I am sitting a large stockpile of aged Soured Blonde Beer (roughly modeled after a Belgian Lambic. It has been about 4 years since I used any of this for a blend which I blame on being busy. I've finally gotten my motivation to mix another one of these based on my most recent tasting (see tasting notes)
I have 13 fermenters of beer to choose from. I've experimented with different ingredients and different blends of yeast and bacteria over the years to get a variety of flavor profiles in my beers. For this Plain Blend I've decided to go for a mildly sour and richly flavored beer so I've chosen the most flavorful beers as inputs to the blend.
I've chosen as follows:
- Fermenter #1:
- Overview:
- Aged with Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend
- Includes beer that has undergone a lacto fermentation
- Mix of beers brewed with Pilsner Malt and Wheat
- Very lightly hopped beers
- Aged in a very full glass carboy with a vented silicon bung
- Tasting Notes:
- Aroma: Earthy with a bit of overripe fruit (peach maybe) and a bit of a mineral character
- Appearance: Light gold and very clear
- Flavor: Lightly sour with a bit of fruity character. Has some earthy character in there as well as mineral. It also has a bit of bready character in the finish. The finish is mostly acidity and this lingers.
- Mouthfeel: Light bodied and very dry. There is a bit of prickling on the palate from the acidity but not at all unpleasant to drink
- Overview: The fruity character is nice and fairly bold. It has pretty good complexity as well although the Brett is fairly restrained. I think it has a pleasant level of acidity.
- Volume:
- 2.5 gal
- Fermenter #2:
- Overview:
- Aged with Bootleg Biology Funk Weapon #1 and a bit of Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend
- Includes beer that has undergone a lacto fermentation
- Grain bill of Pilsner and Raw Wheat
- Very little hops in this batch
- Aged in a mostly full glass carboy with a vented silicon bung
- Tasting Notes:
- Aroma: A bit fruity (overripe peach maybe) along with an earthy and leathery character. Also get a faintly mineral character from it
- Appearance: Light gold in color and pretty clear
- Flavor: Lightly sour (very pleasant) mild brett flavors and a bit of overripe fruit. The finish is a balance of acidity and mineral character.
- Mouthfeel: Light bodied and fairly dry. It has only a slight bit of alcohol prickling.
- Overview: Flavors are fairly mild but are quite pleasant. I think it has a fairly nice level of complexity. Level of sourness is very nice
- Volume:
- 2.5 gal
- Fermenter #13:
- Overview:
- Spontaneously Fermented after cooling off in my side yard next to Raspberry Plants
- Mix of Pilsner and Raw wheat malt
- Hopped with high AA hops for 15 min of boil. Left these in the beer while it naturally cooled which was a mistake I think.
- Aged with 3 piece airlock which has run dry several times in a better bottle
- Tasting Notes:
- Aroma: Musty with aged beer character. A bit of skunkiness - interesting.
- Appearance: Golden and a little cloudy
- Flavor: A bit of harshness up front - solvent flavor. Once you get past that there is fruitiness on the finish along with a bready character. Maybe a slight hop bitterness but very faint.
- Mouthfeel: Light bodied but a bit harsh on the palate
- Overview: An interestingly flavored beer. Not very good on it's own but it could be an interesting blending component in small amounts.
- Volume:
- 1 gal
Blending Notes:
- Blending day - 1/21/24:
- Moved 2.5 gal from Fermenter #1 to a bucket fermenter
- Transferred 2.5 gal from Fermenter #2 to the bucket
- Then transferred 1 gal of fermenter 13 over to the bucket
- Set this up to age together for a month or two
