Making a sour from my Christmas ale

[geoffey]

So I wasn't very happy with my Christmas ale this year and I'm toying with the idea of making it a sour. It's a nut brown ale brewed with cinnamon, candied ginger, and then I put raspberries and nutmeg in the secondary. I think the candied ginger taste is what I'm not liking most. There was also too much raspberries and it already has some sourness from that.

Just looking for some ideas here. I thought instead of dumping it I could throw some Brett or bugs in it. Perhaps Roselare blend? Anyone with some sour beer making experience want to give some advice/ideas?

 

[TNGabe]

Adding brett &/or bugs won't make a gross beer good. You can age what you have now and the spice flavors might lessen over time, but if it was me, I'd dump it.

 

[Coff]

Im with Gabe, people always seem to want to do this, as if a good base beer is not important in mixed fermentation beers.

I would either dump it, age it out. Or drink it I suppose.

 

[geoffey]

Interesting responses and surprising. I guess I figured why dump it if I can make better beer by adding some Brett and bugs? All I lose is a few bucks and a little extra effort.

 

[iijakii]

I'd try it. You never know, that spice flavor you dislike might be really good when mixed with some funk. Or just bottle it and wait a year, it might have mellowed greatly. Or try making another non-spiced version and try blending them for a more balanced Christmas ale. Or make a gigantic Barleywine, blend them and age til next Christmas.

That all depends on if it's truly bad, or just overspiced.

 

[dcp27]

I'd go for it if you have the space, I've had good luck with brett/sour fixing some fermentation flaws. A friend even turned a poor oktoberfest into a 1st place flanders red using a sour mix I gave him. OTOH, since your issue is the ginger, it might not 'fix' it, but if you got the space there's certainly no harm in trying. another idea might be using some saison yeast as they should still add some character and tend to go well with ginger or some extra hops as theres a number of ginger ipas out there (not a fan)

 

[Calder]

Try it if you want; it's your beer. However, if you are counting votes, I'm on the side that says it isn't worth it. Spending a lot of time and effort, with only a remote chance that you will get a decent beer just doesn't seem worth the effort to me.

I generally subscribe to the theory of, "Garbage in = garbage out".

 

[basementbrewbrad]

Edit... Pocket posting phone

 

[geoffey]

Well I guess my take on it is that the beer isn't really THAT bad, and the extra effort to try this is quite minimal simi think I'll give it a shot. I appreciate the sentiment though of those who say bad beer won't make good sour beer.

 

[statseeker]

I'm with #5. Build a big brown and blend it in. 10 gallons of drinkable beer is better than 5 gallons of wasted beer.