Higher ABV Sours

[youreanimpulse]

I just brewed a recipe from the back of Wild Brews, a quad that is supposed to be soured with WLP655 after primary with WLP530. The problem is, it is currently at 1.014 from 1.092, which my software says is 10.2% ABV. So I'm worried the pedio will be inhibited and it would be a waste trying to sour it. Any thoughts? And if it doesn't work, for the future what is a good strategy to make a higher ABV sour? Blending, kettle souring? Any input is appreciated.

 

[Biobrewer]

I just brewed a recipe from the back of Wild Brews, a quad that is supposed to be soured with WLP655 after primary with WLP530. The problem is, it is currently at 1.014 from 1.092, which my software says is 10.2% ABV. So I'm worried the pedio will be inhibited and it would be a waste trying to sour it. Any thoughts? And if it doesn't work, for the future what is a good strategy to make a higher ABV sour? Blending, kettle souring? Any input is appreciated.

Not sure if current commercial bugs will be tolerant of alcohol that high. I've only gone up to ~7% abv in most of my sours. If you're concerned it won't sour, you can always give kettle souring a go.

Recently been isolating a lot of lacto strains for The Yeast Bay from a number of beers, but I'm most excited about an LAB isolate I got from Tuverbol, an 11% ABV beer. Hoping it's a nice acid producer that's alcohol tolerant!

 

[youreanimpulse]

That's awesome, hope it works out, I'd love to try it! Thanks for the reply, I was going to use Melange for this one until I researched a little more. Amalgamation and Wallonian Farmhouse currently fermenting two parts of a Grisette, smells great!

 

[youreanimpulse]

Now I'm curious which Brett I should pitch in half of this. I have WY Brett L, WL Brett C mixed with Orval dregs, BSI Drie, and Amalgamation in my collection. Decisions decisions...

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Consecration from russian river is up there in the 10%abv range. What bugs do they use? That is a well respected sour so I would say that high abv sours can not only be done but can be done very well.

 

[Biobrewer]

Consecration from russian river is up there in the 10%abv range. What bugs do they use? That is a well respected sour so I would say that high abv sours can not only be done but can be done very well.

They have a house culture they call "the funky bunch". Whole bunch of goodies in there. I just realized I have a Consecration in my cellar. I should see if I could pull some alcohol tolerant LAB out of there as well.

 

[youreanimpulse]

I also have Consecration in my cellar. Hmmm...

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Now you just got to be around when Vinnie is giving away bugs!

I have a bottle of supplication in my cellar and my buddy has consecration. We're gonna have a tasting party soon. Hoping to get some more tion beers too

 

[dcp27]

being a big beer you definitely should have pitched the sour mix from the start. id recommend doing that anyway, but on a big beer you definitely won't get that lacto to do anything. not that you can fix that now, but i wouldnt expect the mix to do much for a very long time. the brett wont be inhibited, and the pedio will be fine, but its slow as is and this will make it even slower

as for options now, I'd definitely throw in some dregs with it. jolly pumpkin are my personal favorite and are beasts so I think they should be able to sour this. as mentioned conscecration is high ABV sour and so is Cuvee de Tomme if you want ot try dregs from those. The couple times I've tried RR dregs tho its been unpleasantly sour to me. if you want to try another route, I was able to make a sour from a quad even stronger than yours just with brett & cherries. it came out surprisingly sour and very good, but im guessing there was some microorganisms on the cherries so hard to repeat

Consecration from russian river is up there in the 10%abv range. What bugs do they use? That is a well respected sour so I would say that high abv sours can not only be done but can be done very well.

I asked Vinnie about this a few years ago. Basically he said the early on batches weren't all that sour, but that over the years the mix has bulked up and been able to handle more ABV and create more acidity.

 

[youreanimpulse]

Thanks, good advice there. I was actually following a recipe from Wild Brews for Cuvee de Tomme, so if I could get it that would be ideal, though I've never seen it here in Portland. I had a post on Milk the Funk as well and got advice from someone who had made the same recipe and had it sour up nicely, so I'm going to go forward. Pitching a large amount of WLP655 (with random dregs) saved from a recently bottled Flemish Red along with Amalgamation and at some point those Consecration dregs. If the pedio does nothing all the Brett will make it interesting anyway. Never planned on Lacto working at such ABV/IBU. I agree on pitching bugs in primary, following recipes sometimes makes you do things you wouldn't have normally . Thanks again for the help! I'll update in a long time when I have an idea how it's going.

 

[Sleepyemt]

I'm on the app, but if you look for cuvee de Tomme clone, there is a thread about that recipe... I've got mine going right now as well, pitched on 2nd gen roeselare with dregs... Has some nice tartness going, I think it's around 10-11% right now. Just added cherries...

 

[youreanimpulse]

Sweet! I hadn't even thought about it, for some reason. Quite out of character for me. Obviously it's been around, and lots of people must have successfully done it. Brew on!

 

[niquejim]

My last version of https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f72/drunk-owl-mango-55227/index7.html went from 1.091 to 1.001 with WLP 650. AS carbonated as the bottle are I assume that it has dropped more in the bottle