Sour stout /wine hybrid

Sounds interesting.. I know there's some commercial beers, like Even Less Jesus, from Evil Twin and Stillwater that have something real similar, although they didn't sour it.

I've got a sour stout aging right now, basically it's a clone of Tart of Darkness. I brewed a normal low ABV stout, added bacteria, a couple dregs, and letting it go for a while before putting it in a used bourbon barrel with sour cherries later.

The wine sounds pretty good. Maybe @OldSock has some experience with adding wine, I know his blog had something of that nature recently.

 

I've added wine grapes to sour beers (usually for a couple months right before bottling) and blended finished wine directly into beer. Both work well. I'm sure your plan will be fine if you enjoy the flavor of the "wild" syrah. Usually I like to add fruit late to preserve the freshness, but if you want it vinous and winey, longer aging should be fine. I really enjoyed the fruit flavor of the Cabernet lambic I did, really vibrant fruit compared to most red wines:

I'd just caution you about sour stout, either dial-down the roast or find a way to preserve some body. A thin/sour beer with lots of roast isn't my idea of delicious. I brewed a sour stout a few weeks ago with Wyeast Oud Bruin Blend, which should preserve some body/sweetness.

 

That is an option, but personal taste is the key. For my tastes I'd select mostly less roasty dark malts (Carafa special, Briess roasted barley, chocolate wheat/rye etc.). Oats or rye are great for adding body, but won't help much with sweetness. Assuming you have some Brett going you likely end up below 1.006. Think about what level of roast you'd want on a clean stout that dry. The acidity too can change the perception of roast, making it more acrid and harsh.

 

I kept the darker malts under 7 percent of the grist. Like 8 ounces of roasted barley, and 6 ounces of chocolate malt in my sour stout. Added oats to get some body back and food for the bugs. Mashed high around 157 * or so. Oats were around 8% of the grist for reference.

Not really much roast to be involved, and pitched some ECY Flemish along side some Yeast Bay Melange and dregs from Bruery Tart of Darkness.

I think it will work well, and kept the IBU's to around 5 IBUs.

I like a little roast, so I'm not sure how this will turn out, but it's clone of ToD. I like that beer myself, but agree that too acrid and roasty with a thin body and sour isn't something appealing. Thin with a low level of roast and plenty of layers funk/sour is appealing to me. I expect a sour to be thinner bodied at times.