DC Homebrewers Club Blending Day

Sampling and taking notes of the available beers

This post is a summary of a blending day held by the DC Homebrewers Club in November 2017 and what led up to and came out of that day. It took me a long time to finish this post and it doesn't have as much info as I would like due to lack of access to the finished beers and limited notes/photos from the day (more on that later). If there is one takeaway from this post I think it should be that having a blending day like this is extremely fun and can result in very good beer. For a different perspective on the blending day and some better photos check out Luis's write-up in his blog Cerveza Artesenal: translated to English or the original in Spanish.

My contributions. About 25 gallons in total.

A little background on this blending day: For a long time I wanted to get together with some people to do a blending session that could create variety and complexity that had been missing from even my best homebrewed sour beers. Before I moved to California I realized that I had over 20 gallons of assorted mixed fermentation beers that varied in taste from enjoyable but not overly exciting to interesting but highly flawed. After mentioning that the beers would probably be better blended than bottled individually a friend from the DC Homebrewers club  mentioned that he also had a large number of sour/mixed fermentation beers that needed to be bottled and would be happy to host a blending session at his house. After a few more discussions and emails on the topic we were able to set a date for a DC Homebrewers Club blending session and also to have the DC Homebrewers' Anniversary Beer be one of the beers bottled at that time, two birds with one stone.

Each sample was labeled and assigned a paper for notes to be taken

Prior to the blending day we determined who would be able to attend and asked people to bring funky beers (unfortunately none made it) or some cleaner dry Saisons (we did get a couple) that could be added to the mix to complement the predominantly sour beers being used. In total around 10 people and about 20 beers were on hand and samples were pulled from carboys and barrels to be used in the tasting session (plus one homemade wine from Mike Tonsmeire).

There was a wide range in the beers and samples were tasted by all the participants with each person adding notes for each beer. These notes would be used later when it was time to determine blends. A couple of the beers (admittedly mine) were determined to be essentially unusable due to high acetic (vinegar) or nail polish (ethyl acetate) character but most were up to snuff and had at least some characteristics that could be interesting in a blend, even if not great on their own. The beers ranged from hop forward, to heavily fruited, to highly acidic, to having interesting fermentation characteristics. Over the course of a few hours and lots of test samples, we were eventually able to decide on 6 blended batches to bottle, plus two others that were kegged.

I tried to make a few test blends, not all of them worked

Having a basement full of sour beers helps

Once each blend was determined in a small sample (usually 20-40 mL) a 4-6 gallon blend was calculated using the same ratio of constituents and the proper amounts pulled from each carboy/barrel. This blend was then sampled and sometimes adjusted before adding to a bottling bucket with sugar and fresh yeast then bottled and capped or corked.

Instead of details of every blend or the beers that went into them I think it is more useful to give some takeaways and recommendations for those looking to do a similar blending session:

1) Plan ahead. While there was some good communication and planning leading up to this event we weren't 100% sure what beers would be available until the day of blending due to a few people backing out of bringing beer and a few late additions. More importantly there weren't enough clean bottles to package the beers and a large part of the day was spent de-labeling and cleaning the insides of bottles. Having every person who attends a session like this bring clean and sanitized bottles could certainly speed the process. Having a smaller selection of only the best beer options would also have helped and in hindsight I should have dumped a few of my worst contributions rather than drag them along.

Two of the barrels of beers that went into blends

2) Have good equipment. I brought a large bag of 5 mL pipettes I had ordered on Amazon for fairly cheap. These were great for taking small samples of the individual beers and for formulating small test blends prior to deciding on the final blend. Also of use in a blending session are LOTS of tasting cups/glasses, extra bottling buckets, multiple cappers/corkers, and plenty of healthy yeast for bottle conditioning. Aside from the lack of clean bottles we had a decent selection of equipment but that was with multiple people bringing things, one person's normal setup probably wouldn't cut it.

Lots of bottles to de-label, clean, and sanitize

3) Have a wide range of beer. Most of the beers I brought and to some extent the other ones on hand were moderately sour with low Brettanomyces character and low to moderate oak. Having some clean Saisons and other things (wine, juice, flavor extracts) helped to give more complexity to the blends but very Brettanomyces funk forward, highly lactic, or super oaky beers could have been useful.

4) Plan for a full day. We started in the early afternoon and the blending session easily went into the night. Understand the limits on your time and the limits on the number of blends you can make.

5) Pace your drinking. This was a fun club event with a lot of homebrewers/beer nerds. Outside of sampling the individual beers and the sample blends we also drank all types of sours from Cantillon to Rare Barrel plus a lot of clean commercial beers including Belgian Quads and IPAs and lots and lots of homebrew. I brought some sanitized vials with me to try and capture some of the yeast/bacteria from both the homebrew being blended and commercial beers being enjoyed but between drinking, cleaning, blending, and more drinking I entirely forgot about them. I also wanted to take detailed notes and lots of photos but lost track of time and only got a limited amount of info. In the end I stayed sober enough to make it to the end of the day and help out in multiple ways but I should have passed on a few of the beers and had a few more waters.

6) Have a goal (or a couple goals) set ahead of time. There were a few conflicting goals to this blending session and how we were going to hit each wasn't fully discussed ahead of time. There probably ended up being a few too many things we wanted to achieve which may have limited the overall blends in terms of both variety and quality. As a club we wanted to make the DC Homebrewers Anniversary Beer, have at least a few different blends, get some interesting variations, and finish with great beers. I wanted to use up as much of my beer as possible since I wasn't taking it with me. Others had other goals for the beers they had brought. A few of my beers that could have been used more in blends stayed largely untouched and, due to the previously mentioned time constraints, exuberant drinking, and lack of clean bottles, we didn't get quite as many different blends as we could have or use quite the right amounts of specific beers that others had planned. While I think we did a decent job in the end of meeting the conflicting goals and producing good beers, establishing the goals more clearly ahead of time and not having so many could have led to an easier day and better results.

Tasting Notes:
Below are the compositions of the final blends. I also jotted down some quick notes from a couple months after the blending day. I didn't get to try the two kegged versions and the tasting notes were hurried during a brief time at my parent's house where I was able to sample the bottles. I hope to get more detailed notes and photos of each blend in the future when they have had more time to develop in the bottle and in some cases finish carbonating.

Blend 1 (DC Homebrewers Guild Anniversary Beer):
3 gal Barrel Aged Sour Tripel with White Grape Juice

Thoughts- a tasty base beer with good oak and grape/wine character. This was a good base for many of the blends. Highly carbonated but almost no head retention.

Blend 2:
2 gal Flemish Red w Cherry/Raspberry
1 gal Kriek
1 gal Barrel Aged Sour Blonde
1/2 gal Acetic Red
1/2 bottle Red Wine

Thoughts - a bit disappointing. Overly acetic (the acetic red should probably have been cut down if not cut entirely). The blends of fruit (cherry, raspberry, red wine grape) is nice but a bit lost by the vinegar. Not carbonated, possibly due to acid shock, hopefully it just needs more time.

Blend 3:
2 gal Cuvee Blonde
1 gal Wild #2
1 gal Saison

Thoughts- Oak forward with moderate brett and acidity. More tart than sour. More subdued than others but quite enjoyable.

Blend 4:
2 gal Flemish Red on Peaches
2 gal Barrel Aged Sour Tripel with White Grape Juice
1 gal Cuvee Blonde
1 gal Funky IPA

Thoughts - a fairly nice and enjoyable blend. Very fruity on the nose but less fruit forward and more subtle but interesting in taste.

Blend 5:
3 gal Barrel Aged Sour Tripel with White Grape Juice
1 gal Brett Saison
1 gal Lambic
1/2 gal Bootleg Biology beer

Thoughts- I really enjoy this one. Probably the most gueuze like with a nice complexity of funk, acidity, fruitiness, and oak.

Blend 6:
2 gal Barrel Aged Sour Tripel with White Grape Juice
1 gal Cuvee Blonde
1 gal Bootleg Biology beer
3/4 gal DC Beer Week beer
1/2 gal Wild #2
1/4 gal "Dregs" (my stepped up mix of assorted commercial dregs)

Thoughts- lots of stone fruit and white grape character. Some citrus but just mild sourness and funk.

Blend 7 (keg):
2 gal Flemish Red w Raspberry/Cherry
1 gal Flemish Red w Peaches
1 gal Mariage (this was itself a blend of homebrews leftover from my wedding)
1/2 bottle red wine small bottle white sweet wine
32oz cranberry juice
~1/2oz vanilla extract

Blend 8 (keg):
5 gal BA Sour Tripel

2oz Nelson dry hop

5 Way Berliner (and My First Competition Ribbon)

Not strictly a "split batch" or formal experiment (or should I say ExBEERiment) I nonetheless wanted to taste test 5 variations on sour wheat beers side by side to see which method I liked the most.  While 3 of the beers were started at the same time and used identical worts, the other two were made earlier and one used a very different wort (the extra runnings from my Hefeweizen).  The breakdown of each beer is listed below.  Each batch was a little less than 1 gallon.

1. "B" Hefeweizen 2nd Runnings w/ Lactobacillus Delbrueckii followed by British ale yeast
• The 1st version was fermented on the Lacto Del for 3 days before being moved to secondary with the British ale yeast.
• OG ~1.040, FG 1.003
2. "C" Wheat Extract w/Lactobacillus Delbrueckii only
• Pitched on the lacto cake from version 1.
• OG ~1.030, FG 1.002
3. "X" Wheat Extract w/Lactobacillus Delbrueckii, British ale yeast, and Brettanomyces (BKYeast C2)
• Pitched with the final slurry from Version 1 with Brett added 5 days later.
• OG ~1.030, FG 1.002
4. "Y" Wheat Extract w/Lactobacillus Delbrueckii and wild microbes (my Sunroom blend)
• 1 pint pitched with my Sunroom blend (of wild microbes harvested from my Sunroom) before receiving a small amount of the Lacto slurry while being stepped up from an to 1 gallon.
• OG ~1.030, FG 1.003
5. "Z" Wheat Extract w/Lactobacillus Delbrueckii and Brettanomyces (BKYeast C2)
• Given a pitch from the Lacto slurry before being given Brett 5 days later
• OG ~1.030, FG 1.005

Appearance:

B- cloudiest, light pale color, short lived white head

C- darkest by far, longest lasting head, most carbonated, fairly clear

X- 2nd cloudiest, almost no head

Y- 3rd cloudiest, 2nd biggest head

Z- clearest, smallest head

Smell

B- fruity, light citrus,

C- medicinal off smelling, especially as it warms

X- lots of Brett funk, fruity citrus

Y- lightly fruity, vanilla, maybe a touch of butter, very interesting

Z- light fruit, berries, light Brett

Taste:

B- fruity and tart, sourness is moderately high

C- lightly medicinal, just lightly tart

X- funky, light to moderate sourness

Y- moderately sour, some definite diacetyl butteriness, a little fruit

Z- light grain, lightly tart, fairly restrained

Mouthfeel:

B-Super dry, lightly carbonated

C- medium body with medium carbonation

X- dry with low to medium carbonation

Y- a slightly slicker mouthfeel (diacetyl?) medium low carbonation

Z- medium low in body (the Brett and lacto don't seem to have attenuated as well as the lacto and yeast combos) medium carbonation

Overall:

B- my favorite of the bunch, moderately sour but with some nice banana, lemon, and wheat in the mix

C- my least favorite by far, just using the lactobacillus is clearly not an advisable option as it surprisingly is under sour and very medicinal

X- my second favorite, and the second most sour. Brett character is a little too high and sourness a little too low

Y- while it was cold this one was really interesting and enjoyable, as it warmed it seems that diacetyl is the most dominant character and the sourness isn't quite high enough

Z- an alright beer, this sort of feels like a bland saison with a light Brett touch. The sourness of the lactobacillus and Brett alone isn't high enough.

Thoughts:

This small test has made me think that lactobacillus followed by saccharomyces is the best option for quickly fermented sour beers. I'm a little disappointed in how buttery the wild fermented beer came out and learned to never do lacto only beers, but otherwise the results weren't overly surprising.

Updates
3/8/2015
Spoke to a brewer at Tired Hands in Ardmore Pennsylvania and was told that they use a very similar process as version "B" for their sours: lacto for 3 days followed by British ale yeast.

3/23/2015
Happy to say version "B" received a score of 35 and third place in the Sour Ales category at the DC Homebrewer's Club Cherry Blossom Competition.  Sure, it was only out of 6 beers in the category but for a beer not brewed to style and with no expectations it still did well enough to receive a ribbon.

#29 - Simple Lambic (Funky Kast #4)

Not sure what took me so long to post this but I'll finally publish...

After bottling half of my sour brown I was ready to crank out another sour. Taking half of the yeast/bacteria cake from the sour brown and adding it to an extract lambic seemed a simple, effective method.  I used just under an ounce of saaz hops for 35 minutes to keep the ibus down and also boiled half a pound each of flaked wheat and Maltodextrin combined with 6 lbs of Wheat LME. In addition to the sour blend I also added American ale yeast to ensure full fermentation and 1 oz of Hungarian medium toast oak for the full barrel flavor of a classic lambic. I plan to add dregs of various sours as this one progresses.

Updates:
7/14/2013
A little over a month in the carboy and this beer is already down to 1.002.  Light sourness but also pretty young and sweet.  Added dregs of Cantillon Geuze.

8/25/2013
A very bad outhouse smell began to develop.  Pulled a sample and it doesn't seem to be the beer, maybe mold around the top of the carboy?  Beer smells and tastes about the same as a month ago, light lemony sourness and some grainy sweetness despite the extremely low gravity.

10/04/13

Wasn't able to taste/test gravity but the outhouse smell is gone. This beer might be ready for at least some to be bottled. I will have to taste in about a month and make some determinations but it is beginning to smell fairly sour and funky and I don't want this to go nearly as sour/acetic as the Flanders red.

11/02/13

Gravity down to 1.000. Taste is tart and refreshing. It might be about time to bottle at least some of this.

11/29/13

Racked 3 gallons onto .5 oz of previously used oak and bottled the rest. Still moderately sour but not overly complex.

5-28-14

Received some positive comments on this beer from a brother and his friends.  Might be time to do a full tasting write up.

11-18-15

Beer is over 2 years old with half the batch kegged.  Decent flavors, moderate acidity, no noticeable acetic acid or other off flavors.

12-13-15

14.5 oz. Oregon Fruit Red Tart Cherries pitted in water added to the keg with about 2 gallons beer remaining. Sweet Cherry puree and juice reserved for a later addition.

Sour Brown (Funky Kast #2)

I brewed a sour brown ale back on August 26th, 2012. This was intended to be a bit like the traditional flanders brown/oud bruin .  I haven't made one of these before and have only even drank the similar Flanders Red style but it seemed pretty similar to a Northern English brown ale in terms of recommended ingredients.  In this spirit I used a grain bill similar to one from an English brown with a full pound of victory malt and an oz. of willamette for bittering.  This beer will probably sit in the primary for 1-2 months, secondary for 6-12 and bottles for another 6-12.  It's a long way off from the first tasting but I'm already excited.

8/26/2012

BIAB Mashed at 148F for 60 minutes. Sparged at 160 F. OG was only 1.032. Pitched the Roeselare pack with no starter.

9/1/2012

Realized that the OG was so low due to forgetting a pound each of Caramunich (not a big deal in terms of gravity) and DME (a big difference).  I steeped the pound of caramunich in a little over a half gallon of water, then added the DME and boiled.  Cooled and added into the glass carboy.  Big blow off began within an hour.

10-7-12
Added dregs from 3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze.

10-13-12
Big lacto bubbles on top of this beer now (hard to see in the picture but there's one in the top left), seems the Drie Fonteinen dregs were pretty aggressive..  I added dregs from Lindemans' Cuvee Rene. With dregs of two of the better geuzes I've tried this one should end up nice and funky.

1-12-13
The lacto bubbles have faded and now a thin brett pellicle covers the top.  Gravity is now down to 1.007.  Smell is not very pleasant (a little bit of "outhouse") but taste is more berry and sour with just a touch of sweetness.  The initial characteristics from the malt of toast have faded almost entirely.  Not sure what to do with this one, so I will probably continue the wait and see approach.

2-2-13
Gravity continues to fall slightly, now hovering between 1.005 and 1.006.  This beer is tasty now, but probably won't be safe to bottle for another 6-18 months.

3-2-13
This beer continues to improve. Still around 1.005 but more complex in its sour and funk.

5-18-13

Tastes too good to hold off bottling anymore, full batch ha 3.5 oz sugar added with 1 case worth bottled an the rest moved to a 3 gallon Carboy for secondary. Flavor is moderately fruity with solid but not overpowering complex sourness. Possibly the best sour beer I've ever tasted even flat.

6-9-13

Taste a bottle, still fairly flat. Aggressively sour with some light fruit. Not quite the complexity I would like but it will be interesting to see where the carbonation takes it. I also added the BKYeast C2 Brett to the unbottled half which has taken over, hopefully upping the fruitiness to balance the sour.

11-25-13
Bottled 2 gallons with 1 oz sugar.  The previously bottled version is aggressively acetic which detracts from the roast/fruit flavors.  I don't have high hopes for this half of the batch but letting it go any longer would probably not help.

Wild/Sour/Funky Processes

I've been studying different types of wild beers a lot recently but am yet to have committed to brewing one or what style I want to start with.  I am by no means an expert having tasted only a few and brewed none, but this seems like a good place to compile some of the research I have done.

I wish there were a better term than "wild" (as a true wild beer would, in my mind, refer to one made with local, self caught yeast) but many beers are often called wild because they use living components other than traditional brewers yeast (Saccharomyces) and are typically made with Brettanomyces (so called "wild" yeast) and potentially bacteria (notably Lactobacillus and Pediococcus) or because they share traits with beers which do have these microorganisms.  There are many variations on what a "sour" or "funky" or "wild" beer is and for the sake of this article I will simply call them all "wild" as not all the beers I am referring to taste sour and many (even some made with Brettanomyces) do not taste "funky", while some beers that do not contain these traditional organisms (or acids) can taste sour or funky. While there are some classic styles known for their sour or funky qualities there are many wild beers being made today (and traditionally) which do not fall into easily defined categories. Instead of talking about styles I just wish to write about some methods of creating these types of beers that are commonly employed:

1. Adding (lactic) acid: Adding acid, usually lactic though I suppose others (malic or acetic for example) could be used, seems to be the least "craft" method of making a sour and might feel more like an industrial process or even "cheating" to some people.  This is utilized by brewers sometimes alone or in combination with other methods to create a sour beer.  As it sounds this process simply uses food grade acid, which can be added to the mash to lower pH or can be added at other stages for sour beers.

2. Sour Mash: A sour mash is achieved by adding raw grain to wort which has not had yeast added to it.  The grain is covered in Lactobacillus (among other things) causing a quick souring of the beer.  This can also be achieved, among other ways, by adding cultured Lacto. or with a yogurt culture.  Brewer's utilizing this method typically hold the Lactobacillus innoculated wort at a warm but not hot temperature then add to the mash of the final beer to heat the wort after a few days of souring to kill any yeast and bugs and stabilize the sourness level.  Anywhere from 10% to 100% of the wort can be soured in this manner, giving varied results.

3. Sour Malt: Sour malt, also known as sauermalz and acidulated malt, is a malt which is covered with lactic acid, hence lowering the pH of a beer it is mashed in.  This can be used in non-sour type beers to slightly adjust the pH, as the sole provider of sourness if used in large amounts, or in combination with other methods to form sour beer.  In most respects this process isn't much different from adding straight lactic acid in the end.

4. Pitching Brettanomyces without Saccharomyces: This process can be done with Brettanomyces as the sole yeast in which case a subtle fruity yeast character with flavors closer to a beer brewed without "wild" ingredients is produced.

5. Pitching bacteria (Lactobacillus) without Saccharomyces: This process is utilized sometimes by select craft breweries and homebrewers.  This is most commonly used in small beers, most notably some Berliner Weisses. This method needs specialized (heterofermentative) bacteria which produce both lactic acid and alcohol and can survive conditions enough to fully attenuate the beer themselves.

6. Pitching in addition to Saccharomyces: This is the most traditional and probably the most common method of sour productions and is typically used to make all 6 of the BJCP approved sour styles.  Whether added in primary or secondary (or traditionally as ambient yeast which are in the air/wood/fruit added to the beer) the idea here is typically to have the Sacc utilize simple sugars while Bugs and/or Brett work on more complex sugars and other side components to generate strong flavors ranging from tropical fruit, horse, goat and farmyard funk characteristics found derived from Brett to the tart and tangy flavors from Lacto to the biting, vinegary qualities from Acetobacter.

Hopefully I will soon have ventured into the world of funky and sour beers as I recently bought two yeast packages which come with additions to sacc:

White Labs American Farmhouse: A proprietary blend of belgian yeast and brett.  I hope to make a brett saison somewhat similar to Goose Island's Sophie.

Roeselare Blend: This is essentially a lambic blend with various lacto and brett strains in addition to sacc. I plan to brew a sour brown ale with this pack, allowing it to age for upwards of a year.