Beer Style: Wild/Sour
Funky Blondy Mixed Fermentation Sour
Brewed by students from the University of Limpopo, this blonde sour beer was awarded bronze in the Intervarsitybrew competition’s sour beer category. The recipe uses a blonde ale base to express light to moderate malty aroma, possibly with a light bread or caramel note, and it also expresses low to moderate fruitiness, with medium hop aroma. Such low characters will not interfere with the sourness, acidity and funky character contributed by fermenting yeast and bacteria.
Russian River Brewing Co.’s Consecration clone
Consecration is a dark ale that is initially fermented with Belgian Abbey Ale yeast. After the beer is done fermenting and all the primary yeast is removed, the beer goes into barrels (this homebrew version calls for oak chips, for ease) with dried currants and Brettanomyces yeast initially. After 2–3 months, the bacteria is added. All of this is left to age in used Cabernet Sauvignon wine barrels until it is ready to rack off the fruit and be packaged. – Vinnie Cilurzo
Quick Sour Beer Techniques
Sour beer is rising in popularity, but not everyone has the patience or confidence to allow wild airborne yeasts and bugs do the job changing your clean wort to a sour beer.
pH vs. TA in Sour Beers
pH might not be the most effective method for measuring the perceived sourness when brewing beer. Due to various acid strengths and the buffering capacity of different worts, titratable acidity (TA) is the
Revolution Brewing Co.’s Freedom of Speach clone
Revolution’s Freedom Series of fruited sour beers brings together the tartness of a lower-ABV kettle sour beer with a wide range of fruit flavors — in this case peach.
Catharina Sour
Catharina sour — the fruited sour beer style that originated in Brazil — has continued to evolve and catch the attention of brewers across the world since hitting the international national stage just a few years ago. Learn to brew your own Catharina sour in time for summer with standard kettle-souring techniques and a whole lot of fresh fruit.
Catharina Sour with Cupuaçu and Pitaya
Catharina Sour with Cupuaçu and Pitaya Recipe courtesy of Chico Milani, ACervA Catarinense (5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)OG = 1.050 FG = 1.008IBU = 7 SRM = 3 ABV = 5.5% Cupuaçu (Theobroma grandilorum)
Cervejaria UNIKA’s Wild Guava clone
Araçá is a Brazilian fruit with a flavor like guava and apple; guava is an acceptable substitute. Maracujá is passion fruit. The recipe uses the pulp of the fruit, with seeds, skins, and stems removed
Traditional German Sours
Go into a brewery or craft beer bar with a decent tap list and there’s a pretty good chance you’ll find a fruited Berliner weisse or Gose. The styles have been revived over the past decade or so, however they are almost always brewed using the quick kettle-souring technique. To make a more complex version you need to revert to traditional techniques including mixed-fermentation, extended aging, no-boil, and bottle conditioning. Michael Tonsmeire shares how to bring these techniques to your homebrewed versions.
Sapwood Cellars’ Salzig clone
The coriander in this Gose provides a beautiful lemon-lime citrusy flavor that only adds to the refreshing qualities of this session beer.
Sapwood Cellars’ Little By Slowly clone
This Berliner weisse combines acidity, bread dough wheaty notes, lemony-hay funk, and high carbonation.
Sour Beer Techniques Workshop
Learn European as well as newer American methods to produce sour and funky beers from Michael Tonsmeire, who literally wrote the book on the subject with American Sour Beers. Michael will demonstrate
