I finally got around to tasting my sour beer projects.
20 liter rum barrel, <1 year old basic farmhouse ale fermented with dregs from Almanac Farmers Reserve: This is a really mild sour beer for how long it’s been ageing. not oxidized or overly sour so I guess the bees wax seal on the barrel is helping. Doesn’t blow my socks off but a really nice complex but subtle beer. easy drinking and you’d never know it’s been through a years ageing in a barrel, really subtle wood character.
2.5 gallon batch fermented with a sourdough starter originally from a mail order Italian culture kept for a couple years in Napa before I got it, stepped it up in wort and fermented this batch with: I’ve noticed this in another ‘sourdough’ beer I’ve taste, from Almanac actually, a harshness that was not there in the wort. this was a very low bitterness wort brewed to 1.051 with ~6 IBU of old saaz. A touch of sourness but mostly that slightly harsh edge. Not bad, maybe a good candidate for blending though.
3 gallons of sour farmhouse with cherries that wasn’t bottled last fall. Simple farmhouse ale recipe with flaked rye fermented with a yeast blend of belgian ale, belgian blend, and american farmhouse blend then pitched with dregs from various sour beers in secondary and sweet cherries added: This is still my favorite of my sour beers good cherry flavor without being in your face cherry. a hint of acetic character but in a balanced way with the barnyardy funk. I think I’ll just add 3 more gallons of beer to this one and let it ride a while longer. maybe some more cherries too.
3.5 gallons of IPA wort I overbrewed on my last batch (~2 weeks ago) and pitched with the year old cake of Almanac dregs from Sour #1 above: this is promising. sourness and funk are still pretty subtle but I suspect it will develop over time. I might try blending some of this with some of what’s in the barrel.
