As I mentioned in my GAB recap, I've been inspired to start my own sour program. I was first introduced to sour beers about 2 years ago and my appreciation for them has slowly grown, peaking with Dinner with the Brett Pack and The Lost Abbey's Veritas, which is hands down the best beer I've ever had.
I started brewing sour beer in Fall 2014. My first was a Belgian Quad - 5 gallons were fermented clean then force carbed in a keg before bottling into bombers (I try to drink one each month - it's aging fantastically) and for the other 5 gallons I pitched one pack of Wyeast Roeselare for primary. The second sour was a Flanders Red (again with Roeselare), and after that I brewed a Berliner. Even though the Berliner was the last sour brewed, it is the only one I've kegged so far. I already wrote about how well that one came out, and I'll be sure to post reviews of the other two when they are ready (soon, hopefully).
These gave me a bit of experience, and I've learned a lot along the way about how to increase the odds of having tasty results (specifically, minimize oxygen contact and brew to blend). I'm thinking of those 3 beers (plus an unintentionally sour brown) as my sour beer pre-school education. I think I'm ready for the next step.
In order to start a more serious sour program I first needed more fermentation space. I started by looking at temperature controlled storage units, but quickly learned the "controlled" temperature is usually still in the 80s. What I was really wanting was storage space held below 70*, so I had to go back to the drawing board. Eventually, I landed on simply adjusting the space I already had, which is nice because it is free.
The first step was to ditch the fermentation chamber I had built. The chamber worked fine for ales, but was unable to reach lager temperatures, and cold crashing was out of the question. A chest freezer would solve this problem and would be way more efficient in terms of electricity use. The problem, and the reason I didn't purchase one to begin with, is that it won't fit through the door into my brewery (closet). Luckily I have an incredibly supportive wife who agreed to allow me to plop a chest freezer down in the game room right outside the closet. So that solves two problems - more efficient, colder fermentation and more space in the closet.
The first step was to ditch the fermentation chamber I had built. The chamber worked fine for ales, but was unable to reach lager temperatures, and cold crashing was out of the question. A chest freezer would solve this problem and would be way more efficient in terms of electricity use. The problem, and the reason I didn't purchase one to begin with, is that it won't fit through the door into my brewery (closet). Luckily I have an incredibly supportive wife who agreed to allow me to plop a chest freezer down in the game room right outside the closet. So that solves two problems - more efficient, colder fermentation and more space in the closet.
For my sour program, I really wanted to be able to have 3 to 4 "projects" going on at the same time in 3 gallon carboys, plus room for a small barrel would be nice. The extra space created by ditching the old chamber was more than enough to add shelves capable of holding 12 three-gallon carboys in addition to all the other stuff I already had. Not a ton of room for a barrel, but that won't come along for a long while anyway.. I'll have to get creative when that time comes.
Before / After
The next problem to solve was temperature. The normal temperature in the closet during the summer is 75-80, which is too high for aging sours (or so I've heard..). My solution was the Ecobee3 - a smart thermostat similar to Nest, except it comes with a wireless thermometer that communicates with the head unit (plus the ability to add, like, 30 more). This thing has some higher level capability like the Nest, but the thing I like is that I'm able to ignore the temperature read by the head unit and only drive the A/C based on the temp the wireless thermometer in the closet is reading. I turned off all the "smart" functions and just set it to hold at 68 all the time. I'm lucky in that the closet has it's own A/C vent, so from there I can adjust the vents so that when the closet is held at 68, the main room is in the mid 70s and comfortable. I assume this is something I'll need to re-adjust periodically as the outside temp changes. Recently, the temps have (finally) dropped low enough so that the A/C doesn't have to run at all and both rooms stay comfortable with the closet holding at or below 68.
Another benefit of the temp controlled room is I can now more reliably cellar beers. 68* is still about 10* higher than I'd like for this purpose, but it's way better than 78*. I've started a nice little collection of beers and have plans to use the dregs from those in future projects.
Another benefit of the temp controlled room is I can now more reliably cellar beers. 68* is still about 10* higher than I'd like for this purpose, but it's way better than 78*. I've started a nice little collection of beers and have plans to use the dregs from those in future projects.
With temperature controlled souring space acquired, all I had to do was outfit it all with fermenters. I worked with the owner of my local homebrew show, Farmboy Brew Shop to lock down the 12 three-gallon glass carboys, and also purchased 2 30L Speidel Fermenters. The Igloo chest freezer I picked out easily fits both of these (not by accident - it took a ton of research to find one that would fit in the space I had, hold both fermenters, and also fit my budget). This set-up allows me to do primary fermentation of 13+ gallons with temperature control and then fill up 4 separate 3 gallon carboys for souring. My plan will most likely be to start with pitching different critters into each to learn about the impact each makes. In the end I'll make the best blend(s) I can, keg some straight if it's good enough, and dump anything that's not up to snuff. My goal is 3-5 gallons of fantastic blended beer If I can get another couple gallons of good beer before having to dump that's just lagniappe.
After I've done enough batches to start picking out my favorite recipes and critters, I'll start playing with other variables (mash temp, primary temp, microbe pitch rate, etc.) to learn what impact those have, and then start working in some oak experiments. Eventually I'd like to start barrel aging some, and maybe even do some open fermentation.. All I know is I'm ridiculously excited and I can't wait to get started. First up will be a basic bretted brown ale. I've got space for 2 or 3 other projects but haven't decided what those will be. I've got a few ideas but am having a hard time narrowing it down - so many options!!
More to come...