Sour Lessons
It’s a good thing I recently came to terms with my complex relationship with sour beers because I just bottled my first sour batch. Before the holidays, I brewed a saison designed to be peppery by using alternate ingredients (toasted grains of paradise, Saaz hops) rather than the more blunt spiciness of peppercorns.
I used a saison yeast harvested from a friend’s batch. Although I ramped it up before brew day, I didn’t notice the off smell indicating it had gotten contaminated. Day two, after pitching it in the wort, I came home to a house smelling of rotten egg. Rather than panic, I let the yeast do its thing, hoping it would mellow out. The results were interesting enough to try bottling.
The beer is fairly effervescent with a tangy-ness from the yeast that plays off the peppery-ness from the other ingredients. Due to the unpredictably of the batch, I only bottled half of it. I’m also storing the beer in a cold place to discourage any additional fermentation that might happen.
I have gotten good feedback from a couple of friends who enjoyed the first bottles (one brewer and one wine drinker). But, as the beer conditions, I suspect the instability will become more noticeable. It’s a shame this beer will likely peak during the coldest time of the year because it would be refreshing during those steamy DC summers. I’ll be monitoring how well it holds up over the coming weeks.
Come get some while it lasts!