sour wort - what else beside berliner?

The sky is the limit. Results may vary from classic examples of the style.

 

One thing I just noticed is your goal is to keep your fermenter "bug free". So that eliminates everything with brett and pedio. Kriek, Lambic, Oud Bruin and Flanders are out.

 

Anything you think sour would add to the beer. Generally sour and bitter, and sour and roasty are what people say to avoid, but it is your beer do what the hell you want.

 

Red swingline from trinity is kettle soured, finished with brett, and hopped to hell with citrusy hops.

 

then don't mention oud bruins or anything with brett.

you can do:
biere de mars
saisons (wee bit of souring)
gose
stout (think Guinness)

 

I'll add sour IPA or Kentucky common

 

Im planning on sour worting a saison in the near future

 

People are saying you can't do an oud bruin, and that's true in a sense, but Wyeast's Oud Bruin blend was just ale yeast + lacto. I don't see why you couldn't brew a kettle soured one. @monkeybeerbelly is already aware of the trade-offs, and is willing to live with a less-than-ideal technique for now due to the limitations of his system. In those circumstances, I would absolutely try out an oude bruin.

Here is a suggested malt bill - this worked well for me, except that the Wyeast blend did not sour it up enough:

72% pilsner malt
20% dark Munich malt
3% Special B
3% aromatic malt
2% chocolate malt

I mashed at 155°F. I used Czech Saaz hops, but I don't think the hops matter much.

 

So...which equipment are we talking about? Sour mash...no problem...Kettle souring...no problem...bugs added to fermenter...no problem... buy another cheapo fermenter and use that for your regular beers.

http://www.newschoolbeer.com/2015/0...is-making-sour-beer-cheap-and-affordable.html

Unless you are a commercial operation, I don't really see a big negative. Cheers

 

I sour mash 1 pound of pils overnight and add it to my SOMA Saison at mashout. It adds that touch of umami...but not to acidic...

 

If you don't want to pitch brett because you don't want to contaminate equipment, I suggest making sour wort beers as you have done and blending them with other beers. I think you could make a sour brown by blending a sweetish, low-moderately hopped brown ale with a sour-worted beer. It may not taste like a classic, but I think you can still explore some complementary flavors. And of course, you can do sour fruit beers,

 

If you're looking to avoid contaminating equipment, I've had good results adding brett directly to the bottle on saisons and biere de garde.

 

I think sour worting is actually a better solution to many other beers than it is Berliner. Berliner weisse is so plain/bland without some Brett character and age (in my opinion) it can also be hard to dry out a kettle soured version adequately. On the other hand, I see it as a waste to age a beer for a year or two only to add 3 lbs/gal of cherries. Similar story for soured stouts, smoked beers, strong ales etc. that can end up too thin and dry and have so much character that subtle fermentation byproducts will be lost.

 

Can you elaborate on what your other hand is driving at? Maybe start with only.

 

Anything you want to have a balance of malty and sour, and you don’t have the option to blend/keg. For example the more tepid Belgian Oud Bruins. Not something like Goudenband, more like Ichtegem. Something like a sour stout/porter would come to mind as well. Acidity without being dried out too much.

The other big category would be where you are adding massive fruit or dry hop additions. I just don’t think it is worth aging a beer for a year or two only to add 4 lbs/gal of raspberries or load it up with 1 oz/gal of Citra. You just aren't going to taste the subtleties of that well-aged base beer through those aggressive additions. Nothing wrong with using old beer for this purpose if that is what it is best suited for, but I wouldn’t start out with that as the goal. Subtle fruit/hops is another story!

 

It looks as though @OldSock has done this at least a couple of times, as described here and here.