So I think I'm gonna finally make my first sour this weekend. My original plan was to mash high around 158-160 and ferment in primary with Cali lager yeast since it doesn't attenuate much and would leave plenty of dextrins behind. Then I planned on racking to secondary 5 gallon BB where I was gonna add some jolly pumpkin dregs to add some Funky Brett character and hopefully some sourness also. I'm wondering if adding the JP dregs in the primary ferment will help speed along the Brett funk and lacto/pedio sourness? Just looking for any experience on getting sours done quickly?? I know old socks blog is gonna be a great place to look as I've got mostly all my sour knowledge from him. Any advice/experiences are greatly appreciated.
The quickest sour i had turn out was about 5 months from brew day to glass. I brewed a simple Belgian Pale ale (mashed at normal temp) using White Labs Antwerp yeast. I pitched in dregs from Orval and Sanctification (2 bottles of each) after the beer fermented for 2 weeks. You can add the dregs right away if you want, the only reason I waited was I wanted to harvest the yeast for a different brew. The beer was ready to bottle after 4 months and was drinking great after a month in the bottle. Though this worked for me, your miles may very. The bugs and bacteria may not operate on your time table.
How quickly are you hoping? Really, from what I have read three months would be a minimum...but time is your best friend with sours. Another understanding I have is that Brett, Pedio and Lacto might work in different shifts to ferment out the remaining sugars, so there is really no telling how the fermenting product will act until it does.
I've done a brettanomyces-only beer that tasted pretty good after 3 months (from brew day to drinking first bottle) but that beer tasted much better after another 3 months of bottle conditioning. I couldn't imagine drinking a brett/lacto/pedio beer less than 6 months from brew day. Patience is your friend with brett/lacto/pedio, if you try to rush it you will end up with sub-par results.
I'm not really in a big rush but if I could turn sours over quickly with good results I would love it. After my first sour I will rack another beer onto that buggy cake. That beer should get funky and sour fairly quickly right??
You can make a sour in a month if you follow this method. Perform your mash as usual and cool the wort to 120 F. Now add lacto the the wort and keep it over night at that temp. The lacto will flourish and create a nice lactic sourness. You can then boil the wort the next day with hops and pitch brett and sacch once the wort has been cooled back down to 75 F or so. This is the quickest way to make a sour beer and one way commercial breweries turn around a sour beer on a deadline. This method will also keep bacteria out of your carboys. You will need to keep the wort at 120 F overnight, this is the best temp for lacto and will keep enterics, acetobacter, and wild yeast from growing.
Thanks leery. That's an interesting approach and I might give that a shot. I don't think my kettle will fit in my oven to keep the wort at 120 overnight, so that may be difficult.
If your kettle fits in your oven, put it in there with the light turned on... Should keep it warm enough.
I do. I have a 12 gallon cooler. That's a fantastic idea. I shouldn't need to worry about putting bugs in my mash tun since its prior to the hot side right???
T There is an extension of this although I have only read about it. Chris Kennedy posted here that he did the sour rest in a corny keg. If I remember correctly he mashed then transfered to the corny. Purged through the out post with CO2 to elimate the O2 and left it for a day or two or three. He may have rigged a blowoff through the in post I do not remember. The idea is that the nasty bugs need O2 but lacto does not. Purging the O2 reduces the garbage/puke flavor/shit flavor and aroma generating bugs. Then sparge, boil, blablalba. I am going to try this one day, just never got around to it. edit: fuck it, I am going to do this right now.
