Critique My Sour Cherry Ale

[chode720]

I am putting together a recipe for my first sour beer and would like some imput/thoughts/suggestions.....

I am basing the recipe off of Jamil's Flanders Brown as I love the style and want something with a nice malt backbone.

12lb Pale 2-Row
.75 Caramunich
.5 Special B
.5 Aromatic

Estimated OG is 1.069. Will adjust with DME if needed.

I am planning to ferment with WLP001, just to keep it clean. When the fermentation starts to slow or is around 1.020, I will rack to a secondary add 4-14.5oz cans of tart cherries that have been pureed. I will also pitch the While Labs Belgian Sour Mix and add 1oz of French Oak. I will then age for about 4-6 months, letting the lacto, pedio, and Brett do their thing. Then I plan on bottle conditioning for another 4-6 months.

The French Oak I am going to use is medium toast, but I am going to first use it to age a batch of mead....that way I can add a little bit of mead/wine character to the beer as well. Similar to aging in a used wine barrel.

 

[Oldsock]

Sounds like a good start. Personally I like adding the bugs in primary along with the Sacch, adding them in secondary has never gotten me more than a faint tartness (I have heard many similar complaints about the "Jamil" method). I would also suggest waiting for a few months to add the cherries, this gives the bugs a chance to work on the residual malt sugars before you give them the cherries. I think 12 months before bottling is a safer target for a sour fruit beer.

The mead soaked oak sounds like a tasty addition. Good luck.

 

[chode720]

My understanding is that the bugs will eat anything and everything. Would it really be an issues, especially given 6+ months to have them eat the remaining maltose, as well as the sugars from the fruit?

 

[Oldsock]

My understanding is that the bugs will eat anything and everything. Would it really be an issues, especially given 6+ months to have them eat the remaining maltose, as well as the sugars from the fruit?

If you add the cherries right away the primary yeast will end up eating the sugar from them giving the wild yeast/bacteria less to munch on. By letting them get establish first you can feed them with the sugars from the fruit (which I find makes a better sour beer faster).

While the microbes will eventually dry the beer out to 1.008 or lower this can take a long time. When the gravity remains constant for more than a month it is probably safe to bottle, but also let the flavor be your guide to when it is ready.