Beer Forum

I followed the Flat-Tail guy's advice from the 11-17-13 show and made my first sour beer, but the beer seems to strip all the saliva, etc, out of my mouth, to the point that it gets uncomfortable. I've had pro beers that were far more sour and never noticed this. Mine just has a touch of sour.

I'm planning to do some secondary fermentation and wondering how I might fight the dry mouth effect. My plan was to throw some apples or pears in, but should I try something different? Maybe something to give it tannins?

The beer:
1.032 from barley
+0.006 from rolled oats (in the boil, in bags - I expected more)
50g of Saaz pellets (early & late additions)
French Saison starter
Brett brux starter

2 months in the beer is at 1.005, clear and not making bubbles. Temps have been around 58-60F the whole the Sourness is subtle, but I think there's still some oat around for the bugs to work on (there's grey stuff floating on top). pH is between 4 and 5. No horsey flavor.
BTW - French Saison works OK at these temps - this beer's other half came out well, eventually.
Cheers, Brian

sounds like astringency to me. tell us about your mash technique. did you control your pH in anyway? an all pale/pils grist isn't going to do much to acidify the mash so if your water pH was too high and/or your water chemistry had too much residual Alkalinity you could extract tannins in the mash.

I'm not sure about boiling the oats in a bag though. seems like you'd mostly get starch that way which might be good for the brett I supose

Agreed. Astringency sounds like your culprit unless you have an acetobacter infection leading to vinegar or acetic acid notes. Do you get any of those aroma or flavors?

I don't think there's acetic in the beer, I can't smell any vinegar in there. And I've our local acetobacter more than once.

My experience with tannins is more limited... I have tasted some homebrew that had a lot of pellet residue (or was over sparged, can't remember what that noob did). That had a bitterness and tongue coating effect; quite different from this beer.

My mash was as usual for me : mashed 30 minutes at 63-65, then heated to 70-75.

I think the best thing is to let is mature & throw some fruit at it. Will post results, thanks!

Have you ever taken a bite of an unripe persimmon? not the kind they sell crunchy at the store but the more heart shaped ones that's the best way I can think of to experience astringency. It's not bitter at all, even kind of sweet if it's almost ripe. but right after the sweet your mouth just dries right out. it's like it sucks all the moisture out.

Suck on a used teabag for some nice astringency notes too. Good times!

brewinhard wrote:Suck on a used teabag for some nice astringency notes too. Good times!

You like to some strange shit on the weekends. Riding tricycles, teabaggin yourself (I admire the talent required for that though)... what's next?

Ozwald wrote:

brewinhard wrote:Suck on a used teabag for some nice astringency notes too. Good times!

You like to some strange shit on the weekends. Riding tricycles, teabaggin yourself (I admire the talent required for that though)... what's next?

Hey man, don't knock it till ya try it! It's not as easy as it sounds and requires some serious mental focus (even with my styrofoam bike helmet on)!