Red Sour Beer

My first shot at a red sour beer turned out pretty well, I really enjoy drinking it.  I wanted to see if I could perhaps get a little more "mouth-feel" out of the beer, and maybe a bit of sweetness.  In my military service, when we went to the range and were zero'ing our weapons, we were told to make "bold dope changes"; in that tradition, I've really ratcheted up the amount of Special B I'm using, using up what I have left.

Brew Day: 5 Dec 2017

Partial Mash:
4 oz Vienna
4 oz Victory
4 oz CaraMunich
8 oz Special B
2 oz CaraPils

Boil #1 (20 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME
4 oz table sugar

After cooling the wort to about 90 deg F, transfer to a sanitized fermenter, racking it on to 2 Good
Belly Straight Shots.  Place on a warming plate for at least 48 hrs.

Boil #2 (20 min): 8 Dec 2017

Hops: 7 g Centennial hops (@ 20 min)

Yeast: T-58

A couple of hours after pitching the yeast, I was down in the basement taking care of some things, and I detected a yeast odor coming from the bathroom where I keep the fermenters.  That was odd, because I usually catch a bit of the air freshener my wife has in the bathroom, so I checked it out.  It turned out that at some point the yeast reaction blew the blow-off tube out of the fermenter cap with enough force that there was beer all over the walls and curtain of the shower, including on the ceiling.  My first reaction was to place the blow-off tube back into the cap, and as I began cleaning up, I could hear bubbles coming from the blow-off bottle.  I'd lost what looks to about 20% of the beer, and I'll see this one through...I'd like to see how this one turns out.  The bubbles are pretty consistent, and will likely peter out over time, of course, but for now the reaction seems to be going well.

Addendum, 17 Dec: Racked the beer to secondary today; just from the aroma, it appears I was able to rescue the beer before any major damage was done.  I'm looking forward to bottling and trying this beer, and it's not going to be around for long.  As such, I'm going to bottle into repurposed soda bottles.

Addendum, 24 Dec: I'll probably end up referring to this one as "Attrition Brown Sour".  I bottled today, racking the beer on to 1 oz of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 c boiling water.  I got 2 big flip top bottles and 3 repurposed soda bottles, but one of the flip top bottles slipped out of my hands and shattered on the floor. I put the one remaining flip top bottle on a shelf below the downstairs sink, to let it age with a couple of other bottles I have down there, and put the soda bottles in the storage bin I use for letting bottles rest.  I'll give them about 3 weeks before I try them, but I'm going to let the flip top bottle age for a while beyond that.

Addendum, 7 Jan: Chilled one of the repurposed soda bottles this weekend, and tried the beer tonight.  Very good.  I'm considering going with something a bit "heavier", by letting the beer rest on oak chips soaked in red wine or bourbon, such as the Hex Dark Sour Ale.  This is definitely going to take some research, particularly around preparing and soaking the oak chips, how long to rest the beer on the oak, etc.  Like everything else on the Internet, there are a lot of opinions on the topic, some of them in direct contradiction to others.  I am leaning toward the bourbon, though, for some hints of vanilla...we'll see, though. 

Flemish Red Ale

I've had an opportunity to try a couple of beers lately that were referred to as Flemish or Flanders red ales, and I've really enjoyed them.  They're usually sour, full-bodied, and with a heavy sweetness that's reminiscent of dried dark fruit. It turns out that Northern Brew has a 3 gal extract recipe for a Flemish Red Ale, and since I had some of the ingredients, I thought I'd give it a shot.  All I need to do is a bit of math for the reduction in volume, and I have a pretty good souring process, so I'm all set.

Brew Day: 7 Sept 2017

Partial Mash:
8 oz Vienna malt
3 oz Caramunich
3 oz Special B
2 oz Carapils

Boil #1 (20 min):
1 lb Golden Light DME
4 oz sugar

At this point, no hops are added.  Follow all of the normal processes (partial mashing, boil, cooling the wort). Once the wort is cooled, I added 2 Good Belly Straight Shots to the fermenter and then racked.  Then, I moved the fermenter to a warming plate and wrapped it in a towel; I now need to let it sit for at least 48 hrs.

Boil #2 (20 min - 10 Sept):
20 min boil to kill the bugs.  Cool the wort following the boil, using normal processes, pitch the yeast.

Hops: 7 g Styrian Goldings hops (@ 20 min)

Yeast: T-58

Cooled the wort and pitched the yeast via the usual method(s).

Addendum, 22 Sept: Racked to secondary.

Addendum, 6 Oct: Bottled tonight, using 2.5 T of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 c boiling water.  The beer smelled really good during transfer; I got 8 good brown bottles out of it, plus one former Sprite bottle that I "repurposed".