Question About Sours

[mr_javi]

Recently introduced to a few sours at a local brewery's "Sour Room". I tried 5 or 6 different ones and all of them were pretty dry. Is this typical of most Brett, Lacto, and Ped brews? I am researching for possibly brewing a sour for myself. I really like dry finishing beers, and want to have that character to my own sour. Is there a certain culture I should use to attain this, or do most end up that way?

 

[JLump]

Yea its common for sours to be pretty dry. The Brett and Pedio have the ability to metabolize more complex sugars, driving down the FG. I've never brewed a sour but I am in the researching phase. What seems to be pretty common/successful is buying one of the mixed cultures from white labs or wyeast and supplementing with bottle dregs from commercial sours.

 

[porterpounder]

Dryness from both the Belgian-type saccharmyces and brett yeast is very commmon in sours. It can very much accentuate the sourness. Lactic sourness is the most common and sharp and can pair well with other types of more rounded funky contributions from yeast rather than just bacteria. Grape or barrel tannins can help round out the sharpness of strong dryness/sourness as well and is something to consider for balance.

 

[mr_javi]

Great. Thank for the info. Is bottle dregs as simple as saving the last sip along with the sediment, and throwing it in secondary?

 

[porterpounder]

Great. Thank for the info. Is bottle dregs as simple as saving the last sip along with the sediment, and throwing it in secondary?

You're want to pour off all but the last 1/4 of beer carefully into a glass, flame the opening with a torch or lighter if that's all you have and fill the bottle about 3/4 full with weak (1.030) starter wort and cover with foil or an airlock. Wait a few days to see if there is any activity and continue stepping up the size of the dregs started until it's pitchable for a larger batch.

You need to take some sanitary measures and just pitching in a bit of dregs in to a larger batch may not give you enough viable cells to have them do anything at all.

 

[sfish]

try
https://www.wyeastlab.com/wild-and-sour/overview

 

[zmanzorro]

Milk the Funk is a great resource for brewing sour beer:
http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Main_Page

Also, there are a few cheaper options out there than buying yeast/bacteria pitches from your LHBS. I've had good success using the probiotic GoodBelly shots. They're about $1.50 each.