EmeraldSours
New Member
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2016
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First off, thanks to the OP Amanda! I only recently found out that I friggin' love sour beer but good 12-oz bottles go for $12 and good 750ml bottles go for $15-$30 and that's an expensive habit for someone that likes a few beers every day after work. My girlfriend also has never liked a beer until she tried a sour, so I end up sharing them a lot. Started reading up on homebrewing sours since it seemed like a good investment, primarily the mad fermentationist blog/book and this thread. I had a decent brewing kit that had been gathering dust for over a year after many years of brewing mostly IPAs, hefeweizens, and stouts. With so many great beers available at almost every corner in Seattle, I just found it easier to buy beer versus brew, plus, I never brewed an IPA that can compete with commercial examples. Needless to say, I'm glad I kept my gear!
I started brewing 5-gal recipes of this recipe (mostly with Wyeast Lambic but also Roselare) in early December 2015. Instead of aged hops I use low AA hops (saaz, hallertau, and Liberty) calculated to 5-9 IBUs, so only a 15-30 min boil with around an ounce per 5 gal batch. I drink lots of sours so dregs have been added generously, mostly to Primary. Dregs have included my favorite sours: Almanac, Holy Mountain, Rare Barrel, and The Bruery. Holy Mtn is newish but definitely my favorite brewery in Seattle and their sour dregs have been the most abundant in my brews so far. I know they referment in the bottle with Brett.
I currently have 2 batches in buckets (re-pitched on the original cakes) and three batches in secondary PET carboys. I previously had just a simple bucket and glass carboy setup but have since added another Bucket and 6 PET carboys for aging. Also have some 3-gallon carboys to split batches up and add fruit down the line. Soaked a med toast French oak brewstix sick in some Malbec for 2 days then added it to the first batch...added a splash of Malbec for character, adding other boozes is one of the advantages that we home brewers have! Only time will tell what I do with the other batches...fruit...oak...or nothing. Only one batch has a serious pellicle so far (a gorgeous one if there is such a thing). According to what I've read pellicles don't have a direct correlation to beer quality.
So far, all batches taste really good! Gives me lots of hope that they will be even better with age since they are still so young. My two batches in primary that were repitched on old cakes a month ago are exceptional so far...one is clean and tart and the other is quite funky. I'll prob repitch again on those cakes this weekend.
One question I have is my Gravity is still pretty high even on the 2.5 month old batch, like 1.024 (OG 1.048)...is that pretty normal? There's still airlock activity and a long time to go, so I have no doubt it will get down, just wondering if this seems on pace.
I started brewing 5-gal recipes of this recipe (mostly with Wyeast Lambic but also Roselare) in early December 2015. Instead of aged hops I use low AA hops (saaz, hallertau, and Liberty) calculated to 5-9 IBUs, so only a 15-30 min boil with around an ounce per 5 gal batch. I drink lots of sours so dregs have been added generously, mostly to Primary. Dregs have included my favorite sours: Almanac, Holy Mountain, Rare Barrel, and The Bruery. Holy Mtn is newish but definitely my favorite brewery in Seattle and their sour dregs have been the most abundant in my brews so far. I know they referment in the bottle with Brett.
I currently have 2 batches in buckets (re-pitched on the original cakes) and three batches in secondary PET carboys. I previously had just a simple bucket and glass carboy setup but have since added another Bucket and 6 PET carboys for aging. Also have some 3-gallon carboys to split batches up and add fruit down the line. Soaked a med toast French oak brewstix sick in some Malbec for 2 days then added it to the first batch...added a splash of Malbec for character, adding other boozes is one of the advantages that we home brewers have! Only time will tell what I do with the other batches...fruit...oak...or nothing. Only one batch has a serious pellicle so far (a gorgeous one if there is such a thing). According to what I've read pellicles don't have a direct correlation to beer quality.
So far, all batches taste really good! Gives me lots of hope that they will be even better with age since they are still so young. My two batches in primary that were repitched on old cakes a month ago are exceptional so far...one is clean and tart and the other is quite funky. I'll prob repitch again on those cakes this weekend.
One question I have is my Gravity is still pretty high even on the 2.5 month old batch, like 1.024 (OG 1.048)...is that pretty normal? There's still airlock activity and a long time to go, so I have no doubt it will get down, just wondering if this seems on pace.