RECIPE & PROCESS: WTWTA: Ira & Judith

As I look back through old posts, and try to organize the blog, I came to realize that I had made an initial recipe post for the clean beer that eventually became the two sour beers that are Ira and Judith. I also gave some random updates with lofty ideas about all this crazy stuff I was going to do, and on how things were going. But there was no single recipe to show for the beers, what I actually did with them, what the process was, aging times, fruit additions, blending, bottling, etc. If someone wanted real info on the beers and how to make them, I didn't have gathered source of all the information. So, here it is. I have given the original recipe and fermentation specs, then outlined the process from there on in the notes.

Review: The Judith (Oaked Blackberry Sour Blonde)

The next beer in the Where the Wild Things Are series, this beer began its life as an American Blonde Ale brewed to see if my gear was infection free post deep cleaning after an infection string swept my brew house.  I didn't really want 9 gallons of Blonde, and half the batch was discovered to be infected, so I soured the majority of it.  After a few months on Brett, then a few more souring, I added different fruits to the split batches.  This one got fresh blackberries from the backyard in September, as well as a healthy dose of French and American Oak.

Look:

Pours a deep red to violet, thick white head drops fast to a tight ring that stays all the way through.  No real lace is left.  Super clear.

Aroma:

Smells like Brett funk and berries.  Hints of tropical fruits from the Brett, and some deep oak with hints of wine barrel.

Flavor:

Taste mirrors the smell, basement funk, dusty, tart, lemons, berries, fruity, tannic oak, wine, light oxidation (cardboard) in the finish, clean acid - no acetic.

Mouthfeel:

Puckering sour from the fruit, lactic acid, and super dry finish.  Oak tannins, balanced to sour.

Overall:

Very nice fruit sour.  Complex.  Great color, sour, funky, fruity.  Could use a little more fruit, or drink it sooner as the jammy fruit is starting to fade from what it was in mid February (just post carb).  Definitely a good wild ale.  Deep oak.  The oxidation is lower in this version than in the version that got mangoes and dry hops - need to stay out of my sours or flush with CO2 (now that I have it).

Final Update: Sour Blondes

Almost a year ago I brewed a double batch of Blonde Ale to test my fermenters to insure that I had rid myself of the infection that had hit my brewhouse.  After finding that one fermenter was clean and the other was actually the original source of my infections, I decided to sour all but 18 12oz bottles of the whole 9 gallons.  As time passed I wanted to take the 2 batches of soured Blonde in 2 different directions.  One received Mangoes, the other got fresh Blackberries from the backyard.  It is nearly time to bottle them as they have developed quite nicely.  The Mango version has a subtle tropical fruit note that I wanted to play up so I decided to dry hop this version.  It received 2oz of Falconer's Flight blend (lots of pineapple), 0.5oz Calypso (apple and pear) and 1oz of Galaxy (citrus and big passion fruit).  My hope is to play up much of the tropical and fruity aspects of this beer and make it a hop lover's dream.  For the Blackberry version there is a light jammy taste which is what I wanted, and I added more French Oak for the last week to give it a little more punch and separate it from the Mango a bit more since that version has no noticable oak at all, and I think it would play nicely with the Blackberry.