Looking for a Sour Brown Ale Recipe

[Cranny04]

Hey all,
I think I'm ready to brew my first sour beer.

I do not get to brew that often so i'm looking for a recipe that I can brew 10 gallons of and only sour 5.

This way I can still get 5 gallons of beer to drink soon, and let the other 5 age until Its ready.

Thanks,

Cranny

 

[tdogg]

Is there a specific commercially made "sour" that you like? Generally, making a "regular" beer and adding souring bacteria as an afterthought will not produce the greatest beer. Sour beers like lambics generally have very low IBU's because sour and bitter do not taste very good together.

On the other hand, Brettanomyces (wild yeast that makes beer funky, not sour) would be a great candidate for a brown ale. "Saboteur" from O'Dell's is a good example of a Brett brown ale.

 

[Cranny04]

I really like New Belgium's La Folie and Liefmans Goudenband.

I've heard that adding bugs to a beer that was not intended to be sour isn't the best plan.

I'm kind of looking for the opposite. A beer that is designed to be soured but makes a decent beer with out the bugs.

Like I said I don't get to brew that often so if I can get a keg in a short period of time the I won't have to go with out for as long.....

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

If you google for oud bruin or flanders red recipes (or look in the recipe section here) you should find the basic recipe for that style of beer. Without the brett and bacteria you can ferment it with a Belgian strain and get a decent Belgian brown. Just ferment it all out, package half and send the other half to it's home with brett and bacteria to age and sour. It won't be the most interesting clean beer but it will be drinkable.

If you are confident in doing a partigyle brew you could take a quad recipe, make a quad with the first two runnings (you could probably dilute with water for volume but add D2 to keep it strong) and use the third runnings with some D2 to make a sour brown.

 

[ploppythesausage]

I've not done this yet but you got me thinking.

If you just make whatever brown ale recipe you get (probably low in hops, flavout etc.). The half you won't sour you could add a 'hope tea'. So after it's made and ready to ferment boil some hops in some water and add it to the rest of the beer to bitter it. You could probably throw some dry hops in there too. I think I've seen it done as well where steepable grains were steeped seperately, boiled and mixed in with the batch. So you could do a steep on the stove with some crystal or dark malts, add hops, boil it and chuck it in the fermenter with the bland brown.

Would this work?

 

[Cranny04]

I'm looking at Brewing Classic Styles and i'm thinking that either the Mild or Southern English Brown would work for what I want...

Any thoughts?

 

[dcHokie]

I'm looking at Brewing Classic Styles and i'm thinking that either the Mild or Southern English Brown would work for what I want...

Any thoughts?

I think a funky Mild with Brett L & B would be fantastic

 

[Cranny04]

I think a funky Mild with Brett L & B would be fantastic

I think I may do this.. I think I'll pitch 002 in 5 gal and Wyeast Roeselare blend in the other 5

 

[Tykees]

I think I saw on brewing tv something like this. I believe they did a batch of caribou slobber and gave it some funk then.

 

[Tiber_Brew]

I brewed a 10 gallon batch of sour brown about 6 months ago that has come along quite nicely. I did something similar to the OP's idea, but not exactly. For both 6 gallon carboys, I used a clean ale yeast. Once high kräusen started, I added 2L starters of Brett B. and 1 ounce of oak cubes to each. After a few months, I bottled the batch with just sacch and brett, and added Jolly Pumpkin dregs and more oak to the other one. It has since formed a pellicle and smells wonderfully funky.

Here's the recipe if you're interested:

11 gallons total, ~88% mash efficiency

6 lb 2-row
4 lb Munich
6 lb white wheat
1.25 c-60
1 lb c-120
.25 lb chocolate malt
Mash at 155 for 45 minutes, then add 2lb of acid malt, mash 45 more minutes

80 minute boil
2 oz. hallertau 3.2% @ 60
1 oz. debittered whole hops @ 60 (I don't think this is necessary)

The beer tasted pretty good early on, but the added complexity and aromas from the brett and dregs have made this a winner in my book. I just need to stop taking samples from the remaining carboy that has the dregs. The bottled batch with just sacch and brett is also very good.