Last night I decided to transfer "Lucid Dreams" which is going to eventually be a blueberry Lambic into secondary fermentation after an over extended stay in primary. Generally, Lambics can take up to 2 or 3 years to mature properly. To my surprise however, this beer has already rounded into a very tasty, moderately sour lambic. I decided at that moment, I wasn't gonna fool around with things too much, this beer was basically ready to go and its time to add blueberries and get this thing on tap asap.
All of this excitement got me thinking.....I've got several sour type beers fermenting and I really haven't given a ton of insight about what I hope each to be like. There is a certain amount of hope as to when each will hopefully be ready to drink, but this most recent experience has taught me you just never know when your messing around with wild yeasts. Here's a list of sour beers that could be coming up in the next year.
- Lucid Dreams - as I stated above, this is going to be a blueberry lambic and overall, it seems to be drinking fairly easily right now almost like a sour piece of candy....makes my mouth water. Should be ready in a matter of weeks...maybe for St. Pattys
- Wild Horses - if any of you have had Cheeky Monkey, then you'll have a little bit of an idea what this beer will be like. This is an ongoing project of mine to brew a beer, pick a fruit and split the beer into 2 fermentors (1 sour and 1 not sour). Cheeky Monkey is a non sour raspberry fruit beer, Wild Horses is a raspberry beer that has been exposed to lactic bacteria in order to sour it for 2 months now. I'm hoping this one will be ready to go this summer sometime.....I still may add more raspberries.
- Hind Sight - this is a goof up beer that will hopefully be amazing. It was suppose to be batch 1 of O' Holy Night, but through several unfortunate circumstances, mainly an over excited fermentation that led to exposure to the environment for 36 hours I decided to sour it using two types of lactic bacteria.....I really don't know when this will be ready, maybe by next fall.....as long as the keg doesn't explode or the beer doesn't spontaneously combust we're doing okay!
- Dave's Butt Juice - I'm making this beer this weekend and it will prolly be less sour and more tangy (hopefully). The idea is to brew a Belgian IPA/pale ale with star fruit added to the secondary fermentation and expose the beer to lactic bacteria for 2 months.....sounds like it could be cool. Time will tell. St. Pattys Party Fo Sho!!
- I've Got a Raging Beanie - This beer is currently barrel aging and will hopefully blow minds up. The overall thought is to make a rather high alcohol beer and age it in a barrel and on fruit for 3 months a piece. Its a tripel that will be between 8 and 11% ABV and will hopefully take on some fun barrel traits in the coming months before it spends time on two fruits (that I've never used).....we'll see....if it sucks then it'll either get served under a different name or it'll get dumped.....stay tuned! Hopefully by July or August.
Things will remain up in the air with these beers and if 3 out of the 5 of them turn out well, I will be happy. Wild yeasts are crazy and can do amazing things to a beer.....or they can turn them into piss. I hope for Amazing!!!
Cheers!
