The Great Souring Project 2012

I have a goal to brew 8 sour beers this year. Ambitious huh? I even made a list of all the things I plan to sour. My plan is to brew two sours every 3 months and then next year I'll have a metric crapton of sour beer to play with/blend. I brewed the first one about two months ago.

The recipe was loosely based on my Belgian Single. I really liked how tight and controlled all the flavors were in that beer. Everything about marked subtlety. I didn't want to brew a sour with a hugely complicated grain bill and end up with too many competing flavors. My goal was just to brew something good, relatively low alcohol and of course sour.

I subbed out the pilsner for two row and upped the wheat a little bit. I kept the chocolate malt and the 60L the same, but also threw in a bit of Victory and Munich for some more malt backbone. After the wort was chilled to about 72 degrees I pitched a pack of the Wyeast Roeselare. No starter and I didn't smack the pack. The roeselare is a very specific blend. Wyeast does not recommend propping it up at all as it will throw off the blend, for that reason I also didn't bother smacking it.

Active fermentation inside of 12 hours that continued for about two weeks. At the one month mark I opened up the carboy to get a smell and a couple hours later fermentation had kicked back up. I'm assuming that it was just the bugs responding to oxygen being introduced.

After two months still no pellicle formation.

O.G. 1.054
IBUS 7.4
Mash Schedule: Single infusion. 152.

Mash Ingredients

7lbs. 2-Row - US
2 lbs. 3oz. White Wheat
1 lb. Munich - 10L
1/2 lb. American Crystal - 60L
1/2 lb. American Victory - 10L
1/4 lb. American Chocolate 325L

.5oz. Willamette Hops 5.4%AA Pellet - 45 minutes

Critters - Wyeast Roeselare Blend

Here's list of sour beers I plan/hope to brew sometime this year

1. Berliner Weiss
2. Low abv. sour/hoppy saison.
3. Saison with my wild caught yeast.
4. Sour peach and plum saison (actually something I've made before)
5. Soured dark mild.
6. Soured robust porter.
7. Soured Belgian golden ale.
8. The one I have fermenting now.