Hi all -- I'm an infrequent lurker and novice home brewer with about
six months of compulsive extract brewing experience now. Since
everything I've turn out so far has at least been drinkable (including
the improvised recipes) I have become, of course, unbelievably cocky
and have come up with a project to take myself down a peg or two. In
short: I'm going to try using local ambient flora on some purchased
(soft) cider and turn this into a sour-apple beer.
My current plan goes something like this: add ~1/2 lb. corn sugar to 2
gallons of soft cider in a 3 gallon carboy. Allow the local
microorganisms to mostly complete a primary ferment on the cider+sugar
(which should sour it as well as producing alcohol). Make 1 gallon of
wort with 1.5 lbs. light LME (and possibly some spare DME or corn
sugar I have around the house to boost the OG) and 1 oz. of Hallertau
(1/2 bittering, 1/2 flavor) then pitch with S-23 dry lager yeast.
Combine wort with fermented cider and ferment together. Say a few
rosaries and drink.
I'm fully aware that wild yeasts are at best unpredictable. Most of
what I've heard about them (aside from discussions of Belgian brews)
sounds like received wisdom though. In this case I'm as interested in
the results of a failure as in the chances of success. I've been
making bread lately, including culturing starters, and an acquaintance
from a nearby town claims to have had good results with wild yeasts so
partly I'm curious to see what exactly happens, good or bad.
I've also consciously decided to misuse the S-23 and ferment at
something approaching room temperature (since I have nowhere to
properly lager). I'm loosely aiming for a flavor profile similar to
an Ephemere but with more body and significantly more sour so I
figured using a lager yeast over temperature would contribute to ester
buildup and restore some fruitiness possibly lost to the initial
ferment.
Aside from those two egregious lapses in judgement I'm interested to
hear anyone's thoughts on this project. The primary point I'm still
undecided on is whether to pasteurize the cider before combining with
the beer wort/yeast or just to build up the wort into an active gallon
of slurry and set it to compete with the wild culture in the cider.
I've seen references to sour mash beers using an intermediary
pasteurization step to control rival cultures but a large part of my
motivation here is to experiment with the effects of local flora.
Any thoughts? Similar experiments? Ghost stories about ol' man
Wilkins and his cursed pot o' scrumpy? Thanks in advance.
