Tasting Day: Sour Golden Pale Ale

The first beer is ready from my three batches of Sour Pale Ale made from a Belgian Blonde/Golden ale recipe was ready to drink last week.  This was a pretty basic recipe that where Pilsner, Wheat and Aromatic malt made of up grain bill.  The mash was then inoculated with some a home grown lactic culture to sit for 2 days and then boiled as normal.  This particular batch was fermented with a Belgian Wheat strain.

ABV = 7.0%
IBU = 18
SRM = 4

Appearance: Nailed it.  Nice golden color.  Bright yellow where the light slips through with a deeper orange color on the edges.

Smell: Smells like the lactic bacteria starter and nothing else.  No fruity or lemon smells.  Just the funky lactic sourness.

Mouthfeel: Good carbonation on this one but the mouthfeel is still a bit weak and thin.

Taste: Fail. This one tastes exactly as it smells.  Nothing but the lactic funkiness from the starter.  Since the grain bill is so basic there is nothing else in the grain bill to complement the lactic funkiness.  My original thought was the lemon tartness from the Wyeast Belgian Wheat strain would compliment the lactic sour from the bacteria but I am barely able to get the lemon flavor.  I knew that without the addition of some specialty grains that this beer was going to rely heavily on the lactic sour starter and the yeast.  The yeast in this case was just not strong enough to overcome the lactic starter.

I have better hopes for the remaining two batches - which will actually turn into four batches.  The remaining batches are fermented with Brett and some are fermented with Brett, Pedio and Lactic cultures.  Here is the remaining beer to try from this batch.

1. 100% Brett Lambic Yeast - 1 gallon
2. Roeselare Yeast - 1 gallon
3. Roeselare Yeast with Raisins - 1/2 gallon
4. Roeselare Yeast with Raspberries - 1/2 gallon

My hope is the stronger yeast flavors from the Brett Lambic and the Roeselare will help pull this beer back from the dumps.  I also think the beer I tried here with the Belgian Wheat yeast could of been something if I added fruit to the secondary.  It just seemed to be super one dimensional.  I learned from the Flanders Red "Funk with Less Fuss" experiment that it is easy for these to taste one dimensional so you need to add some extra ingredients to help balance that lactic sourness created from the starter.

Till next time.