Sour Beer, Fist attempt!!

[Kia_Hoptima]

I am wanting to do a sour brown but am very inexperienced in sours but love them!! I still do extract brewing and was just going to purchase a simple brown kit from northern brewer and instead of using the regular suggested yeast I was going to try a sour blend.... SO, Is this gona work? What yeast should I use? Any other suggestions into making extract sours I'm all ears!!

 

[Rjppunk]

If you're going to try souring I would recommend getting a sour fermenting set up. There's no difference it's just to separate your gear since the bacteria can be hard to kill off. I usually try to sour my wort before the boil, but I have no experience with this using extracts

 

[Rjppunk]

whelp! since this lacks replies I'll give you what info I have picked up. Souring is kinda a pain to do correctly, it takes a long time, and until you nail down the process you always run the risk of infections. With that in mind, if you do fermentation side souring, use dedicated souring equipment. This will keep your "clean" beers "clean". Secondly, your yeast and hop ibus need to be appropriate for sourings. Some yeasts dont handle low pH well, and lacto doesn't like hoppy beers. Lastly, read a lot. I found a ton of info here and online!

Now, how I usually sour. I have a 10 gal igloo cooler mash tun which I pitch my lacto into. I let the wort sit in it for a few days wrapped in a heated blanket and several other blankets. I keep a digital temp probe in the wort and try to keep it around 100 degrees for 48-72 hours. I have read you should keep it above 112 but below 120 because you will inhibit some bad bacteria growth without impacting your lacto strain. I've not tested this. You want a pH meter to check on the progress, but testing too often exposes it to bacteria. At the end of the 48-72 hours I boil as normal, killing the bugs but leaving the pH more or less in tact.

Good luck!

 

[Calder]

The pre-boil souring Rjp is talking about is a lacto sour which is very one-dimensional.

For your sour you could just steep a half pound of dark crystal and add extract to a gravity of about 1.055. Hops should not give you more than 10 IBUs.

Don't make a starter with the yeast either. Use any sour blend that has Lactobacilus, Pediococcus, Brett and Sacc yeasts.

 

[Kia_Hoptima]

So what I have picked up from the replies so far is:

-If I do a sour it pretty much ruins all my equipment for further non sour beers?

-It will be better for me to buy a kit that is for souring due to ph issues and hops?

Is this all correct?

 

[dcp27]

So what I have picked up from the replies so far is:

-If I do a sour it pretty much ruins all my equipment for further non sour beers?

-It will be better for me to buy a kit that is for souring due to ph issues and hops?

Is this all correct?

while it can ruin plastic equipment for future clean beers, its not a given with proper care. I've re-used sour'd equipment many times on clean beers without any issues. it's obviously safer to keep them separate tho

i mean its always better to get a kit for its intended use, but if you already have one you want to sour, there's nothing holding you back from doing it as long as you keep the IBUs low (<10IBUs) and swap the yeast for an appropriate sour blend

 

[Natdavis777]

Id recommend pitching the Roselare blend to a brown ale. Keep your IBUs low, and if using a carboy, use one of the orange carboy caps after fermentation dies down. This allows very small amounts of O2 in while the beer ages and allows the Brett and other bugs to do their thing. Jamil recommended this in his BrewStrong Sour podcast. Then be prepared to wait for awhile so the bugs can do their thing.

 

[Hello]

I do not recommend fisting a sour beer.

But really, pitch some bugs in there and let it ride. Sours take a lot of time so patience is key.