Sour Mash Experiment

I have had 3-4 sour beers in my life and really enjoyed every single one that I have had.

Only problem – they are just harder to come by in the Pittsburgh area and some of the big guys in the US market are not available around town.

Russian River bottles at the bar?
Nope. According to their website, the closet place is Philly.

Jolly Pumpkin at your distributor?
Nope. Unless there is some special list I'm not on.

So the solution is pretty simple for me – make it.

I have read a lot about it on other blogs and listened to podcasts, etc etc.  The one thing that is not too fun about brewing the sours at home is how long it can take. It seems the sour mash technique is a way to get some funky flavors while not waiting over a year for your brew to mature.

The goal:  To make a Belgium-inspired beer using the sour mash technique and try to get some complex and tasty brews in 8-10 weeks.

My experiment is pretty simple.  I am going to sour mash a Flanders Red wort  in different amounts.  For example, I will sour 25% of the wort in this first beer.  Next up will be a beer that will have all of the wort soured for what I am calling a 100% sour.

From the two extremes I will then decide how to tweak the recipe.

I am using the sour mash technique from an article on BeerSmith.

More details on the 25% Sour coming next.
Cheers.