English Brown Porter with Brett?

[bigljd]

OK, there's been a plot twist in my Brett C porter brew. I sampled it yesterday - the gravity is has been stuck at 1.014 for about a month but it does seem to be developing a little bit of funk along with a some oaky flavors too, from the oak cubes. The aroma is still dominated by the London Ale III yeast, but the finish has dried out a bit and oaky taste lingers a little in my mouth. It's pretty good.

However, I've been on a sour beer kick lately and I thought I'd take this porter one step beyond funky and go for a full on sour. A lot of the hop bitterness has faded, and I think this would be a perfect base beer for a sour cherry porter. There may be a few too many IBU's remaining for lacto to function, but pedio should do OK to provide some sourness. A couple pounds of sour cherries should add some acidity and complexity too.

So, last night I added some dregs from 2 Belgian lambics and 1 Jolly Pumpkin brew that I had cultured in sterile wort in some 8oz mason jars to the brett C porter. My new plan is to give the new bugs a few weeks to get settled in - I expect at some point to see fermentation slowly start back up again as the more aggressive bugs that I added will break down some remaining sugars. When that happens I'll add tart cherries into the mix (and maybe some currants too), and age it until I start gettting a mild sourness coming out in the beer. I don't expect this will finish now until the fall at the earliest.

The whole plan for this beer has taken a sharp turn - I think the brett c porter would have been good if I kegged it in a few weeks, but I was just overtaken by the idea of a sour cherry porter. I guess that's the fun part about home brewing, there are no rules. I'll keep on updating this thread though, as the beer progresses.

 

[bierhaus15]

Don't tell me this! Now I'm going to want to do the same thing. Lol.

Seriously though, I actually planned on adding fruit to a gallon of the vatted porter I have going. It's pretty tart already from the lacto and pedio, so it might have a chance to get sour. I even bought a pound of frozen raspberries last week, but black current sounds even nicer. I'll be making my cherry berliner weisse here shortly so I wont do cherries.

Though I plan to keep my brett c porter as is. See how it turns out with some age on it.

 

[bigljd]

Quick update: a week or so after adding the new bugs to the porter, I added a couple oz of malto dextrine and a couple pounds of dried, tart cherries (I put the cherries and malto in some water and heated it a bit to pasteurize, then cooled it and added it to the carboy).

Fermentation picked back up for a week or so, and today I thought I'd pull a quick sample just to see how things were progressing. Surprisingly, the beer already has some sourness to the flavor - the aroma is dominated by the London ale 3 yeast and the roastiness off the malt, but the flavor and finish have a hint of sour cherry pie. It's really coming along nicely, considering it's only been a couple weeks.

I think my favorite sour beers are dark and complex to begin with (RR Consecration), and by adding funk, sourness and cherry to it tastes fantastic to me. I am very excited by where I think this beer could end up, especially since I'm a noob at sour beer brewing.

EDIT: By the way, the original, non-brett beer scored a 31.5 at the competition. Judges liked the beer, but commented that it was straddling the line between a brown and robust porter. I think the beer was better fresher when the hops had some bite. As the beer aged it became somewhat malty and slightly boring. If I brew it again I'll probably boost the hops a bit more. It is a good recipe though, and if this sour batch turns out like I think it will I'll probably be making it again.

 

[bigljd]

Haven't updated in a while, so I thought I'd note the changes to the beer since pitching sour dregs. Activity picked up after adding the dregs, and the gravity was at 1.010 when I checked it a week ago. Activity has slowed again now, as the bugs are running out of things to easily eat.

The beer has dried out quite a bit and the roastiness of the black patent is now dominating the flavor and finish a bit more than I'd like. The sourness is pretty mild - it's there but not where I want it to be, and the cherry pie flavor I was getting has disapated as well in the renewed fermentation. The plan now is to let it go for another month or two and see where it's at - I may add some Trader Joes tart cherry juice when it's nearly finished to boost the cherry and provide some extra sugars for the lacto/pedio and hopefully boost the sour.

I'm not in a big hurry though, since I have a Flanders Red ready to keg, and a sour cherry blonde ale that will be ready soon. No reason to rush the porter.

I'll keep up with updates when I have the chance. I'll try to post a pic too - cherries get pretty weird looking when floating on the surface of a beer and are getting attacked by Brett.

 

[bierhaus15]

I decided to not add fruit to any of mine. I figure I'll keep the brett C porter as is and leave the other batches as they are too. I have a gallon of the un-brett'd porter sitting around and I must say I enjoy pouring it into a small brandy snifter and drinking it uncarbonated. It has a somewhat chocolaty, port-wine like quality to it that makes it nice for sipping.

I'll be making more brown malt here soon for another go. Probably won't add brett since I've run out of carboys to age it in. I could see it tasting pretty darn good with brett and fruit though.

 

[pugmug]

I'd love to hear how this sour cherry porter turned out.
These were really interesting updates to read.

 

[bigljd]

The sour cherry porter turned out pretty well. I just kegged it a couple months ago, and would have posted about it but I recently got a job in California so I've spent the last 2 months packing, selling our house, moving and learning a new job.
The beer was moderately tart, with a hint of cherry flavor and a bit of roastiness coming thru. It was unique compared to the sours I've made. I was able to drink about half the keg, and then bottled the rest from the keg and gave it to friends since I couldn't take it with me on the move to Cali.
Unfortunately my brewing has been put on hold until we buy a house out here. My family is in a 3 bed apartment, and there's no room to brew. I could do some stove top batches but I think for now I'll just buy some of the great commercial beers that are available in NorCal.