Bisco_Ben
Well-Known Member
So after making a few successful hoppy kettle soured beers, I got the idea to take my tasty 8% double IPA made with plenty of fruity/citrusy NZ/US hops and make a sour version of it. I just began the souring in the kettle about an hour ago with the omega yeast labs lacto blend and plan to let it go for 3 days before finishing. MY QUESTION IS: should I still add bittering hops to this beer in order to maintain balance of bitterness, or should the combined acidity from the lacto with a 4oz high alpha hop steep at 190 for 30 minutes (6 gallon batch) be enough to balance the 8% ABV? I usually added 1oz of warrior hops at 60 mins with the rest of the hops going into the whirlpool/steep, which gave me around 100 ibus according to beersmith. I don't need this to be a bitter IPA, I just don't want to end up with a sweet unbalanced sour beer. Any help would be much appreciated!