Stout with Soured Portion

A dry stout was brewed. It was 70% pale (Crisp-Flagon), 10% homemade invert syrup number 4, 10% roasted barley, 10% unmalted wheat. Water was Bristol water untreated. 21IBU at 60mins using cascade pellets. 5g of cascade at 5mins (10L batch), 10g of styrian goldings at 20mins. (I use no chill so these were actually 5 mins before end of boil for the styrians and 10 mins after for the cascade). I get bored of comercial beers using american hops, (if I want tropical fruit juice, I can buy tropical fruit juice cheaper than beer), but I like a bit of cascade in bitters and dark beers. It can lift them without being dominant.

The invert syrup was treated as sugar when inputing to my software, knowing the weight of sugar that went into the syrup it was easy to work out the sugar-liquid ratio and adjust accordingly. It was 500/820, and it hasn't gone off a few months after, so theres something to aim for if you are wondering how to stave off unwanted microbes using osmotic pressure. I started with waitrose demmerara sugar. The finished syrup was black and had a liquorice/burnt sugar taste, a bit like a cross between a creme-brulee topping and treacle (for those who live in the UK).

I drew off about a pint of unhopped wort to sour, which I kept on top of a radiator for about five days adding a little bit of sourdough dough a few days in. It had developed a sourness and dirty bread aroma by day 5. I then boiled to sanitise and blended back with the main beer once it had cooled.


The beer looked like this,

And was terribly good. When sipping the frothy mousey head, the first flavour is sugar, mix of dark brown and burnt. Then bitterness wells up, both hop bitterness and burnt sugar/roast barley acrid bitterness, this seems to stimulate the whole tounge in a very firm but balanced way and then there is a brief pause of carbonic spritzyness and then just a lingering complex roasty sugary burnt slightly hoppy melange. I'm not sure the sourness is perceptible but might be accentuating the sugary flavours. I was told this is one of the best beers I have brewed.