Sour Beer Question

[giac0613]

Question to all my sour beer fans... is Sour in the Rye from the Bruery brewed with Brett Brux? I just brewed a saison yesterday with 3711, and I wanted to add blackberries when the fermentation started to slow. I also decided I want to make my first sour beer, so I decided I am going to dump my favorite beer's dregs into it. That way, initially it will just be a blackberry saison, but as time goes on it will sour up in the bottle. Anyone know if Sour in the Rye is a brett brux sour?

getting excited about my first sour!

 

[GTG]

Email them through their contact form on their site. My questions to them were passed along to Tyler King, their head brewer. He was very helpful and informative for me. Be aware that they have a proprietary yeast that they won't give much detail about but he did confirm fermentation methods and type of brett in two of their beers for me.

 

[MileHighBrewer]

I have heard, no confirmation, that they're using an isolate from 3F (like MANY American sour brewers) so whatever species, its probably a very specific isolate. Be prepared to wait quite a while, 3711 doesn't leave much behind, it may take a while for any brett in the dregs to tear through the last 3-5 points of gravity.

Are you adding dregs to the whole batch? Or pulling off like a gallon to sour? If adding it to the whole batch I'd be a wee bit concerned with carbonation since eventually those bugs will very likely take you down to 1000-1002

 

[giac0613]

I added the dregs to the 5 gallons. I also was concerned about carbonation, as I know sour beers are tricky in that respect. The thought process behind this was that when I bottle the saison, it will just be a blackberry saison as a young beer, but as I let it bottle condition for 6-months to a year, the brett will begin to come out. Or at least I hope. The saison had an OG of 1.062 before the pound of blackberries, so the high ABV also worries me in terms of carbonation. This is more of an experiment than anything, but I just wanted to see what fellow brewers thought of it.

 

[ChugachBrewing]

Sounds like fun! Make sure to give it lots of time!

 

[dcp27]

regardless of strain brett doesnt make a beer sour, sour in the rye is more than just brett, its got bacteria in it. unless you under-carb the beers, you're asking for trouble if you intend for this to be a 'clean' beer early and become funky/sour later

also, 1# of berries in 5G is a bit light, that's going to be very subtle.

 

[Coff]

3711 should dry the beer out plenty for you to bottle condition with Brett. I would suggest Brett only if you plan to bottle condition though, you don't want to pop bottles if ropy beer months down the road.

Bottle at 1.005 or less, you can compensate for more attenuation in the bottle in your carb sugar. 2 points = roughly 1vol of co2.

 

[Soilworker]

So souring wise, I think getting a saison with 3711 to sour is going to be difficult since 3711 tends to finish pretty dry and those sour bugs won't have much to eat. That being said I made a saison with 3711 that was at 1.007 after 2 weeks in primary. I added brett brux to that and 6 months later its starting to get some nice funky aromas going on. From what I've heard from Chad Yakobson on brett, the reason for this is partly because the flavors we get from brett are not necessarily from fermentation (although I'm sure the residual sugars helped a bit). Not sure how that will work with souring bugs.

All in all, give it a try. Worst case you will still just have a saison to drink that never soured. You can also try adding some malto dextrine so the bugs have something to munch on.

 

[BzurkoBrews]

I just recently put a beer on tap that I fermented with slurry from a sour I made with Brett trois and jolly pumpkin dregs. I co pitched 3711 with the slurry and it is the most sour beer I've made yet. I used 3711 because I wanted it to finish (dry out) fast. There was obviously a huge amount of lacto in the slurry but it was finished to my liking in only 4 months. I added peaches to it at 2 months. It will sour if you have a strong enough culture co pitched with 3711. Mine is a very good beer and very very sour. Give it a shot.


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[dantheman13]

I just recently put a beer on tap that I fermented with slurry from a sour I made with Brett trois and jolly pumpkin dregs. I co pitched 3711 with the slurry and it is the most sour beer I've made yet. I used 3711 because I wanted it to finish (dry out) fast. There was obviously a huge amount of lacto in the slurry but it was finished to my liking in only 4 months. I added peaches to it at 2 months. It will sour if you have a strong enough culture co pitched with 3711. Mine is a very good beer and very very sour. Give it a shot. View attachment 193588


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Looks pretty. Yeah, I've found that old sour slurries sour pretty damn quickly. I am sure more age would lend more complexity, but us sour beer brewers are patient enough with other beers... how many peaches did you use in your beer? Fresh or frozen?

 

[BzurkoBrews]

I used 4lbs of frozen peaches from Costco in 4 gallons. I've been keeping around 3-6 long term sours at a time and have my quick turn around sours that I keg after about 4 months. Jolly pumpkin dregs work fast!


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