all the creative ideas, everyone! Currants and raspberries were leading the pack, but I ended up adding 2lbs of local Balaton cherries to 2gal of the sour, since a friend tossed a large amount into my lap.

It's already somewhat tart, with the shining characteristic already being the brett lambicus. I haven't taken a pH reading, but the FG is at 1.010, which is surprisingly high(er) after a full year of aging. I don't plan on blending, but I'll see what the 8 weeks of aging on the cherries does to it. If anything, i'd blend it back with the 5gal of wine-soaked-oak aged portion.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Following this up. Just bottled, and the fruited portion is pretty good. Just 1lb/gal gave this a very kreik-like flavor profile. The wine-soaked oak was a bit more subtler to pickup on. Thanks again to everyone for the ideas.