Brew Captain wrote:That looked so rank the other day under your stairs Mike that I had nightmares! Seriously! I don't think I am cut out for making sour beers or lambics for that matter. If I did I would just doctor up a batch with some lactic acid and skip the floating "white mold" phase!!!
Good luck!!
Cheers!
When it's done, I'm sure you'll still drink it
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So I had some free time this afternoon and decided it was time to take a sample from each carboy. The airlock only carboy sample was much more clear than the one with the oak dowel. After sampling both, I felt the oaked version was slightly better with more brett character but not so much horsey, I'd say more smokey if anything. It tasted more complex. There was a lot of fruit in the nose and on the palette with both. The airlock only version gravity was 1.010 and I didn't take a gravity reading for the oak dowel sample. Needless to say, I was quite surprised at how good they tasted at only 6 months! I'm seriously considering kegging the oak dowel one now and adding some oak cubes to the airlock batch and aging it for another 6 months.
STOKED!
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Dude, where did you score the wine thief (still haven't found mine to give you)? Did you have to poke through all that nastiness to get a sample or had it dropped on both?
This is definitely a beer that I won't say doesn't have any balls Mike!! It took balls to actually taste some of that!! I would have needed an hour long warm-up session before we quaffed some of that down!
I dunno Robert, even well into a session I'd still be out. I've tried sour beers.
I know a lot of you really appreciate them and I certainly won't tell you you shouldn't. I'm more in the camp that can appreciate what it takes to craft one of these but I still think they taste like smashed assholes.
Backyard Brewer wrote:I dunno Robert, even well into a session I'd still be out. I've tried sour beers.
I know a lot of you really appreciate them and I certainly won't tell you you shouldn't. I'm more in the camp that can appreciate what it takes to craft one of these but I still think they taste like smashed assholes.
Tis true! I've seen the faces he makes when he tastes sour beers. They're truely inspiring!!
Brew Captain wrote:Dude, where did you score the wine thief (still haven't found mine to give you)? Did you have to poke through all that nastiness to get a sample or had it dropped on both?
This is definitely a beer that I won't say doesn't have any balls Mike!! It took balls to actually taste some of that!! I would have needed an hour long warm-up session before we quaffed some of that down!
Cheers!
I used a turkey baster (it's never been used before) since I didn't want to use the one I use for beer. You would have puked if you would have seen what the dowel looked like when I pulled it out. The pellicle was sticking to it and it pretty much looked like... like... I dunno, it was white, gross looking, but smelled great! I was careful not to disturb things when I was sampling so everything looks the same again.
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In case anyone cares, here's a little photo update on my sour beers. It's been over a year now since I brewed them and they continue to maintain a nice thick pelicle.
Note: NOT FOR THE SQEAMISH!
Pure laziness has kept me from kegging the oak dowel one - but I think I'm ready. I plan on letting the other carboy sit for another year. I am going to keg this weekend - I really need to get around to it. It tasted great but a little light back in October so I'm looking forward to tasting it 6mo later.
Non oak dowel version:
Oak dowel version:
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