Successful Recipe Conversion, Clean to Sour Beer

No, it doesn't mean zero hops. That suggestion is incorrect. There are dozens of styles that can be soured and appropriately hopped for the clean batch. As a rough guideline you can hop up to 25 IBUs and still obtain significantly sour beer.

For a commercial example take a look at how high Jolly Pumpkin lists their IBUs and they produce sour beers just fine. The higher the IBU the more hardy you will want the souring bugs to be and 25 is closs to the limit.

I highly encourage split batches. I do if often successfully with styles that are lower in bitterness like hefeweizens, saisons, milds, etc. this way you have a beer to enjoy now and another in a year. Makes the wait a little easier.

 

Hop tolerance depends on which lacto strain is used. Brevis can tolerate 20-25ibu. Delbrucki and Buchneri can tolerate up to 10ibu.

 

Because the end result can be plenty sour and taste different than an unhopped sour beer.

 

Russian River Sanctification recipe:

85% 2-row Malt
5% Vienna Malt
5% Wheat Malt
5% Acidulated Malt

OG: 1.058
TG: 1.006-1.010
ABV: 6.25%
BU’s: 25ish

Hops:
Styrian Golding 90 minute – beginning of boil
Sterling 15 minutes to go in boil

The yeast is a mix of Brettanomyces and bacteria’s.
50% Brett Brux.
10% Brett Claus.
10% Brett Lambicus
30% Russian River Brewing “Funky Bunch” house yeast culture- mix of Brett, Lacto, Pedio, & other wild yeast

Think how much better this already excellent sour ale would be without hops.

 

As a caveat, I find that lacto from white labs and wyeast are often less agressive than using dregs of commercial beer provided the dregs are reasonably fresh.

Also important consideration is pediococcus, which is more hop and pH tolerant. It will take longer than lacto. Depending on your goals this may be worth the wait compared to a quick lacto sour. Pitch brett with any beer containing pedio to help clean up diacetyl. Just be patient. At least 9 months and make sure your gravity is stable before bottling.

 

Here are a couple of others

9.5 IBU : http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/05/double-berliner-weisse-brew.html

25 IBU : http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/03/sour-bourbon-barrel-porter.html

28 IBU : http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2008/04/big-funky-beers.html

37 IBU : http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2014/07/saison-merican-hoppy-funk.html

37 IBU : http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2014/08/new-zealand-saison-and-glycosides.html

 

It's difficult to have any firm rules about a sour, I usually suggest that new brewers stay under 20 IBUs for beers they intend to be really sour, simply for flavor considerations. If you are relying on Lacto (no Pedio) I'd stay under 5 IBUs. How much will you taste the difference between 5 and 0, I'm not really sure. Hops contribute more to the wort than bitterness. I've got an unhopped sour aging now, although most of it will be getting dry hopped closer to kegging once the apricot ferments out (leaving 1 gallon as is).

Isomerized alpha-acids as well as other hop compounds inhibit Lactobacillus (and other gram positive bacteria). Aging hops oxidizes the beta acids making them more soluble in wort.