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Hear me out....Next on my “Brewbucket List” is a sour stout, but looking at the threads and recipes on the topic, I don’t want to wait for Roeselare or bottle dregs to bring the funk and complexity when I do have a gallon of Dr. Lambic’s Flanders Red (Dr. Lambic’s Homebrewed Sour Red Ale), a mixed fermentation of Lactobacillus delbruckii (WLP6770), S-04, and Brett lambicus that’s been aging for over a year. It definitely has the funk factor and a light touch of astringency but it has never gotten more than vaguely sour. A few months ago, I kettle-soured half a gallon of amber extract, fermented with S-04, blended it with blackberry juice, and then blended *that* with my second-to-last gallon of the sour red and it made a really nice fruited “pseudo-lambic”.
I was thinking I could do something similar with a stout recipe. I could brew 1-2 gallons of a “stout base,” quick-sour it with lacto down to the 3.6-3.8 pH range, and lightly hop to stabilize the pH when I think it’s at a good level of sourness. Once fermented out, I would blend it and bottle it with the red ale to create a final beer that works as a tasty, complex sour stout that hopefully won’t need to age as long before drinking because half of it is already 1+ years old. However, I only have one shot at this because I’m down to my last gallon of the red ale, and typically don’t create recipes from scratch like this, so calling in the brain trust for feedback to see if this is the best or worst idea I've ever had.
Taste and composition considerations:
Lactobacillus plantarum (source TBd)
Yeast – some highly attenuative Belgian or British yeast, maybe Safale-BE256
Saaz (or similar) hop tea (added after souring with lacto), aim for <10 IBUs
I was thinking I could do something similar with a stout recipe. I could brew 1-2 gallons of a “stout base,” quick-sour it with lacto down to the 3.6-3.8 pH range, and lightly hop to stabilize the pH when I think it’s at a good level of sourness. Once fermented out, I would blend it and bottle it with the red ale to create a final beer that works as a tasty, complex sour stout that hopefully won’t need to age as long before drinking because half of it is already 1+ years old. However, I only have one shot at this because I’m down to my last gallon of the red ale, and typically don’t create recipes from scratch like this, so calling in the brain trust for feedback to see if this is the best or worst idea I've ever had.
Taste and composition considerations:
- Because of the brett, if I want the blend to age in the bottle without overcarbing, the stout base will need to end up being really, really dry. I was playing around with the blending calculator and if the red got to 1.0 or thereabouts, I could blend in 1 gallon of stout base at 1.008, 1.25 at 1.007, etc. So flaked oats are probably out of the question, even though that’s a common ingredient in sour stouts and ToD clones. I’m open to blending and aging for a few months if needed to avoid risk of shrapnel.
- I want the final blend to taste roasty enough to be a stout without the roastiness and sourness clashing. So I think I need to up the level of roasted grains above what I would do if not blending, without overdoing it. I was thinking to rely on chocolate rye and a touch of Carafa Special III to get there but not sure if that will be stout-like enough without including roasted barley. If it needs to be roast barley, how much or how little if I can get away with?
- Bonus if the stout base is drinkable on its own after souring for any left over after blending. Extra bonus if the blended final beer would also work well with cherries or blackberries.
- 3 # 2-row (67%)
- 8 oz rye malt (11%)
- 6 oz Crystal 60 (8%)
- 6oz chocolate rye (8%)
- 4oz Carafa special III (6%)
Lactobacillus plantarum (source TBd)
Yeast – some highly attenuative Belgian or British yeast, maybe Safale-BE256
Saaz (or similar) hop tea (added after souring with lacto), aim for <10 IBUs
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