Parti-gyle Brew Day - Sour Blonde & Sour Belgian Strong

So, this was a big time first for me, I've never tried brewing using the parti-gyle method. Parti-gyle is basically brewing two different beers from the same mash by separating the first and second wort run offs. The first run off from the mash will be a much higher density wort with a higher ABV while the second run off including the sparge will be less sugars and ultimately lower ABV in the finished beer. I'll admit that I made somewhat of a brewers mistake but changing up too many variables for this brewday, I probably should have brewed a similar style to what I've done before but no.... I decided to not only brew using a different method, I also decided to brew a style I've never attempted before. SOUR BEER!!! If you've never tried a sour beer style before then I highly encourage checking one out, keeping in mind that it's a unique style that you should approach with an open mind. Your first sour beer should play out a lot like your first IPA or double IPA for that matter... it's an explosion of flavor on your palate that may seem obtrusive at first BUT simply needs time to adjust in order to recognize and appreciate the complexity and time put in to make the final beer. That being said, if bitter beers are bitter then sour beers are sour. So without having to explain too much of what a sour is - because the category is just as broad as any other BJCP recognized category - I'll simply tell you what I was thinking while designing and brewing the recipe.
I should probably mention that while writing this, it's only been just under a week since brew day and there are still a lot of decisions to be made between now and the day I take the first sip of finished beer. So, take what I write a grain of grain and know that these are my indefinite plans yet so far for this beer, hopefully if it all goes according to plan, we're happy campers. If we're sad campers for some reason, then we'll chop this one up to another learning experience.
If you know me pretty well, you know that I like to brew, and brew often. But, I'm not one to rebrew the same recipe ever, I don't care how happy I was with the batch, in my opinion there are too many styles to brew and not enough time! And what about the styles that haven't been created yet or accepted in the BJCP, who know's when the triple IPA or session IPA or Black IPA - okay, I like IPAs - will ever make it as an accepted style?! So, for this parti-gyle brew day, I decided I wanted to make as polar opposite of beers as I possible could from the same mash. Methodology wise, I could only do so much from the same mash, but what about after the mash? Well I did lot's of research on basic sour beers and even more research of the beers I really liked from Russian River, Cascade Brewing, Cantillon and a few others that seem to be doing some extraordinary things. I narrowed it down to brewing a simple Belgian Blonde sour as my small beer and brewing a Belgian Strong Ale as my big beer. I realize that these styles are pretty broad in themselves, especially the Strong Ale category, but I wanted to leave it as an experiment with the bumpers on, so to speak.

However, it's not brewday that intimidated me, it's everything on the cold side and dealing with the new strains that I've never used. Okay, so going back to the brewing styles.... I knew I wanted to make a very simple blonde beer, light in color with puckering, dry finish. I used pretty much all base malts for this one relying on a pretty high temp in order to give the bacteria strains something to munch on down the road in secondary fermentation. I probably should have mentioned this but I figured if you're reading this, you probably already know that the reason why sours are sour is due to the amount of acidity that is produced by the added bacteria strains during fermentation. So anyway, the Blonde side of this brewday was pretty simple, just needed to hit the right numbers and keep some DME on hand just in case I've exhausted my grains in the first run off. Easy, done.
This brings me to the big beer, a Belgian Strong Ale. I've done Belgian strong ales in the past but they were more of the "Belgian DARK strong ale" category... It's not far off other than the SRM but the dark fruit character may or may not be there depending on the yeast I throw in. I decided I wanted to add some DARK belgian candi sugar to see if I can get pretty close to the same flavors of the previous BDSA that I've done. Of course all these flavors are going to change drastically when we add the bacteria element, but this was just establishing the base beer, perhaps to do the bulk work of fermentation, secondarily to speed up primary fermentation.
So, we have the big and the small beer set in place, a Blonde that's aching for a souring and a big Belgian biz-nitch that wants to be high in alcohol while letting the malt sweetness battle it out with the acidity in your mouth. Did someone say cherries? No? Okay, well I just did. Remember how I said I changed too many variables? Why not one more? I plan to age the big beer (Belgian strong ale) on cherries. How long? As long as it takes. If you're looking for a quick beer to turn over from grain to glass then perhaps a sour isn't the best idea. You might think lagers take time... not even close. A good sour could take several months up to a year...a great sour could take years...a Gose perhaps, blending 3 year old beers.... But I said I wouldn't get into these styles in this post, so anyway...YES, I'm going to age the big beer on cherries. No, I haven't decided on what type of cherries yet. Delicious cherries, that's all.

 

There isn't really a whole lot more to include other than my recipe but I would like to mention that I chose to do a 90 minute boil in conjunction with a 45 minute high mash temp because the yeast I added can only eat so much sugar (mainly small, significantly broken down sugars) and I wanted the sourness to really come through. Basically -- and again, this is what I've read and what I've gathered from reputable homebrewers -- the bacteria will eat anything. It's almost one of those things that tells you to remember everything you've been taught as a homebrewer and do the opposite. For example... if you want to amplify the sourness, then you have to stress out those bugs (bacteria). Under pitch the bugs. Yes, it's going to take longer but that's what I was referring to earlier about putting the beers away for a while to sit and ferment out. Stressing them out will give off more acidity and ultimately give you that sour quality you're after along with the matured malt sweetness.
Ok, last thing. A lot of breweries that have access to a barrel program that will age their sours in oak barrels in order to round out the flavors. I have a barrel, and I plan to use it. I plan to barrel age the big beer and see what happens. This is actually something I've been wanting to do for a while mainly because bourbon or whiskey barrels only give off so much flavor until they are completely exhausted. So, now I plan to use this barrel as a forever souring agent for future beers. Anyway, enough is enough... here's the recipe.

Parti-gyle Sour Blonde & Sour Belgian Strong (12 gallong batch)

Mash @ 158 degree for 45 minutes:
23# German Pilsner
4# German Wheat

90 minute Boils on both beers

Blonde Hops/Yeast/Bacteria (1.042 OG)
0.5 oz Styrian Goldings @ 60 minutes
Belgian Ale Yeast WLP550 (primary)
Sour Belgian Mix 1 WLP655 (primary)
Lactobacillus Bacteria WLP 677 (primary - Day 2-3)
DME (I used DME because I undershot the gravity from excess sparge water, use enough to sit around 1.032-1.035 preboil gravity)

Belgian Strong Ale Malt/Hops/Yeast/Bacteria/Adjuncts (1.100 OG)
2# EXTRA Dark Belgian Candi Sugar
3 oz Styrian Goldings @ 60 minutes
Trappist Ale WLP500 (primary 1.5L yeast starter)
Flemish Ale WLP665 (primary - Day 2-3)
Lactobacillus Bacterial WLP 677 (primary - Day 2-3)
Cherries (still working on quantities)

I do need to mention that I shifted the bacteria strains back a day or so in order to give the sacchro yeast a head start on the feasting. I want a sour beer but I felt it was important to supplement a baseline yeast strain to kickstart the fermentation process...