Last weekend the crew of Wild Brewing got together and with
the help of some friends and family bottled the remaining 3 barrels of sour
beer. It took almost an entire afternoon but by the end of the day we had a
pile of freshly labeled sour beer. In case anyone is curious about how we
bottled our sour beer I have included the directions at the bottom.
The three beers that we bottled were a Flanders Red,
Flanders Sour Pale, and a Cherry Saison. Early on I noticed that the Saison had
some kind of bacterial growth in the barrel and based on how ropey the growth
was I guessed that it was pediococcus. I had read somewhere that Brett can
break down some of the proteins that are produced by pedio. I inoculated the
barrel with several strains of Brett and within 2 months the ropey layer on the
top of the beer had disappeared. What could have been a very unpleasant barrel
of beer turned into a very tasty sour.I will post reviews of how the beers taste as they finish
their bottle conditioning period.
Bottling Sour Beer:
I have now used this method for 5 batches of beer and it has
worked out very well each time. I would like to note that the beer that I use
this for is almost completely flat and has no fermentable sugars left. I use
freshly cultured champagne yeast because it is both acid and alcohol tolerant.
It may produce a tiny amount of fruity aroma but I have not noticed it in the
bottles. For 5 gallons I dissolve 3.5 ounces of table sugar in 1 cup of water
and bring it to a boil. I then add the sugar water to the bottling bucket along
with about 5 milliliters of Champagne yeast slurry (the slurry is fairly
liquid). After a quick and gentle stir it is ready to bottle!
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