Hey all, I accidentally contaminated a starter of safale S-04; it’s smells nice and sour now, but I don’t think I should throw it into the imperial stout that I was planning to make this weekend. Can anyone recommend a good sour recipe that uses S-04? Thanks!
Disclaimer - accidental sours generally don’t end well.
If you want to give it a shot, I’d make a 1 gallon test batch. Without knowing what’s in your starter, maybe shoot for an OG of around 1.040 - 1.050, with 15 IBUs at most. Lighter malts usually go better than dark roasts in a sour, so maybe start with something along the lines of a saison? Check out some of the NB recipes for inspiration. If your 1-gallon batch turns out well, you can always repitch a larger batch on the yeast cake.
[quote=“porkchop”]Disclaimer - accidental sours generally don’t end well.
If you want to give it a shot, I’d make a 1 gallon test batch. Without knowing what’s in your starter, maybe shoot for an OG of around 1.040 - 1.050, with 15 IBUs at most. Lighter malts usually go better than dark roasts in a sour, so maybe start with something along the lines of a saison? Check out some of the NB recipes for inspiration. If your 1-gallon batch turns out well, you can always repitch a larger batch on the yeast cake.[/quote]
I’ve had a few accidental sours - ever one of them was due to something hitching a ride into the beer on unsanitized fruit. For some reason, fruit beers seem to work out OK when they sour that way. Maybe it’s the types of microbes that occur on fruits, or maybe I’ve just gotten lucky. But overall, I agree with porkchop on this one. You are unlikely to get good results from this, though you’ll never know if you don’t try.
What do you mean, you accidentally contaminated a starter?
