Beer Forum

I've been reading Brewing with Wheat, and it seems that a lot of the early wits came with a bit of lactic tang, and they were generally infected. Anyone every add lacto to a wit, and make it more like a Berlinner Weiss? I was thinking about doing a sour mash to get some sourness and have a quick turn around instead of letting it sit in the carboy for 6-12 months. Thoughts were to make a refreshing beer, possibly more so, as the BW. Thoughts or experiences? Experience on sour mashing in general??

The last sour wit I made was brewed using a typical wit recipe along with witbier yeast (WY). After primary was complete, I racked the beer to a keg and added the dregs of 2 Jolly Pumpkin beers (Bam Biere and Lucienerga). I was planning on letting the keg sit at moderate summer basement temps (65-70F) for a few mos to get nice and sour/funky. But after one mos only I took a taste and the beer was quite sour and ready to roll!

Served it a summer party and everyone loved the funk. And damned if it wasn't pretty sour too! Those JP dregs are quite ferocious to work with.

brewinhard wrote:Those JP dregs are quite ferocious to work with.

I've heard that whispered around the BN booth at NHC.

I've never sour mashed, but I do want to try it someday. If you don't have access to Jolly Pumpkin beer, Can You Brew It cloned a couple of them, and Mike Mraz blended two lacto strains in secondary. Really simple. Even I couldn't screw it up.