Deliverance: Part 2

About a month ago I brewed up the second batch of the "Deliverance Kentucky Sour" with my friend Forest. The beer has changed a bit this time but remains true to the original idea. First off, I'm no longer calling it a "Kentucky Sour". Taking a cue from Cascade Brewing and their excellent "Northwest Style Sour Ales", I'm simply calling it an Appalachian style sour ale. As you will see in the recipe, a few things have been done to actually authenticate this. Namely, I used aged Cascade hops that were grown in Ohio, and at least half of this batch will be aged on American oak, possibly soaked in bourbon for some extra flavor. I have 10 gallons this year so I get to play around a bit with using different oak, spirits, or possibly fruit. I used a carafa for color this time as opposed to chocolate rye, and I found a great 80-90 L crystal rye malt to use instead of regular crystal 80.

Also, I fermented this beer with the Rodenbug blend mixed by Al B. That should help it get sour and more complex sooner and better than the berlinner weisse blend I started with last year.

Deliverance: Appalachian-style sour ale

Brewed on 3/18/10

Recipe is for 12.8 gallons pre-boil, 11.4 gallons post-boil, all grain

O.G. 1.064 IBU's about 17

14.5 lb. Glen Eagle Marris Otter malt

4 lb. 3 oz. Rye Malt

2 lb. 2 oz. Crystal Rye 80-90L

1 lb. Carafa Special II 550 L

2 lb. Munich malt

.5 lb. Rice Hulls

84 gr. Cascade homegrown hops (aged 1 year at room temp, guestimated at 3% AA) 60 minutes

Mash: 7.5 gallons water with the following additions:

5 gr. chalk, 5 gr. baking soda, 2 gr. gypsum, 4 gr. calcium chloride

Mash in to 153 for 60 minutes

Sparge with 8.5 gallons at 170

Collect 12.5 gallons at 1.058 = 85% efficiency

added 1 qt. top-up water

Boil 60 minutes

yeast nutrient at 10 min

Chill to 68 and pitched 1/2 cup thick slurry per carboy of the Rodenbug blend (3rd generation)

Fermented at about 68.

Racked to secondary on 4/12/10. 1.022, only a light trace of funk so far, but tastes good!

12/14/10 Racked half the batch onto 6.5 lb. seeded Montmorency cherries. It also got some of the dregs from the E-Z Lambic. 1.012, and tasting like a stout with a nice little sour cherry character already. Should be interesting.