So I'm finally getting around to writing up a tasting day post about the Rooster Red. Just to recap I am doing a full wild bug fermentation of the same base recipe that will be done around November 2013. In the meantime I am trying the method of souring a portion of the wort to create a quick sour. In this version, 25% of my wort was soured and then added back to the clean beer.
Overview: See above. Basically a quickly soured Flanders Red inspired beer.
ABV is at 6% and the IBUs come in at 16.
Appearance: Very nice amber color. Reminds me of Elliot Ness. Zero head and zero lacing. This is one of the bigger concerns from this tasting. More to come on this in the conclusion
Smell: Mission accomplished in one way! This beer smells sour. I was wondering how sour a beer with only 3 days of souring time. When you crack this open you know that you are about to drink a sour beer. Lemonade like tartness smell with some of the tart cherries adding to the aroma. No toast flavor from the oak. No malt aroma.
Taste: Well, this is where it gets promising yet disappointing. The sour flavor is there but not much else to support the beer. It has a bit of a metallic-like fruity flavor and no oak flavor whatsoever.
Overall/Conclusion: No other way to put it – this beer needs some work. I don't know for sure, but this beer would of been a lot better with SOME carbonation. If these flavors had some of the benefits of the carbonation I think it would of helped over all. No carbonation gave no mouth-feel made the beer one dimensional.
The beer was one dimensional because some of the other characteristics I was hoping for didn't shine through either. Below are two things that didn't really come through.
Oak - I asked the guy at the LHBS and he recommended the cubes vs the chips for the oak. He also said to let them go for at least 8 weeks for maximum benefits. Next batch will have cubes in place of the chips and instead of one month in the bucket I will go up to two months. I know that I set out to create a sour beer in two months but it seems I may need some more time just for the oak alone.
Fruity Flavors - I got some of the tart cherry flavor but I now think I need to use sweet cherries to counter balance the strong lactic acid flavor. I also need to figure out why the fruity flavor had a metallic flavor to it. I pitched the cherries in directly from the can (Oregon Tart Cherries) and wonder if I should of brought them to a boil and then cooled them before adding to the secondary.
Overall Complexion - Sour beers are some of the most complex beers in the world. Not this one. I have some Belgian Candi Syrup left over from a Saison I just brewed. I already have the 100% soured wort going so I cant change much for that batch.
Here is the new plan. Take 2-3 bottles worth of the 100% sour and bottle it and increase my carb levels pretty dramatically. See if this beer is better with just more carbonation.
The rest of the beer will be mixed with a clean beer that will be made with some Belgian Candi Syrup. I will mix it so I have a few bottles that have a 50-50 split and a few that are 75% sour with 25% clean beer. Maybe the mixing will add some sweetness/complexion and help balance this beer out.
Good thing about this is that all of my testing will be complete with this next batch. Look for results in about 2.5 months on the 100, 75, and 50% soured wort beers.
Till next time.
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