So I recently just completed a series of brews for a wedding – the light sour – which ended up going down a blast. As a result of brewing the beer many many times, I now have the recipe pretty much perfect. The only problem with posting it for everyone to brew, is that all were fermented completely open, and the yeast has been going for so long now if probably isn’t the same. My best guess would be to start with the Amalgamation Brett blend, that I used for my first sour beer, and this should be pretty similar.
The recipe is
1kg Light DME
4 grams of Ella Hops
Amalgamation Brett Blend
You want a full 10L. The important point is to use a Demijohn, so you can control the amount of oxygen. You really need to get it close to the top, so you get a little bit, but not too much acidity. Remember that Brett makes acetic acid, and you want a bit but not too much. It’s a bit of a goldilocks. I’ve found that 4 weeks is perfect for developing a nice, slightly sour flavour, with a very fruity nose. After that – bottle it, and give it another 4 weeks.
So having done this, and pretty much cleared all of my home brew, I got down to the last few bottles – all of varying brews. The very last was one of the first sours I brewed. The several months of ageing had softened all the rough edges and turned it into something absolutely delicious. This motivated my current brew – an attempted to make it bigger, better and bolder. For the bigger – I’d decided to ramp up the amount of Caramalt substantially – 400grams worth. Added to this was another 200grams of sugar, and a tin of coopers light malt extract as the base. From there, I boiled for 60 minutes, to get rid of any nasty points of the caramalt, with 8g of ella hops.
So we have:
1.5kg Light LME
400g Caramalt, Steeped at 70 C (approximately – cause my thermometer broke)
200g Sugar
8g ella hops
All for a 10L brew as usual. This will go into a plastic bucket, which is a little porous, until is has enough acidity, after which I’ll move it into demijohns and rack it for a month or two. Hopefully we’ll end up with something with a good a sour profile, a bit of sweetness, and nothing too astringent. I might add a few chips of oak, to up the tannins a bit if needed.