Can you sour just any ale?

[ICWiener]

If I brew a wit or a porter or a hefe...or anything for that matter, can it be soured? By that I mean, will it be drinkable?

I know the style obviously lends itself to specifc recipes, but I'm curious as to how much experimentation has been done out there.

Are there any types of beer that absolutely cannot, no matter what, be soured?

 

[Homebrewtastic]

If I brew a wit or a porter or a hefe...or anything for that matter, can it be soured? By that I mean, will it be drinkable?

I know the style obviously lends itself to specifc recipes, but I'm curious as to how much experimentation has been done out there.

Are there any types of beer that absolutely cannot, no matter what, be soured?

Anything can be soured. The only styles that really wouldn't work with sour are ones high in IBUs. So IPAs and others of their ilk. Sour and bitter just don't jive. Now thats not to say that you cant have a hoppy sour (dry hopped) because that does work.

Past that I've had soured stouts soured hefes are basically a Berliner Weiss. Boulevard makes a double wit that's lightly sour. I do a mean soured saison.

 

[phished880]

I would tend to agree about the highly hopped beers. I use two methods to try all by beers soured, the 1 gallon/ dregs and bottle dosing. The only beer I was not a fan of was an ipa. I've done smoked porters, wits, Cali common, brown ale, etc . I found only the ipa unappealing.

 

[GryphonBrew]

Ok so I hate to revive an oldish thread, but if I have 5 gallons of a Dead Guy clone sitting in primary since 1/21/12, could I start screwing with it and add dregs from a few different sours while it's stil in primary?

Oh, and I was thinking of adding honey and oak to the secondary on this.

 

[GryphonBrew]

Bump

 

[Calder]

Sure you can add dregs to anything you want. High IBUs (>20) can start to inhibit some of the souring organisms, and high alcohol (above 8%) also starts to slow them down. The Brett yeast will work in almost anything.

 

[GryphonBrew]

Sure you can add dregs to anything you want. High IBUs (>20) can start to inhibit some of the souring organisms, and high alcohol (above 8%) also starts to slow them down. The Brett yeast will work in almost anything.

Good stuff! Will they eat the honey too?

 

[nberk]

Yep. Brett can certainly eat the predominant sugar in honey.

I'd take the Dead Guy clone off the primary yeast cake before adding the dregs and aging the beer. I don't see much of a reason to deal with the autolysis issues here.

Why are you wanting to sour this type of beer BTW?

 

[jtakacs]

what others have said... yes, but if it has high hops it will taste nasty - unless you like that... i've ruined an entire batch to see. ugh.

 

[GryphonBrew]

Yep. Brett can certainly eat the predominant sugar in honey.

I'd take the Dead Guy clone off the primary yeast cake before adding the dregs and aging the beer. I don't see much of a reason to deal with the autolysis issues here.

Why are you wanting to sour this type of beer BTW?

Ehhhh, not really sure why this one. Just have an extra 5 gallons of it and thought it might work and be interesting after a year of oak and sour.

 

[GryphonBrew]

what others have said... yes, but if it has high hops it will taste nasty - unless you like that... i've ruined an entire batch to see. ugh.

Wouldn't want that.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

There are some brett IPAs floating around. They aren't sour but they have brett funk so that's an option for messing around with high IBU beers. There are also some dry hopped lambics. Not a lot of bitterness but definitely hop flavor and aroma.

 

[GryphonBrew]

There are some brett IPAs floating around. They aren't sour but they have brett funk so that's an option for messing around with high IBU beers. There are also some dry hopped lambics. Not a lot of bitterness but definitely hop flavor and aroma.

I guess that's why I was asking. It's in to mess around, but I don't want anything putrid. I'll give this one a shot and see what happens... In a year.

 

[GryphonBrew]

Added the dregs from all of these... Had a friend over and we went to work!

Oh, and added an ounce of medium toast French oak. Want to see if anything starts happening before adding honey.

How soon would you say I should see something forming?

 

[stblindtiger]

Jolly Pumpkin dregs work FAST! I've had pellicles start to form within a month with those dregs. That was right from the start of fermentation though so lots of sugars available for them. Not sure how fast they will work on a finished beer or how sour it will actually get. What was the gravity of the beer when you pitched?

I would just check it every month or so after you see a pellicle form to see how sour it is getting and see how you like it.

 

[GryphonBrew]

Jolly Pumpkin dregs work FAST! I've had pellicles start to form within a month with those dregs. That was right from the start of fermentation though so lots of sugars available for them. Not sure how fast they will work on a finished beer or how sour it will actually get. What was the gravity of the beer when you pitched?

I would just check it every month or so after you see a pellicle form to see how sour it is getting and see how you like it.

I'd say fast! Well this is already starting to form! Crazy fast. It was at 1.018 when I added the dregs.

 

[stblindtiger]

Oh yeah... There are plenty of sugars for the bugs to eat! You will probably have a really nice pellicle formed within a month, and then I would check it every month or so afterwards to see how sour it is. It will get real sour (maybe even too sour) after 3 months... I know that sounds crazy, but Jp dregs are soooo aggressive!

 

[GryphonBrew]

Oh yeah... There are plenty of sugars for the bugs to eat! You will probably have a really nice pellicle formed within a month, and then I would check it every month or so afterwards to see how sour it is. It will get real sour (maybe even too sour) after 3 months... I know that sounds crazy, but Jp dregs are soooo aggressive!

Good to know. Thought it would mellow over time. I was planning on just letting it go for a year since its sitting on oak.

 

[GryphonBrew]

Man these things are moving! What a difference a few days makes.

 

[H-ost]

I'm right there with ya gryphon. I'm doing my first sour now (about 2-3 months in) and I just took 5 out of 10 gallons from a blonde batch and threw some dregs and grain in there, it is smelling pretty sour... My only question is how long is too long I want to drink it all right now but I was planning on waiting for the 6 month mark, adding strawberries, bottling after another 2 or so months.

 

[edecambra]

Wait if you can, when its done if it is too sour you can brew another beer to blend it just right.