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Author Topic: Souring Northern Brewers "Caribou Slobber Brown Ale"?  (Read 3037 times)

Offline rainmaker

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Souring Northern Brewers "Caribou Slobber Brown Ale"?
« on: June 13, 2013, 12:15:29 pm »
Anyone have experience souring this brown ale?

I've heard you can pitch some raw grain in to sour it. Not looking to use bugs in this, just a light sour tartness to balance the maltiness. Never used the raw grain method and have used bugs in the past but not looking for something that aggressive.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Offline rjharper

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Re: Souring Northern Brewers "Caribou Slobber Brown Ale"?
« Reply #1 on: June 13, 2013, 12:40:38 pm »
Raw grain is bugs.  It's a lactobacillus culture on the husk of the grain that causes the souring.  I'm also assuming that the kit is in the style of Moose Drool, which is pretty bitter if I recall.  Lacto isnt a fan of higher IBUs.

Offline morticaixavier

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Re: Souring Northern Brewers "Caribou Slobber Brown Ale"?
« Reply #2 on: June 13, 2013, 12:41:16 pm »
you can make a mini sour mash which is easier to hold at the correct temps. and then pasteurize that and add it back it. This allows you a lot of control over the level of sour while still giving you that 'naturally' soured flavor that may or may not be missing if you just added lactic acid directly.
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Offline rainmaker

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Re: Re: Souring Northern Brewers "Caribou Slobber Brown Ale"?
« Reply #3 on: June 13, 2013, 12:46:23 pm »
Raw grain is bugs.  It's a lactobacillus culture on the husk of the grain that causes the souring.  I'm also assuming that the kit is in the style of Moose Drool, which is pretty bitter if I recall.  Lacto isnt a fan of higher IBUs.

Ah, I had no idea. A local homebrew guy did it with a berliner but said it had to do with the enzymes, which I assumed didn't mean bacteria. 

I like the idea of the sour mash, hadn't considered it since I'm not familiar with making one. I'll go do some research on this.


Offline morticaixavier

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Re: Re: Souring Northern Brewers "Caribou Slobber Brown Ale"?
« Reply #4 on: June 13, 2013, 01:07:55 pm »
Raw grain is bugs.  It's a lactobacillus culture on the husk of the grain that causes the souring.  I'm also assuming that the kit is in the style of Moose Drool, which is pretty bitter if I recall.  Lacto isnt a fan of higher IBUs.

Ah, I had no idea. A local homebrew guy did it with a berliner but said it had to do with the enzymes, which I assumed didn't mean bacteria. 

I like the idea of the sour mash, hadn't considered it since I'm not familiar with making one. I'll go do some research on this.

your still using the bugs with a sour mash, it's just that you are controlling the situation a little more than you could if you added a bunch of bugs directly to the beer.

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Offline erockrph

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Re: Souring Northern Brewers "Caribou Slobber Brown Ale"?
« Reply #5 on: June 13, 2013, 04:33:58 pm »
If you're just looking for a little twang, you could just add some lactic acid to taste at bottling.
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Offline reverseapachemaster

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Re: Souring Northern Brewers "Caribou Slobber Brown Ale"?
« Reply #6 on: June 14, 2013, 08:54:26 am »
Your best options for controlled souring is either a sour mash/sour wort on the front end or adding lactic acid at bottling on the back end. If you add raw grain to a fermented beer you'll introduce everything that is on the grain to your beer. Likely going to have some souring bacteria but you likely will also get some undesired yeast and bacteria that can produce some very foul flavors.
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