You know what time it is. It’s time for us to taste beer that has been shipped to us. Yeah, I know – Poor us. For this post, we will be talking about a beer that Trevor from Utah brewed and we present our thoughts.

What Did He Send Us?

Trevor sent us a sour ale. Along with it, he had a handwritten note but forgot to put it in the box when he shipped his beer. Instead, he scanned the note and emailed it to us. I’ll provide the details here:

This beer is a mixed fermentation with a Belgian base consisting of Golden Dry Malt Extract (DME), 15 °L Crystal Malt, White Wheat, Demerara sugar and 3 ounces (85 g) of aged hops added a 30 minutes.

To start fermentation, he added WLP565 Belgian Saison, WLP653 Brettanomyces Lambicus dregs from a homebrew cider, Sour Batch Kidz, dregs from a local sour, and 0.5 Liters started of a bootleg solera blend.

During fermentation, he added 33 ounces (936 g) of Thompson raisins and 9.4 ounces (266 g) of toasted peach stones in 2 additions several months appart.

It soured quicker than he expected and he bottled the beer at 5.5 months into the process and used a large starter of his home Brett C. culture.

Target CO2 was 2.1 volumes on bottling day.

Original Gravity: 1.080
Final Gravity: 1.011
ABV: 9.11%

What Did We Think Of His Sour Beer?

Well, it is definitively a sour beer. There was no doubting it. We both picked up on a soft fruit note. Mike sensed a nectarine essence, it was somewhere between peaches and navel oranges.

The beer was light in body and the fermentation is clean. Although a Belgian strain was used in the beer, there are no funkiness/phenols present. It has the qualities of a kettle soured beer without the subtle yogurt note.

Overall, it is a refreshing beer. Even with all the different additions to ferment, this beer would be a great one to drink on a hot summer day.

BREW ON!