Madame Rose Clone Critique

[v01gt]

hey everyone,

I'm looking for some feedback on my first sour beer. I am modeling the recipe after Goose Island's Madame Rose. In doing my research, there wasn't much info on people trying to clone this beer. But what I did find was 2 sets of ingredients, which must mean the recipe has changed slightly. An older article on embracethefunk.com stated the ingredients were "2-row, Wheat, Dark Chocolate, Victory and Fuggle hops." The current malt bill on gooseisland.com is "2-row, Wheat, CaraPils, Special B, Chocolate and Pilgrim hops." I did my best to throw together a recipe with that info, listed below.

74.1% 10lbs 2-Row
14.8% 2lbs Wheat
3.7% .5lbs Caramel 80
3.7% .5lbs Special B
1.9% .25lbs Chocolate
1.9% .25lbs Acid Malt
1 oz Fuggles 60min
East Coast ECY20 "Bug County"

At 65% efficiency, that puts me right around 6.5-7% ABV, 16 IBUs and ~20 SRM. I also plan on mashing high, around 158 deg. How does this look? I plan on adding wine or bourbon soaked oak cubes when adding the sour cherries to secondary, about 2-3 months before bottling. I'm pretty pumped for this, especially with getting lucky with Bug County. Would greatly appreciate some feedback, thanks!

 

[youreanimpulse]

Why the C80? Not that it doesn't sound tasty, it just isn't in the two lists above. I wish I had jumped on the ECY bugs this time. I got scared by the shipping almost doubling the cost :/.

 

[v01gt]

Just realized I missed caramel in the embracethefunk ingredients list: "Malt: 2-Row, Caramel, Wheat, Dark Chocolate, Victory." My other concerns:

Madame Rose says its 25 IBUs, but I've heard lacto doesn't like hops so I bumped it down to 16 IBUs.

One critique I got said that bugs don't like chocolate/roasted malts very much, and that the addition in this beer is likely just for color adjustment and not really necessary. That same guy said to just up the Special B instead...thoughts?

 

[youreanimpulse]

I think both issues are non-issues. Lacto probably isn't your primary souring agent so you could do 25 IBUs, but with how long the beer should age before consuming it will age out anyway. I'm also pretty sure that small amount of chocolate won't cause any astringency, which is the issue I see with using it with bugs (dries out too much and gets tannic). If you're worried you could use Carafa special or midnight wheat, something without a husk. More Special B will give more of that specific flavor, which you may or may not want.