Sour stout or not sour stout?

[yeknom366]

I made a RIS on January 11, and I am not sure what to do with it now. On brew day, I noticed a slight off smell in the yeast starter (Wyeast 1028 washed), but it still smelled mostly like yeast. The next day, there was no airlock activity, and the fermenter smelled like very potent spoiled milk. After 55-60 hours, there was finally airlock activity, but minimal. I could smell the spoiled milk in the closet where it stayed, but it slowly faded. I talked with the owner of my LHBS, and he suggested making it a sour stout but adding Wyeast 3763 (Roeselare) to make something close to The Bruery's Tart of Darkness. After making my a yeast starter, I decided to take a SG reading and taste it at the suggestion of the same LHBS owner. Today January 27, the SG reading was at 1.035 (OG was 1.106), the spoiled milk smell was gone, krausen faded (took two weeks), and it tasted very good with only a hint of an off flavor in the after taste. So really my question is will this be okay to just continue the fermentation (~15 more days, 3-6 months bulk age), or should I just go ahead with pitching the Roeselare to make it a sour stout? Also, I rebrewed the same recipe two weeks after, so I really have two 5 gallon batches of the same recipe, the one above, and the other that fermented normally.

 

[blizzard]

Sounds like it is tasting ok, so I would continue without souring. The off flavor in the finish might get cleaned up with some age.

If you really like sour beers and don't want 10 gallons of the same beer, you could pitch some bugs into this one. I find it is very difficult to get a good balance of roast and sour. It is pretty unlikely that you will have something close to Tart of Darkness, but it could still be very good. If you really want to experiment, I would sour only a small portion of the five gallons. There are other ways to modify the batch, if you want. You could add oak or wine or fruit. There are lots of options.

 

[Zamial]

I find it is very difficult to get a good balance of roast and sour.

And when it is not right it does not taste good...

I would NOT sour a stout again.

 

[moti_mo]

I would chime in as one vote for souring a portion of the stout. I've done two now, and I can't get enough of them. If you get the balance right, they're amazing. I've got 3 gallons or so left in the fridge right now, and another 5 gallons waiting to follow that up. I guess I really like the style...