My Meandering Sour Scottish Ale

[Yeroc]

In hindsight, I wish I would have started a thread on this beer months ago, but there was no real plan at the start. I just sort of rolled along making decisions as I brewed other beers and as I started getting more and more interested in drinking sour beers. So here is my tale. Sorry for the long post.

Early in 2015, I decided to make a series of Scottish shilling ale using generations of the same yeast culture: WLP028. Going from 60, 70, to 80 and ending in a wee heavy. When I bottled the 70 and 80 shillings, I decided I didn't need so many bottles of these beers and racked some into gallon jugs with sour dregs. On my wee heavy brew day, I did a parti-gyle so as not to waste the big grain bill. I ended up with about 3 gallons of 1.030 wort after the boil. Here are some details on the bugs used in these three batches.

3/4 Gallon of 70 Shilling with dregs from Oud Beersel Oude Geuze Vieille
3/4 Gallon of 80 Shilling with dregs from Logsdon Seizoen Bretta.
3 Gallons of parti-gyle Scottish ale in a bucket soured WLP028 slurry and these dregs: The Bruery Hottenroth, Eagle Rock Yearly & Jolly Pumpkin Oro de Calabaza.

After the 3 gallons aged in a fermenter bucket for 3 months, I rack it into a carboy along with the 70 & 80-shilling batches and 0.5 oz. French oak cubes.

About a month later, I added 2/3 gallon of cherry melomel left over after another project. I also added about a quart of my nelson saison that was left over when I racked the rest of that beer onto a hibiscus tea. The mead was still around 1.050 and kicked up a fairly active new round of fermentation. I'm sure it was helped by the fresh 3711 from the saison.

With all these additions the total volume fills my 5-gallon carboy to about 1 inch under the bung.

4 months later (8 months after the parti-gyle brew day), I took a tasting sample.... "Very tart. Honey & cherry in the nose and in the taste. Light body. I get a little oak. Very bright acidic flavor. I’m not really getting any maltiness. Somewhat enjoyable in a small sample but not sure I’d want a whole bottle."

On Jan. 24, 2016, or about 10.5 months since the parti-gyle brew day, I racked most of the beer onto 4 pounds of thawed sour cherries that I've been saving and 4 oz. of maltodextrin. I racked 1 gallon of the Scottish sour back into a 1-gallon jug. I wanted to have headroom in the 5-gallon carboy because I wasn't sure how active the fermentation from the cherries would get. Turns out that it's not too active.

I'm not sure if I'll bottle that 1 gallon batch on its own or rack it back with the rest soon.

Anyway, that gets me up to date on this meandering experiment. I'm very curious to sample this again in 3 to 6 months.

 

[Yeroc]

I racked most of the beer onto 4 pounds of thawed sour cherries that I've been saving and 4 oz. of maltodextrin.

The beer has been on cherries for 6 weeks now. Cherries are looking plump, shiny and happy. These were frozen/thawed but not crushed. Now I'm wondering if I should have mashed them a little to make the fruit more available to the bugs quicker.

 

[tarmenel]

Following

 

[Yeroc]

I bought some Mahlab from Penzeys during a free shipping offer they had along with vanilla beans, cinnamon sticks and some other spices. I want to use some of this Mahlab in my Scottish Sour but I'm not sure how much... when should I add it? How long can in stay in the beer before racking or bottling? Is there a "too long?" Does anyone have experience with Mahlab?

I tasted one kernel to see what it's like. The first thing that hits the tongue is a bit of a zing - a zap, and some astringency followed by a slight bitterness. After that I perceived the cherry flavor. A deep, dark, complex cherry flavor without sugary sweetness. The flavor of canned pie cherries but without all the sugary goop maybe. Very pleasing.

I definitely want to use Mahlab in this sour and some other projects I've got going. Any input is welcome.

 

[Yeroc]

The beer has been on cherries for 3 months. Their color has faded but I'm surprised they are still floating. I would have guessed that the cherries would be on the bottom by now. Anyone with experience know when, or if, they might drop?

Still trying to decide when to add the mahlab.

 

[Yeroc]

6/11/2016 (about 5 months on cherries) Added 1 tsp of whole mahlab to the carboy and gave it a few swirls to get the mahlab below the cherries still floating on top. I had no idea how much to add and didn't want to over do it.

 

[Quaker]

I've never used mahlab separately, but when I use cherries they are from my little Nanking bush cherries which are small, tart and have the pits in them. I vacuum pack and freeze the whole fruit. When ready to add, I thaw in the microwave to soften up and mush them while still sealed in the bag to open them up. So my cherry pits are quite exposed. In this way, it also avoids the whole fruit constantly floating from CO2 within. My first go got extremely astringent due to the large amount of pits and skins... overly so. I now have a fruit press. So last fall I pressed some previously frozen cherries, then reduced it on the stove before adding to a cider and a 1 gallon sour batch. That's definitely the route I'll take again this year in a few weeks when the fruit is ripe. I'll add tannins with oak if needed rather than have less control.

 

[Quaker]

I think you'll end up racking out from under the fruit. It'll take a long time to drop on its own as intact as it looks in the picture.

 

[ThatVideoKid]

Boy...if you love this beer you'll never be able to recreate it! But none the less I love stuff like this.

 

[Yeroc]

ThatVideoKid, Agreed. This won't be one that can be easily replicated (probably impossible). That's ok. It's been a fun experiment. Not sure when I'll bottle it. Within a few months, I think. Time permitting.

Quaker, I now totally see the value in mashing the fruit first. These were just frozen once and thawed. I agree that I'll probably be racking from under the cherries. I added the mahlab in hopes of getting a deeper cherry flavor. Mahlab is the kernel inside the hard outer cherry pit/stone of a certain type of cherry. It's pretty soft and easily chewable. I probably should have added a bit more to really extract some flavor.

I'm curious about your technique of cooking down the cherry juice. Do you find that changes the flavor substantially?

 

[Quaker]

I've reduced it once, and yes it changes the flavor. It's of course more of a cooked cherry flavor, more like cherry pie. The flavors were of course much more concentrated and sweet before fermenting. I was afraid it would concentrate the tartness of the raw cherries, but that wasn't the case at all. I simply boiled it on the stove. I don't recall how concentrated I made it; at least 50% but I think i reduced it more than that, getting the sugar content up over 20 Brix.

 

[Yeroc]

09/02/2016 RACKING & PARTIAL BOTTLING DAY

- 17. 5 Months since wee heavy brew day
- 7.5 months on 4lbs sour cherries sour cherries w/ pits
- 83 days since adding 1 tsp of whole mahlab
- 62 days since topping off with about a 1/2 gallon of my Norwegian farmhouse ale (just because head space makes me nervous)

I needed to move things around this weekend to free up a 5g glass carboy for a new sour I'm starting with a vial of Yeast Bay's House Sour Blend. On spur of the moment, I decided to move my Sour Scotch Ale from its 5g carboy into a 3g carboy, knowing there would be some beer left over. I wasn't sure how much because of the cherries. Turns out there was 1.75 gallons left that I racked into a 2g bucket while deciding what to do with it.

I added 0.4 oz medium Hungarian oak to the 3g carboy after racking (it's all the fresh oak I had on hand).

The sample I pulled tasted really good - very tart/acidic but not so much that it would strip the enamel off my teeth. A very strong, deep cherry aroma with a hint of honey. Taste follows nose. Gravity 1.003.

I decided to bottle it and used Coopers carbonation drops I had on hand; one per bottle. It yielded 18 x 12 oz bottles. Since I didn't add fresh yeast, carbonation will probably take awhile.

I was pretty happy sipping the sample while cleaning up. It would be nice if it developed a bit more complexity in the bottle. I think the additional oak added to the remaining 3 gallons was a good idea. While I like the taste of what I bottled, I think more oak will improve the beer.

I'm not sure how to handle the 3 gallons in the carboy now. Should I go ahead a bottle after it sits on the new oak for a month or two? Give it more time in bulk aging? I'm not sure any new additions are needed - Haha! I've already done so much to this batch.

I'm thinking I should name this beer NEVER MORE since it would be impossible to replicate; label art inspired by Edgar Allen Poe maybe (a raven).

Rather than tossing the cherries, I racked 5 gallons of a AmandaK lambic onto them. This lambic is only about 8 months old. Too soon? The cherries are still round and plump looking and not just a mushy mess as I would have expected after months on the scotch ale. Oh... I almost forgot, I also added about 1/2 oz of the used oak from the Lambic to the 3g carboy of my sour scotch ale.

I'm really having a lot of fun with this project!

 

[Yeroc]

02/20/2017 BOTTLING DAY FOR THE REMAINING BEER - BATCH 2
(5.5 months since racking off cherries and onto more oak / 2 years since brew day)

I combined the 3 gallon carboy with the approximate 3/4 gallon I had pulled off the original batch before adding cherries. The 3/4 portion tasted bright & tart and very mild on cherry. The larger portion had a fuller cherry taste? I rehydrated 1 packet of Lalvin K1-V1116 wine yeast and used 4 ounces table sugar for priming. Ended up with 43 12 ounce bottles.

I'm not sure how long I should wait before trying a bottle from batch 2... 1 month, 2 months... more?

2/21/16 TASTED BATCH 1 (bottled 5.5 months ago)
Put a bottle in the refrigerator in the morning. Tasting Notes: Color is a glowing red/orange. Nose is pleasant sour cherry. No head at all. Taste is very tart in a good way. Not sure I noticed the complexities today that I noted on the last tasting, but I was a bit preoccupied and maybe should have waited for a better time to open the bottle. Enjoyed this but it's not all that complex. Yet.