First time for sours

[jodell]

Hello all!

I'll be honest....I really hate sour beer...
With one exception on a beer that I got at a festival and for the life of me cannot figure out what brewery it was from, I have hated all sour beers.
However, I just got married this past summer to a woman who loves nothing but Michelob ultra.
At this festival, she tried my beer (God I wish I could remember where it was from) and she absolutely loved it. Intrigued and happy that she liked something Craft, I got her a few more sours from other places and she has liked them all really (except one from new Belgium that was a brown sour). So now she is wanting me to try brewing her a sour. Does anybody have any pointers/advise/techniques they'd like to share. I've read the basics of them and I know there's good pages on here about techniques but I like to "meet" people on here since I'm still pretty new!

 

[Johow]

I'm gonna give this try next spring if I don't forget about it....
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=292973

 

[oceanic_brew]

Look into sour mashing if you just wanna do something simple.

I sour mash in a keg under co2 wrapped in a sleeping bag for 2-3 days

My beers are usually fruit sours with 30% wheat and 60% pils weheinstephaner Wyeast 3068

I've done a raspberry sour three times that's very delicious.

 

[55x11]

Look into sour mashing if you just wanna do something simple.

I sour mash in a keg under co2 wrapped in a sleeping bag for 2-3 days

My beers are usually fruit sours with 30% wheat and 60% pils weheinstephaner Wyeast 3068

I've done a raspberry sour three times that's very delicious.

I agree with above. Try Berliner Weisser or Gose recipe (ladies usually love those, as they are relatively low-ABV, have nice sourness to it and can involve fruit) with "quick" souring by lacto using a kettle sour or mash sour technique. Basically keeping it warm and avoiding oxygen if you can, for about 3 days. pH meter helps but you can just taste it too.

Then finish it off with a saccharomyces yeast (some boil, some just heat it up a bit) - because it's a very low pH, sometimes it takes more effort to ferment it out. Just remember that hops stop lacto activity, so if you like hops, add them after souring is done.

After you do some quick sours, you may want to consider trying doing a full-scale sour, which involves about a year of fermentation, with a full ensemble of yeasts and bacteria (saccharomyces, brett, lacto, pedio, etc.).

 

[jodell]

I'm gonna give the quick sour a try and see if she likes it or not. Again, I really hate sours, and since she is very picky about beer I don't want to put a ton of effort into it unless I know she is going to like it! But these all look great! I did buy her the Sierra Nevada otravez and she liked that alot

 

[Kent88]

Kettle sour works well. I made a gallon of berliner weisse this spring that way and it turned out well, after I let it age for a couple months. When I kettle soured I poured the whole smack-pack in and let it sit in the oven for a couple days, and I would add a measuring cup full of microwaved hot water to it about 3 or 4 times each day. There was a lot of headspace in the kettle but everything seems well.

I think it was 50/50 pils and wheat, a little on the strong side for style.

I'm wondering about adding some fruit to it next time. Maybe raspberries or rhubarb.

 

[Morrey]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=579458

This link is a very, very easy beer as you can tell by reading thru the recipe. KeyWestBrewing (link's creator)is a great guy and makes lots of sours. I'd suggest you try this Training Wheels Berliner Weiss to see if this works for you and the wife. When you do a traditional kettle souring technique, you are in control of the sour level you achieve. You simply apply heat to the wort and kill the lacto when the sour level you want has hit the mark. Otra Vez is a milder sour while Westbrook Gose or Anderson Valley is more sour. You can find lots of things to read about sours here and online in general. A Gose is similar to a Berliner Weiss but has coriander and salt added.

Germans often drink their Berliner Weiss beers with a shot of syrup, either red or green. The green is woodruff made from a herb and the red is kinda fruity, but both are sweet. A place in TX called German Deli sells these syrups that are the real German deal. If you are not so inclined to enjoy sours as stated, syrups may be something to try.

 

[secondbase]

http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Berliner_Weissbier

 

[christyle]

My go-to for sours was the sour mash using some grains for lacto, it wasn't bad, but probably not as clean as the Omega, which I hear great things about and may have to break down and buy...

I have made a few other sours, "true sours", and just dumped bottle dregs into a us-05 fermented batch of half wheat, half 2 row, and it's worked decently well for me, just takes time.

 

[Morrey]

My go-to for sours was the sour mash using some grains for lacto, it wasn't bad, but probably not as clean as the Omega, which I hear great things about and may have to break down and buy...

I have made a few other sours, "true sours", and just dumped bottle dregs into a us-05 fermented batch of half wheat, half 2 row, and it's worked decently well for me, just takes time.

+1 on OYL-605 is probably the best lacto I have used plus it allows you to kettle sour in the 75-85F range. I have also used Swanson L Plantarum probiotic caps which is priced right in comparison. Oyl-605 uses L Plantarum in their blend while Swanson is pure L PLantarum. The kettle souring process takes less than 48 hours with these.

 

[jodell]

I tell you what, I love this website..

I don't know when but I think I'm going to try that training wheels berliner sour. She more than likely will want some type of fruit in it (probably raspberries) but hell this is a great starting point! I'll let you all know how it goes!

 

[christyle]

My wife isn't big on many of my beers, but she and a lot of our friends loved my raspberry berliner

 

[Morrey]

I tell you what, I love this website..

I don't know when but I think I'm going to try that training wheels berliner sour. She more than likely will want some type of fruit in it (probably raspberries) but hell this is a great starting point! I'll let you all know how it goes!

That red syrup I mentioned to you (I think) is raspberry flavored. That is a real simple addition in your glass to make sure you like what is going on with a sour before you waste a bunch of real fruit.

If you have a decent beer store close, try several of six pak sours and most you'll find are Gose styles. Once you get more accustomed to sours, try a beer like Wicked Weed's barrel aged sours with wild (Brett) yeasts. Otra Vez is maybe $8.99 6-pk while a single 500ml bottle of Wicked Weed pushes $16.

Enjoy the ride and sounds like your wife is right along with you!

 

[oceanic_brew]

Here's a link to my sour raspberry recipe and procedure that is on our club's forum:

http://brewnosers.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=9459

 

[oceanic_brew]

And it's supposed to be 30% wheat in that recipe not 3

 

[specharka]

Shameless plug:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=565839

Note that this particular recipe was my FIRST attempt at a sour and it came out wonderfully -- I've tried other methods of kettle souring and none came out as simply, cleanly, or easily as the aforementioned sour worting method. The only modification to that recipe I might make is to double the salt and coriander for a more expressive Gose.

 

[oceanic_brew]

I've never done a kettle sour but I find it attractive since I've had a few issues with stuck sparges with a sour mash.

 

[Morrey]

I've never done a kettle sour but I find it attractive since I've had a few issues with stuck sparges with a sour mash.

Kettle sours are very predictable in my opinion. Some folks make their own lacto starter from grain but I am suspicious of that many variables. Omega Labs makes a lacto blend OYL_605 that is outstanding for kettle sours since it works at warmish room temps. Swanson L Plantarum caps is also widely used, in fact, I sometimes use them together. I'd recommend you try a kettle sour as it is a simple and straightforward process.

 

[Morrey]

Shameless plug:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=565839

Note that this particular recipe was my FIRST attempt at a sour and it came out wonderfully -- I've tried other methods of kettle souring and none came out as simply, cleanly, or easily as the aforementioned sour worting method. The only modification to that recipe I might make is to double the salt and coriander for a more expressive Gose.

+1 on your Gose. I make a Gose with salt and coriander as a base for all of my sours before adding things like watermelon concentrate or tequila/lime tinctures. Plus a good ole straight up Gose is really nice! For a 5G batch, I use a full ounce of pink sea salt and toasted coriander as you mentioned to make it more expressive. I lightly toast the coriander in a dry skillet on low until the seeds release their aromatic oils. I then (after they cool) lightly crack the seeds in my mortar and pestle similar to the consistency of milled grain we brew with. Makes a huge difference.