Driven5 said:In that case, I don't think they're adding enough fruit... Perhaps American sours are going through an equivalent to the hop wars?
Oh yeah. There are people who are bragging about being able to drink the most sour of beers. Or complaining that our sours aren't *really* sour.
That gets to my earlier mentioned rant about legacy styles. Most "gose" infuriates me. No resemblance to German gose, which is refreshingly lemonade tart. Sit and drink a liter of it in the Garden on a hot day kind of beer.
Kettle souring vs souring bacteria?
Kettle souring vs tank souring. In both cases, it's sour bacteria. It's where in the process you sour.
Kettle souring, you cool down your wort before boiling, add a straight lactobacillus culture, and let it sit overnight. It goes to work creating lactic acid. Then you heat it up to kill the bacteria and finish your brewing process. Adding the yeast to finish the fermentation after.
This is done to keep all the bacteria "hot side" to avoid contaminating other beers. That's why it's more popular. It's safer in a brewery that doesn't want to invest in multiple sets of equipment.
The result is, the lacto gets to work first before the yeast, so it becomes overwhelmingly the dominant flavor.
As opposed to a more traditional style tank or vessel souring. You make your wort as usual, and it gets innoculated with a mixed culture of yeasts and bacteria. Everything gets to start at the same time, and the yeast gets a chance to gain a solid foothold creating a more unified flavor profile.
So from an equipment and overall effort perspective, is partial mash appreciably closer to extract than all grain?
Much closer to extract. You need no special new equipment for a partial mash - just a nylon bag. Extra effort is relatively minimal. Just... pull the bag of grains out and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Yet the control, variety, and end result tastes closer to all grain than extract.
What I typically did for home brewing was use 3lbs tubs of liquid malt extract. Just using whole tubs. Then making up the difference to hit target abv with the grains that I'd mash myself in a bag.
You've basically got:
- Extract - just extract
- Flavor grains and extract - steep your specialty character grains in a muslin sock for specific flavors, but extract still forms your base
- Partial mash - all your flavor grains and a portion of your base malt done in a temperature controlled mash for improved control, body, and efficiency. Extract will still be 1/2 - 3/4 of your fermentable sugars.
- All grain - it's all grain. Most control. Most work. Requires a lauter tun.