Soured IPA?

[DangerChristensen]

I had a sudden inspiration tonight, has anyone brewed an IPA then soured it? I was wondering what to do with my Roeselare cake and thought something really interesting to do is turn an IPA to the dark side.

Any ideas or experience? I know it's not a new idea but couldn't find any resources in a quick, admittedly half-assed, Google search. I was thinking an earthy, dank type IPA and just put it on my sour cake for a few days (I don't think a full sour profile would complement the hops), then arrest the fermentation and force carb.

Maybe the wise members here could chime in with their advice. And as always, I'll keep you update with the results.

 

[tagz]

In general bitterness does not go with sour. Also if you are using any lacto, they will not respond well to a hoppy environment. That said, experiment and report back

 

[ahurd110]

I'm not 100% on this, but I believe high ibus affects the viability of many bacterial cultures found in sour blends.

My recommendation is to hop lightly, sour, then dry hop and package. New Belgium does this with their la terrior sour, and the results are fantastic.

 

[motorneuron]

IIRC from Wild Brews, most lactic acid in traditional sour beers actually comes from pediococcus, which is not really affected by hops (whereas lacto is affected by much of anything over 10 IBUs). So you might be able to use a mixed culture, a la lambic, for some sourness + funk, if it contains brett and pedio.

Of course, it's also easy to provide additional bitterness and aroma at or near the time of packaging, after souring has already occurred: you can use hop tea to up bitterness, and dry hops to increase aroma.

I have no idea how a beer that is both fairly sour and fairly bitter would taste. But it should be easy to experiment by, for example, dosing a glass of IPA with a little food-grade lactic acid.

 

[nofootbreak]

If you are using lacto to sour it, the best method is to sour the wort pre-boil. Once the wort is as sour as you would like, boil and add your hops and ferment like normal.

If you have a good aggressive lacto strain (WL and Wyeast dont do the job for me) then you can turn this beer around with just a few extra days.

 

[TNGabe]

I'd suggest thinking along the lines of a hoppy soured beer, rather than a soured IPA. Aggresive bitterness won't go well with tartness. Dry hopping something like a berliner weisse with fruity/tropical hops like nelson, mosaic, or galaxy has been on my to brew list for a while now. I've been experimenting with making hoppy tart beers using fruit (rhubarb, citrus, etc) in the kettle and have been happy with the results. Moderate bittering or FW hops and then lots of whirpool hops. I don't think the 10 IBU is the magic cutoff for lacto, it just takes considerably longer with more hops.

 

[nopride]

My recommendation is to hop lightly, sour, then dry hop and package. New Belgium does this with their la terrior sour, and the results are fantastic.

This! That is a really good beer that balances the sour with a nice hop aroma.

 

[FarmerTed]

Trinity makes a 100 ibu sour ipa (red swingline). They do some sort of extended sour mash first, then do the boil, fermentation and dry-hopping. People seem to love it, but it's out of my normal price range.

 

[pgrebus]

I have a DIPA that I dry hopped with 1/4 oz chinook (among others), and the chinook dominates to the extent that the beer is acrid. I was thinking of de-carbonating it (I dry hopped in keg), and aging it with a sour yeast. Otherwise, something I'll dump. Thoughts?

 

[TNGabe]

I have a DIPA that I dry hopped with 1/4 oz chinook (among others), and the chinook dominates to the extent that the beer is acrid. I was thinking of de-carbonating it (I dry hopped in keg), and aging it with a sour yeast. Otherwise, something I'll dump. Thoughts?

Don't waste the time and dump it now.