Decided to crack into one of these tonight. Good news – this beer shows that I have learned from my first "Quick Sour" and improved on this one. Bad news - if you look through my previous posts you know that it took a lot to get to this point. A lot of issues happend with this brew. Luckily I was able to save the beer and have some brew to taste. Big thanks to Mike over at the Mad Fermentationist for helping me with a solid yeast selection to get the stuck fermentation moving again.
Overview: A Flanders Red Sour that was created with a sour mash with a mix of dark candi syrup and cherry tart syrup. Fermented with California Ale yeast and then Wyeast French Saison to get the beer down to the appropriate gravity (stuck fermentation). This was two beers that did not go as planned so they were mixed. I dont really know what the IBU or ABV is on this beer. It tastes pretty strong though.
Appearance: This is one category that I improved on. The color is a more traditional deep copper red color - almost brown. Big white head of foam that dissipates pretty quickly and leaves a thin white layer.
Smell: Biggest aroma is alcohol. This makes me believe this is a high octane brew. Hidden behind the alcohol is a small lactic sour smell.
Taste: Pretty much tastes like it smells. Alcohol is up front with some very faint lactic sour flavors. Also hidden in there is some complex "Belgian" flavors. Some of those flavors are the classic pepper flavor from some saisons and some fruit flavors. I think the fruit flavor is coming from the dark candi syrup vs the tart cherry syrup because the taste has no cherry or tartness to it. I taste the cherry well after I take a sip. It has a bit of a cough medicine fruity flavor that follows everything else. Overall pretty complex. Maybe too complex. We will see how it ages in the bottle.
Mouth: Medium-light body. Seems right for the style I was going after. Carbonation is great. Much better than the last attempt.
Overall: As stated above, this is a much better effort. I would grade my last "Qucik Sour" as a 2 out of 10. This one may be a 4 out of 10. Keep in mind this is based on the idea of creating a quick sour. Not in the same playing field as the traditionally aged sours so my grading is based on this particular circumstance – not out of all beers possible. This beer needs less alcohol flavor and some more lactic funk.
Will I have another. Sure. Will I run to get another one. Probably not.
Progress has been made and I have learned a lot with this stubborn beer so it's a success in my mind.
I will be trying some of the other mixes I made in the next few weeks and post results for each one.
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