First Funky Beer

My wife and I have been talking about doing a funky sour beer for years, and now we finally have. Last year we made a Belgian dark strong on June 8th. The recipe was taken from The Jamil Show on The Brewing Network. About 6 months ago I added 6 pounds of cherry puree, and tasted the beer. To be honest, I thought it was horrible, it had a really strong sherry flavor that I couldn't stand. I ignored it for about 6 more months and was about to throw it out. Last night I went to a ZZHops meeting and some of the guys there said I should throw in some bugs and see what happens. I figured hell, I paid a lot for the ingredients and I might as well do something with them. So today I took a gravity reading and pitched in one vial of brett (which was a month past the expiration), and threw in a bag of wood chips from Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River, that were infected with all the bugs he uses to get his beers sour.

Here is the recipe:

Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.5 3.00 lbs. Generic DME - Light Generic 1.046 8
57.7 15.00 lbs. Pilsener Germany 1.038 2
11.5 3.00 lbs. Munich Malt Germany 1.037 8
3.8 1.00 lbs. Aromatic Malt Belgium 1.036 20
3.8 1.00 lbs. Cane Sugar 1.047 0
3.8 1.00 lbs. CaraMunich Malt Belgium 1.033 60
3.8 1.00 lbs. Special B Malt Belgian 1.030 120
1.9 0.50 lbs. Melanoidin Malt 1.033 30
1.9 0.50 lbs. Wheat Malt Germany 1.039 2

Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.42 oz. Hallertauer Pellet 4.00 28.8 60 min.

Yeast
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White Labs WLP530 Abbey Ale (pitched on top of old yeast cake)

Mashed at 153 for 60 minutes. 5 gallon batch.

The Yeast and Wood Chips



Carrie About To Pitch The Crazy Stuff



A Blurry Picture of the Fermenter Full Of Wood Chips



The horrible truth to all this is that I was adding all this junk because I thought the beer was still horrible. The only problem is that after we added all the junk I decided to try the beer in the hydrometer vial. It was awesome. Just like a really good Belgian strong with a nice cherry flavor in the back. Extremely complex. I am a little sad now that I have added all that stuff, but maybe in a year it is going to be even better.