Brewing TV #49: Sour Beers - The Recipes

Here are some of the recipes you saw being brewed, fermented, blended, oaked, bottled, poured, and otherwise made awesome in Brewing TV - Episode 49: Sour Beers.

Included are the Flanders Red, Oud Bruin and Brett Barrel Imperial Porter/Stout. Thanks to Josh Voeltz and Dan Boody. 

Dan Boody's Flanders Red Ale

OG: 1.052

FG: 1.009

IBU - 18, ABV - 5.5%, SRM - 17

Boil volume - 3.5 gallons

Batch size - 5.5 gallons

Fermentables:

- 1 lbs Amber DME

- 5 lbs Light DME

Steeping grains:

- 0.5 lb Belgian CaraMunich

- 0.5 lb Belgian Aromatic

- 0.5 lb Belgian Special B

Hops:

- 0.75 oz East Kent Goldings (pellets - 5%AA) @ 60 min

Process:

- Steep grains for 30 min at 153F

- Remove grains, do not rinse or squeeze bag

- Stir in Amber and Light DME

- Bring to a boil, add 60 min hops

- Cool wort, transfer to carboy, top off with water

- Pitch Wyeast 3763 Roeselare and 2 oz oak cubes into primary

- Let sit 1-2 years, if possible

- blend with a younger version of a Flanders Red

Dan Boody's Oud Bruin

OG: 1.070

FG: 1.014

IBU - 22, ABV - 7.2%, SRM - 23

Boil volume - 3.5 gallons

Batch size - 5.5 gallons

Fermentables:

- 1 lb Amber DME

- 7 lbs Light DME

Steeping Grains:

- 1 lb Belgian CaraMunich

- 0.75 lb Belgian Aromatic

- 0.50 lb Belgian Special B

- 0.125 lb British Black Patent

Hops:

- 1 oz East Kent Goldings (pellets - 5.0%AA) @ 60 min

Process:

- Steep grains for 30 min at 153F

- Remove grains, do not rinse or squeeze bag

- Stir in Amber and Light DME

- Bring to a boil, add 60 min hops

- Cool wort, transfer to carboy, top off with water

- Primary: Pitch Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast, let sit two weeks

- Secondary: Transfer to sanitized fermentor, pitch Wyeast 3763 Roeselare yeast and 1.5 oz oak cubes

- Let sit 6-12 months for a slightly soured beer; let sit two years and blend with younger batch for more complex profile, balancing malt character and sour sensation

Josh Voeltz' Brett Barrel Imperial Porter/Stout

Josh's notes:

"Here's a shot at the recipe. It is calculated for 10 gallons of finished beer, with 13 gallons collected at boil. The original concoction came from combining three malt bills from NB Limited Edition recipes: Twelfth Night Stout, St. James Gate Foreign Extra Stout, and Belgian Poorter (attached below). The first time I brewed this I used the hop schedule from the SJGFES, which was 1 oz. Summit @ 60 mins, and 1 oz. Fuggle @ 30 mins. Hops in this recipe are simply meant for some preservation and shouldn't be present in the finished beer (although, you could certainly change that). I wanted the characteristics of the Brett. C. to take charge. The second batch I used Dawson's homegrown Centennials and changed the schedule to 1 oz. @ 60 and 1 oz. @ 45. Depending on efficiency, one should hit around 1.090 to 1.093 OG or more, so a healthy strong yeast starter or fresh yeast cake (even better!) will be necessary if you choose to pitch on a California Lager yeast. Once I was down to 1.021 or so, I racked into secondary and pitched one vial of White Labs WLP645 Brett Claussenii and added 2 oz. of Hungarian Medium Plus oak cubes. Common practice is to pasteurize the oak prior to adding it to the beer, and I recommend this even though I didn't follow suit. Eight months later, the beer was "ready" to drink and ended up at a final gravity of 1.018. The beer was great at that point, but it became even better after 14 months.

The second time around brewing this recipe, I skipped the yeast fermentation and pitched directly on the bacteria cake that was left over from the previous secondary...oak cubes and all. It took less than two weeks to hit a final gravity of 1.018 from 1.090 OG. Once terminal gravity was reached, I added the oak again. This beer is only three months old right now, but will continue to age for another 3-6 months before bottling."

Grain bill for 10 gallons all-grain:

- 10.50 lbs American Two-row

- 9.50 lbs Maris Otter

- 10.25 lbs Belgian Pale Ale

- 0.50 lb Flaked Oats

- 2.00 lbs Flaked Barley

- 0.75 lb Belgian Aromatic

- 0.75 lb Chocolate Rye

- 0.25 lb English Extra Dark Crystal

- 0.50 lb English Dark Crystal

- 0.50 lb Belgian Special B

- 0.50 lb Debittered Black

- 1.00 lb Roasted Barley