Using extract in aged sours - does all-grain make a difference?

[sweetcell]

back in january, i made a sour using only extract and a touch of steeped crystal. i added some oats in a hop bag as the kettle was heating up and pulled them out after a few minutes of boiling, for starch. pitched a sacch (saison?), racked to secondary and added a bunch of dregs. primary went great, got a pellicle in secondary, and over the months the haze from the oats has cleared nicely. i'm due for a hydro test/sample.

this was my first "aged all-extract sour" - has anyone else done this? have you noticed any differences with all-grain? folks talk about "extract twang", has that come through for anyone?

i note that Oldsock is giving this a go:

My first extract (rye LME and wheat DME) sour, steeping some dark grains (roasted barley and chocolate rye) and crystal malts (CaraMunich and Special B).

please let us know how it turns out.

 

[BigPerm]

back in january, i made a sour using only extract and a touch of steeped crystal. i added some oats in a hop bag as the kettle was heating up and pulled them out after a few minutes of boiling, for starch. pitched a sacch (saison?), racked to secondary and added a bunch of dregs. primary went great, got a pellicle in secondary, and over the months the haze from the oats has cleared nicely. i'm due for a hydro test/sample.

this was my first "aged all-extract sour" - has anyone else done this? have you noticed any differences with all-grain? folks talk about "extract twang", has that come through for anyone?

I recently made a sour stout that was derived from the second runnings of an imperial stout. I supplemented with 2 lbs of light DME to boost the gravity. I pitched us-05 and the dregs from a few sours and then pitched a few more dregs and a pack of Roeselare once fermentation died down. This was made in July, and its actually already fairly sour, with a beautiful pellicle. In my tastings, I really didn't detect any notice of extract, although at that percentage I wouldn't have expected to. Like you, I'm interested to see how it turns out.

I used to work at a LHBS and, in my experience, only the beers I tasted using malt syrup had that characteristic "twang," which I assumed to be some sort of oxidative effect. You didn't say which you used, but I'll be really interested to see what you get. Cheers!

 

[ChugachBrewing]

Along similar lines, someone gave me a 50lb bucket of sorghum syrup. Morbidly, I'm thinking of making a 50G batch of it and tossing it in a barrel (barrel is recently empty and this is cheaper than holding solution). Nothing to do with gluten, the bucket was free and I said sure.

 

[youreanimpulse]

I have an extract wit that stalled super high at the beginning of the year, so I pitched White Labs Flemish Sour Blend and a few dregs. Had a "sick" phase for a couple months that the brett cleaned up. Last tasting it had been 1.008 for a couple months and the orange flavor was finally coming out really well with a nice sourness from the pedio. No extract twang or extra sweetness. Really happy with it, gonna let it age a bit more before deciding about fruit or blending or just bottling it straight. Seems like the high unfermentables in extract lend themselves to souring.

 

[sweetcell]

Seems like the high unfermentables in extract lend themselves to souring.

yup, that's exactly my thinking. dunno if i'd say "high unfermentables" - i've had some extract beers that finished pretty damn low - but the additional unfermentables aren't a concern. bugs will take care of (most of) it.

 

[youreanimpulse]

Higher I should have said. Especially in the wheat extract I used. I have great results clean with Pilsen/extra light extract.

 

[Calder]

I've done all-grain, and I've done extract. After 2 years on bugs, I can't tell which is which without checking the label.

Flanders are grain as they have a little more complex grain bill, but for Lambic style, I occasionally do a quick extract batch.

 

[dantheman13]

I've used the extract recipe from "Wild Brews" for nearly 3 now, and they've turned out very good. I even Solera one fermenter with this recipe (although I am thinking about converting the recipe to all grain for more control).

 

[MileHighBrewer]

Extract works just fine. Honestly I think a lot of people put way too much stock into grain bills for sours. Brett beers are one thing, but bacteria packed sours? Just make fermentable grain water. Your flavors and character are coming from the flora, and possibly other secondary adjuncts like wine barrels, oak, fruit, etc. This is a generalization of course, but you don't need 3 base malts and 5 specialty malts, and oats, etc.

My extract lambic is tasting better then my all grain to be honest. Plus no worries about sticky mash and sparge issues

 

[joshrosborne]

The only bottled sours I have right now are from when I used to extract brew. My beer buddies rave about them and every single one of them has medal-ed in BJCP competitions. If you're asking if you can make good sours with extract, the answer is undoubtedly yet. I have some all-grain ones fermenting, but I brewed them in the spring, so it'll be a while befor eI try them.

 

[slarkin712]

Here's a recipe that I based a brew off back in January:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f72/lambic-bos-3rd-bos-two-golds-322168/

I haven't tasted mine yet, but the recipe creator has had plenty of success with it. Like you, I steeped some oatmeal as well. Guess I need to sample it.

 

[The_Nid_Hog]

I've been brewing extract beers and racking them onto the old yeast cake/assorted dregs left in the carboy when I bottle the all-grain sours that I made earlier. It just seems like an easier way to do it when I've got my bottling stuff spread all over the place already. So far, the results have been pretty good.