Sour Blonde (2024)

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