Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Wyeast De Bom Golden Sour - Recipe & Tasting Notes

Wyeast De Bom

Beer: Wyeast De Bom Golden Sour
Brewery: Bear Flavored
Style: Sour Beer / Farmhouse Ale
Brewed: 8.21.14
Bottled On: 11.13.14
ABV: 5.7%













Brewed 8.21.14
Bottled On: 11.13.14
Batch: 5 Gal
Mashed at 148 degrees for 60 minutes
Fermented at basement temp, 74 - 76 F
OG: 1.054
FG: 1.010
ABV: 5.7%

70% [#7] Pilsner malt
30% [#3] white wheat

Hop Schedule-
0.5 oz Nugget @0 min

Wyeast 3203 De Bom Sour Blend


  1. Did you ever measure pH on this during/after the fermentation?

    1. I didn't, because my last pH meter was just super unreliable. But I recently got a new one, so I'll take a reading on a decarbed sample tomorrow.

  2. I used this and got a very tart beer with pretty good esters and citrus Lacto character. I did a 70/30 pilsner/wheat no-boil beer (no hops) and fermented at 80 in a chamber. It soured considerably in a week, so much so that I removed it from the chamber so I could slow the Lacto down. I repitched onto the cake last week and it was almost sour enough for my tastes in three days. I've heard complaints about the lack of tartness with this beer and I have to wonder what people are doing different because I am ecstatic with this blend.

    I've brewed a handful of long aged sours and while this obviously isn't as complex, it's much, much more of a complex sour than the quick Lacto beers I've made in the past.

    1. Interesting! Well that is cool to hear. I'd guess two small differences were enough to make up the added sourness. Those extra couple degrees in temperature plus the lack of hops could certainly add up; they have in other beers I've made. I know Brevis is supposed to be more hop tolerant, but maybe what we added to this beer was still enough to slow it down, or maybe it's not really just Brevis in here.

    2. I would seriously guess that it was Brevis, but who knows. I'm interested in what yeast they're using which can handle 80 degrees without causing problems. My first batch finished at 1.01 and it's not very saison-like, which would have been my first guess as to what they would use. I would guess there is Brett in there, too, based on the flavors I got.

  3. If you did no-boil then you also had wild lacto in there in addition to the lacto from De Bom. That could account for the increased lactic presence.

  4. I heated the wort to 190 for ten minutes with a heat stick, so there was definitely nothing alive in there before pitching.

    1. Agreed, in my experience it's pretty unlikely for much of anything to survive even at standard mash and sparge temps. It's only when you leave a sour mash on the whole grain bed overnight that things start to get really weird.

  5. Ethyl acetate has a pear drop like aroma at low concentration, but becomes more nail polish like at higher concentrations. Many esters are like this. Here's more on the subject of athyl acetate and other esters
    It's a cool blog anyway, so worth mentioning ;)

  6. I could be wrong, but doesn't Cascade age their beers in barrels for 6-8 months? It doesn't seem like Cascade is doing any quick souring so I'm not really sure why people seem to think that using their lacto and quick souring will make a similar beer to a Cascade sour.

    1. Not sure, but I would assume they are probably barrel aged. However the lactobacillus would do what it's going to do fairly quickly if it was truly the only funky or sour agent at play there. On its own, lacto isn't going to be doing much at the 8 month mark. But if their beers are barrel-aged, there very well may just be other things resident in the barrels that they didn't pitch, but which help them turn out the way they do.

  7. Nice articel, I haven't used the strain myself, but I've been playing/toying with differenct cultures as of late, and this blend strikes me as a good quick turn around, without creating anything overwheolmingly amazing.
    I'm currently gathering yeast (WLP530, WLP650, Lacto Brevis and Pedio together for a souring culture) using these separately, as you say suggests I might get some better results. I have had a friends Lichtenhainer (Smoked Sour) and this blend strikes me as a blend which could make a nicely tart beer for this style.


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