Beer Forum

I recently brewed my first sour beer, Jamil's Oud Bruin from BCS. After gathering as much info about sours as I could, the consensus was that Jamil's method of nearly full fermentation with neutral ale yeast, then adding sour mix to secondary takes FOREVER (well over a year) to get sourness (if ever). I know that JZ is about as reliable a source as you can get, but I've heard a thousand stories about undersoured beers and very few about oversoured beers. So I decided I would only let it go a few days with Cal ale yeast and then transfer to a secondary and add the Belgian sour mix. Everything went fine, strong fermentation in primary. But after a couple days in the secondary with the sour mix, I was seeing very little activity. Now, 2 weeks later, there is no activity whatsoever. No foam, no pellicle, no airlock activity. I am not normally such a worry wort, but when I have a beer that's going to take this long to be ready, I REALLY don't want to screw it up. Any experienced sour makers out there with some info? Should I pitch another vial of sour mix? Or am I just too impatient?

If you're already worrying about a sour after only 2 weeks, then the next 1-2 years will be a long lesson in patience. Tuck it somewhere where you can forget about it for the most part and come to grips with the fact that it won't be done for at least 12-18 months.

RDWHAHB

I know, patience. I guess at this point my main concern isn't with time, I just wish there wase at least a bubble from the airlock from time to time. I am thinking that I am not going to get a full ferment. I mean, we're talking about an OG of over 1.070 - it seems there should have been some airlock action for more than just a few days. Did I rack it out of the primary too soon and rob it of yeast? Like I said, I'm not normally such a worryer, just don't want to wait for a year to find out my beer is garbage.

Don't worry about it. In my understanding it requires O2 for brett to form a pellicle. So if you transferred to a secondary with some good yeast activity you likely scrubbed out nearly all the O2 from the fermenter which means the brett doesn't need to form a pellicle just yet. It doesn't mean that the brett and the bacterium aren't beginning to work. I did a secondary brett ferment on a stuck belgian dark strong and it went from 1.040 to 1.020 with only hints of a pellicle.

Adam: Do you know what the gravity was when you transferred to secondary?

Gravity was at around 1.032 (down from a starting gravity of 1.072)

Have no fear! You are on your way to making a killer beer!

I am currently drinking an oud bruin that is 20 mos old and tasting great. It even can age some more to probably get better. I did the same process as you and let the beer age for 18 mos before even tasting. It was good, but not as sour as I would've liked it. So I blended with a bit of flanders red that was ready to be packaged too.

A good oud bruin should have a moderate amount of sourness at most. WL sour mix is a good blend and can be made more complex by adding the dregs of 1-2 commercial sours you enjoy. Depending on how sour you want your flanders brown to be....These beers do take time and patience. Take a taste in 6 mos and then decide if you want it to be more sour, if so RAGE the dregs!!!

brewinhard wrote:These beers do take time and patience.

Is there someplace I can buy these??