Usually my brews are well thought out. Use X yeast, pitch Y million cells per milliliter, and ferment at Z temperature, etc. In my quest to brew an astonishingly strong sour, no such approach existed. All the commercially available bacteria from major yeast suppliers have alcohol tolerances that peak around 8-10% ABV. The brettanomyces strains are capable of surviving in a much higher alcohol environment, working in conjunction with pediococcus to achieve super attenuation.Most commercial strong sours are a product of blending, or rely on the acidity from fruit such as sour cherries. Blending was an option for this project, but even with blending you hit an ABV ceiling. If you are planning to blend a 13% old ale with some pale sour solera of a modest 6%, say 3 parts to 1, you are already at 11.25%.
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| Rodenbach foeder forest |
There are straight, unblended strong sours that exist, such as Rodenbach Vin de Cereale, which is a product of a single foeder that's been aging for 3+ years. Some of these giant oak casks are 150 years old, so there is plenty of alcohol tolerant bugs that have evolved in this time living in the wood. Too bad the average home brewer doesn't have the luxury of a 150 year old foeder in their arsenal.
I chose to throw everything I had in my arsenal at this one. A healthy 3 liter starter of WLP670 American Farmhouse Ale was the primary pitch. This was co-pitched with a plethora of brett and bugs. Every commercially available strain of brett blended with a WLP566 Saison II and WLP530 Abbey Ale (from a previous brew), a fresh smack pack of Wyeast pedio, and an 8 week old starter of 20+ commercial bottle dregs. I am confident given enough time there is something in there that will get this beer where I want it, and if not, there's always blending.
Strong Sour - (brewed 5/26/13)
Size: 5.5 gal
Boil: 7.5 gal
Yeast: See above.
OG: 1.111
Grist
18 lbs. Maris Otter
3 lbs. Flaked Oats
3 lbs. Flaked Wheat
Kettle Additions
1.2 oz. Magnum @ 50 minutes for 17 IBUs
1 1/4 lbs. Dark Brown Sugar @ 30 minutes
1 1/4 lbs. Table Sugar @ 30 minutes
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| More beer ghosts popping up in my glasses! |
-Mashed at 148F for 60 minutes. Aerated 2 minutes pure oxygen.
-Pitched at 70F, fermenting in the 68-70F range for first three days.
-Day four, temp dropping to 66F, added heat to finish out fermentation.
Updates
6/3/13: SG: 1.040
6/11/13: SG: 1.020
10/23/13: SG: 1.007, racked to secondary. There is actually already some lactic sourness developing, tastes like and imperial oud bruin, but too sweet for me still.
1/17/14: SG: 1.007. Really surprised to see no drop in gravity almost 3 months since the last reading! On the other hand, maybe not that unexpected since the ABV is sitting at 13.7% right now (93% apparent attenuation). The exciting part, however, is that it has developed more complexity and lost most of the sweetness I tasted last time. There are a few different levels of sourness (more tart than straight sour) on the front and back with the lactic in the middle, creating more depth. Definite alcohol warmth. The nose and finish really reminds me of some big bourbon barrel strong ales/sours. A tiny amount of astringency (in the finish mostly), as Jeff said he has detected in some of his strong sours in the comments below. This is probably contributing to the perceived barrel character. So far, my expectations have been exceeded.
