My First Sour Beer

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DUANNE

no chiller and botulism free since 2010
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just looking for some advice on where i am at on my first sour beer. at the moment it is six months old and etremely clear and with no pellicle. in had a sample from the wine thief a couple of weeks back and it has very low body a slight brett funk but close to zero sourness. i used 60/30 pilsener/raw wheat grist and 10 ibu of hallerrtau at 9o mins. mashed at about 67c for 90 mins and sparged at 80 something for memory. i ptched the wyeast lambic blend and until tasting had not been touched since. my main question is should i be worried at the lack of funk and sourness at this relativly early stage or will it be some thing that will build over the next 12 months or so. just some feedback on others experiances would be great. also i have 5kg of cherries would it be a good time to throw these in now?
thanks heaps
dwayne
 
sourness will come when the pediococcus kicks in - it will get "ropey" or slimey in texture and will then take another few months to return to fully liquid state, by that stage it will probably be (but might not be) really sour. another few months after that and the brett will finish off what the pedio left behind. i'd give it another six months then add the cherries, no hurry
 
you could also throw in some extra lambic bugs either from hbs or from dregs from a commercial bottle, no harm in complexifying it a bit, and it might help kick things off.
 
thanks neonmeate i was worried that there would be no sugars for the bugs to work on but i might throw the cherries in the freezer and see how it looks in another six months time. i might even try putting some cantillon bugs in over the chrissy break. gunna be hard work drinking them but its all in the name of brewing a good beer. ;)
 
What was the SG of the sample you took ?
 
it was around 1006 at room temp
 
I use the Wyeast blend, and get great results after about 12 to 18 months. Extremes of temperature are good for this style, I keep mine in the garage, so it goes up to 30C in summer and down to 10 C in winter. I get great sourness, and a nice cantillion type flavour. Each batch is slightly different. They keep for years if bottled.
 
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