Balancing acid in sour beers

Originally posted by CLevar
Blending only goes so far and is overly simplistic without more information- take a very acidic sour red, and blend in, say, an amber ale with no acidity, and you likely are going to have problems.

I think blending is key to achieving certain flavor profiles (old beer + younger hoppy beer, as an example) but the beers that you blend have to be appropriate for the use. Low residual extract is key. Or you better have a good handle on priming calculators...

Originally posted by bitbucket

Originally posted by SamGamgee
Blending.

This. Plus taking appropriate measures to curb or at least restrain the formation of acetic acid.

You can buy various microbe blends that attempt to balance the acid formation by providing the correct proportions of brettanomyces, lactobacillus, saccharomyces, and sometimes pediococcus but much depends upon your IBUs, pH, temperature and other environmental factors, so they really can’t provide an exact balance.

Originally posted by CLevar
Blending only goes so far and is overly simplistic without more information- take a very acidic sour red, and blend in, say, an amber ale with no acidity, and you likely are going to have problems.

Originally posted by CLevar
I think blending is key to achieving certain flavor profiles (old beer + younger hoppy beer, as an example) but the beers that you blend have to be appropriate for the use. Low residual extract is key. Or you better have a good handle on priming calculators...

Originally posted by HornyDevil

Originally posted by bitbucket

Originally posted by SamGamgee
Blending.

This. Plus taking appropriate measures to curb or at least restrain the formation of acetic acid.

You can buy various microbe blends that attempt to balance the acid formation by providing the correct proportions of brettanomyces, lactobacillus, saccharomyces, and sometimes pediococcus but much depends upon your IBUs, pH, temperature and other environmental factors, so they really can’t provide an exact balance.

Proportions of microbes don’t matter as much as the recipe and fermentation technique that you mentioned. Microbes have different growth rates so if they are all in the same environment, they will each grow at different speeds.

Originally posted by bitbucket
I’m also expecting that when there is direct competition for the same food source, the early bird will tend to get the worm and that the more ’omnivorous’ types will generally fare better than the ’finicky eaters’.

Joe,

I use about a teaspoon of this when I open a 750 ml of sour beer. Just sprinkle it on top. Really balances the acid nicely.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/52-ph-stabilizer.html?variant=WM57&gclid=COyIq5KXg88CFQsoaQoddFQHmQ

Originally posted by HornyDevil

Originally posted by CLevar
Blending only goes so far and is overly simplistic without more information- take a very acidic sour red, and blend in, say, an amber ale with no acidity, and you likely are going to have problems.

Problems with?

Originally posted by CLevar
I think blending is key to achieving certain flavor profiles (old beer + younger hoppy beer, as an example) but the beers that you blend have to be appropriate for the use. Low residual extract is key. Or you better have a good handle on priming calculators...

Indeed.

It certainly takes practice to achieve the result that you intend.

Originally posted by Homer321
Joe,

I use about a teaspoon of this when I open a 750 ml of sour beer. Just sprinkle it on top. Really balances the acid nicely.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/52-ph-stabilizer.html?variant=WM57&gclid=COyIq5KXg88CFQsoaQoddFQHmQ

Originally posted by CLevar

Originally posted by HornyDevil

Originally posted by CLevar
Blending only goes so far and is overly simplistic without more information- take a very acidic sour red, and blend in, say, an amber ale with no acidity, and you likely are going to have problems.

Problems with?

Originally posted by CLevar
I think blending is key to achieving certain flavor profiles (old beer + younger hoppy beer, as an example) but the beers that you blend have to be appropriate for the use. Low residual extract is key. Or you better have a good handle on priming calculators...

Indeed.

It certainly takes practice to achieve the result that you intend.

Problems with bottle bombs, as the malt Amber at 3P gets fermented out.

For geuze, the type of fermentables are controlled with the unmalted wheat and mash profile.
Correct sizing of barrels helps with the oxidation control.
Then also timing of the fermentation (process takes months). Brett in the end helps with balancing but is a slow one.

Then of course, blending is the key.