Simple Sour Ale?

Buy the book Wild Brews

If you want a quick sour you can do a sour mash then hit w/ Brett for a 6 week turn around opposed to a 6 month. I did a session sour @ 3.5% ABV, sour mash, German Ale, Lacto, Pedio, Brett in primary, bottled @ 6 weeks. Drinking @ 8.

 

I always see this when someone asks about sours, and I dont quite get it. Dont get me wrong wild brews is a great book, but its more of a history of lambics than a definitive guide to making them

To the OP

The malt bill for a flanders type beer doesnt matter too much, its the bugs that give you all the flavors. Formulate a sweet brown beer without any roasted malts (heavy on the cara malts, special b, and either munich or vienna) and get your hands on either a roeselare smack pack, or if you lucky some of the east coast yeast blends

 

I just brewed this recipe a week ago but I pitched the Roselare pack from the begining (no seperate clean strain first). Still bubbling up a storm...I'll check on it in about a year.

http://beerdujour.com/Recipes/Jamil/The_Jamil_Show_-_Flanders_Red_Ale.html

 

My homebrew club recently aquired a barrel which we are going to fill up with this: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2011/04/russian-river-temptation-clone-tasting.html
Seemed like a pretty simple recipe.

 

Do you have a better suggestion for him to read?

 

I've been thinking of getting into sours. Do you have any better recommendations for "how to" books.

 

I’m writing one, for the exact reason that there isn’t a great one. I don’t think most of Wild Brews is practical for homebrewer and small craft brewers. I’ve already interviewed close to 20 American brewers, not to mention yeast lab people, homebrewers, and other relevant sour nerds. I should be hearing back from Brewers Publications soon on whether they’re interested in publishing it (made it through the first round of review). If not, it is mostly written and will be self-published later this year.
Until then, here is an overview of my thoughts: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2009/11/brewing-sour-beer-at-home.html

 

I'll have to let you know how that Temptation clone turns out, but it'll be a while. It's going in a honey wine barrel that Minneapolis Town Hall used for a Belgian Pale Ale.

 

Dang it! Everytime I follow a link to OldSock's blog I seem to fall in a wormhole that transports me forward about an hour.

 

Or check out the sour worting variation that appeared in a 2011 zymurgy article and is discussed in one of old sock's madferemntationist blog entries.

 

Check out this link http://microbebrewer.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-cherry-ale-brettanomyces.html
I used this to make a sour ale that was mighty tasty in just 12 weeks.

 

I have never understood why people never suggest brewing an all Brett beer first. Brett does interesting things when you ferment with only Brett and no Sach. My suggestion is to make a simple amber or wheat and ferment with only Brett. You will get a slight tartness and the beer ferments out in a couple of weeks. These make great summer beers and I bet some of your friends who don't like sour beers will drink them.

 

Which strain do you recomend? And, how many weeks are we talking? I'm very interested in splitting my next IPA into two batches, one all brett and one WLP001...

 

I prefer to use Brett L. I am talking 3-4 weeks just like you would with Sacch. What I often do is brew a ten gallon batch and split half with sacch and half with brett L. The only thing to watch out for is bottling too early because there is a tendency for overcarbonation. I keg now so I don't have that problem. If you are worried about overcarbonation you can cold crash before bottling and repitch with sacch for bottling. The cold crash will not get rid of all of the brett but it will slow it down. I don't like using camden so I don't recommend it.

 

Hmm. Cool!

 

I agree. I have used both Brett L and Brett C. I also will add a few % acid malt to add a little more sourness. Turn around time is usually 4-6 weeks for me.

 

Why not try a kit available through a retailer. I have had very good luck with Northern Brewer and their Oud Bruin de Table Extract Kit is only $22.50 which isn't very expensive and it includes yeast, I believe as it doesn't give you the option to add it to the kit. I may grab this myself now that I think of it... ha-ha. http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...-ale-kits/oud-bruin-de-table-extract-kit.html