Making Sour Beers

[manticle]

If he added the fruit at a later stage the fruit sugars will feed the bugs primarily, resulting in increased acidity, however the grapefruit also has a large amount of acids present naturally, once the sugar is gone, this acidity will become a lot more evident. I think manticle's biggest problem will be making this one not too acidic.

I definitely agree with kabooby, keep it simple, make the base beer first, then add the fruit later(or do half with / half without). There are so many variables in these beers and so much complexity already, the biggest thing you have to do is wait.

My 2 cents would be to increase the gravity of the brew a whisker (maybe to 1.055-1.065), as this will prevent the souring occurring too much and will also give it more aging potential, you'll still get heaps of brett character though.

Cheers
Q

I am ordering 2 packs of roselare. I'm very keen on the sour citrus idea and don't want to have to wait 2 years before ttrying but you guys have got me convinced that I might be best making two brews - one with and one without. I'll look at beefing it up gravity and body wise too.

 

[brettprevans]

manticle. Dave & I made an oud bruin with roselare. mines straight roselare and Dav's gone nuts and added oak and scotch to his. when they are ready to drink your wlecome to try some. Im bottling mine over xmas after about 4-5months fermenting/funking

 

[manticle]

Sounds like a great idea to me.

let me know.

Cheers

 

[kabooby]

It depends on how you want to do it. If you want a sour beer straight away look into sour mashing or ferment with lacto and sach strains. This will give you sourness straight away. Brett will take much longer to develop.

You will find that most of your sourness will come from pedio and lacto. Brett will add a little bit of sourness and lots of complexity.

Kabooby

 

[manticle]

It's the complexity I'm chasing in conjunction with the sourness. Ageing is something I want to experiment with. Two batches - one fruited and one non fruited seems the answer.