Looking for Sour recipes

elproducto · Post by **elproducto** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 1:23 pm

Ready to jump into the world of sour beers. Looking for some recipes.
I'm going to brew a simple Berliner Weiss, but would also like a recipe for a Lambic or something.

All-Grain please.

matt7215 · Post by **matt7215** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 1:38 pm

berliner weisse:

http://www.ratebeer.com/Recipe.asp?RecipeID=110

makes a great beer! id add some bottle dregs from a bretted beer as well but you dont have to.

Lambic:

50% Pilsner Malt
25% Light Malted Wheat
25% Flaked Wheat

1 oz (or less) of the lowest AA hops you can find (preferrably aged and oxidized)

mash hop

try to aim for collecting about 7 gallons of 1.035 - 1.040 wort and boil it down to 5 gallons or 1.050 (whatever comes first)

cool as per your normal process

pitch the Wyeast Lambic blend or Roselare and whatever bottle dregs you have from sours and bretted beers.

hide the fermentor in a place you wont disturb it and ferment in the mid 60's

ferment in primary for one year minimum

bottle and wait 3 months minimum

enjoy

matt7215 · Post by **matt7215** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 1:43 pm

this blog is an amazing resource of info as well:

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/

elproducto · Post by **elproducto** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 1:44 pm

Nice, thanks.

matt7215 · Post by **matt7215** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 1:52 pm

here is my flemish red recipe i brewed last may:

3 lbs pilsner
3 lbs munich
3 lbs vienna
1 lb light wheat
0.5 lbs crystal 60L
0.5 lbs crystal 120L

1 oz saaz @ 60min

Wyeast 3763 Roselare

here is the rb coversation about it:

http://www.ratebeer.com/forums/flanders ... 140492.htm

markaberrant · Post by **markaberrant** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 2:44 pm

This is my Flanders Red recipe. I have now made it 4 years in a row. Won a silver medal at the 2nd round NHC with it last year.

6.5 lbs 2-row
2.25 C40
2.2 flaked corn
1 honey malt
.15 chocolate malt
Mash 158F for 45 minutes
90 min boil

use any hop to bitter at 60 minutes 15-16 IBUs
.75 oz willamette @ 15 min

OG: 1.057-1.060

Pitch roeselare, age for 1 year, brew again, repitch dregs, repeat. Save over multiple years, then you can start blending. And add dregs from good commercial sours too.

elproducto · Post by **elproducto** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 2:47 pm

markaberrant wrote:This is my Flanders Red recipe. I have now made it 4 years in a row. Won a silver medal at the 2nd round NHC with it last year.

6.55 lbs 2-row
2.25 C40
2.2 flaked corn
1 honey malt
.15 chocolate malt
Mash 158F for 45 minutes
90 min boil

use any hop to bitter at 60 minutes 15-16 IBUs
.75 oz willamette @ 15 min

Pitch roeselare, age for 1 year, brew again, repitch dregs, repeat. Save over multiple years, then you can start blending. And add dregs from good commercial sours too.

That looks perfect! Problem is I have no access to commercial sours, but I'll give it a shot. Do you just pitch the roeselare? No Ale yeast or anything? Also, what size batch is that?

markaberrant · Post by **markaberrant** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 3:33 pm

elproducto wrote:That looks perfect! Problem is I have no access to commercial sours, but I'll give it a shot. Do you just pitch the roeselare? No Ale yeast or anything? Also, what size batch is that?

You can add commercial sour dregs anytime, they really add to the overall complexity. Even something like Petrus Aged Pale Ale or Lindemans Cuvee Rene do a good job.

I just pitch the Roeselare (which does contain some ale yeast), but if there is no activity after 48 hours, I'll pitch a pack of ale yeast, something that isn't overly attenuative like Coopers, Muntons or S-04. You don't want the ale yeast to chew up all the sugars right away, you want the bugs to slowly break them down. My gravity is usually around 1.020 when I rack to secondary (my aged batches are all around 1.007 at the moment).

I also forgot to mention that I add 1oz of French medium toast oak cubes to the secondary.

I target a batch size of 5.5 gallons.

matt7215 · Post by **matt7215** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 3:40 pm

another nice read:

http://www2.parc.com/emdl/members/apte/ ... dale.shtml

elproducto · Post by **elproducto** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 3:51 pm

Aret there any commercial sour beers avail. in Ontario?

detritus · Post by **detritus** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 3:53 pm

elproducto wrote:Aret there any commercial sour beers avail. in Ontario?

Trafalgar makes a few.

elproducto · Post by **elproducto** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 3:56 pm

detritus wrote:
elproducto wrote:Aret there any commercial sour beers avail. in Ontario?
Trafalgar makes a few.

haha.. I bet they do.

matt7215 · Post by **matt7215** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 3:57 pm

elproducto wrote:Aret there any commercial sour beers avail. in Ontario?

none that you can get any useful dregs from. when do you plan to brew? i could send you some homebrewed sours or possibly share a commercial bottle with you and you could pitch the dregs.

you can get bret b from orval

elproducto · Post by **elproducto** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 3:58 pm

matt7215 wrote:
elproducto wrote:Aret there any commercial sour beers avail. in Ontario?
none that you can get any useful dregs from. when do you plan to brew? i could send you some homebrewed sours or possibly share a commercial bottle with you and you could pitch the dregs.

Wow, that's generous Matt.

Not sure, I'm just working on getting the ingredients gathered up right now. I have a friend who has some Petrus and Duchesse de Borgnone.. would those work?

markaberrant · Post by **markaberrant** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 4:09 pm

elproducto wrote:Not sure, I'm just working on getting the ingredients gathered up right now. I have a friend who has some Petrus and Duchesse de Borgnone.. would those work?

Duchesse is filtered and pasteurized. Petrus Aged Pale will work, the Oud Bruin is very tame, and the Dubbel isn't funky at all.

I meant to save some slurry this year, as a few local guys had asked for some, but I kinda forgot. Next year for sure I'll set some aside.