Hi everyone, this is my first post so i hope ya’ll don’t go too hard on me! A little background on myself, I am a student studying Fermentation Science, who, after spending time in the military and the corporate world, took a leap into the unknown to pursue my passion for brewing.
I was hoping this may be a good place to do some research and ask other home brewers some questions for a class project I am working on about common issues with brewing sour beer and potential solutions. Some common tropes you hear about sour beer-making is that it may be time-consuming, potentially risky in contaminating your equipment, or the final product may not be consistent if you try to brew the same sour more than once.
For those that make sours, do you find that these are actually issues for you? Or are they a minor inconvenience? Do these issues keep you from brewing more sours? Are there other issues I did not mention? I know there are many methods to making a sour such as kettle souring, adding fruit/acid, acidulated malt, etc., each with their own pros and cons.
If a new type of product was developed that could help make a quality sour in a fraction of the time without risk of contamination, would you as a home brewer be interested in using it? Some examples that come to mind are using another microorganism such as Koji (Aspergillus oryzae) which produces Kojic acid, or some sort of concentrated acidic solution derived from fruits containing any assortment of acids. These are just examples to serve as reference.
Thank you all your input!
*Please note, I am not trying to solicit business. This is for a class project. Mods, please let me know if I need to modify this post. Thank you.