The last stop on the grand tour of Firestone-Walker that the brewery sent us humble L.A. Beer Bloggers on was in Buellton at the new in 2013, Barrelworks.
And at this stop, after another grand lunch with some really fresh and hoppy Pale 31, we had to do some (gasp!), actual work. OK, that was bit dramatic but we did get to try our hand at blending a sour beer.
We were given four beers to play with and let loose to create our own sour masterpiece.
My partner-in-crime for this experiment was Craig Berry from LA Beer Blog . We found a free spot and had to figure out how to blend the following:
Component #1 – Saison-Lil with Brett and Lacto in from an Opus One barrel
Component #2 – Saison with just Brett from a Viognier wine barrel
Component #3 – Saison with Brett and Lacto from a Viognier wine barrel
Component #4 – Bretta Weisse from a retired Union barrel
We then had to find our favorite by blending different percentages of each beer. Since I am a novice at this, it was a bit like playing Battleship. Guessing which beer should be in lower amounts and which beer needed more and then having to go back and trying again.
We came up with five different blends and liked the last couple attempts better so we were learning fast. But more importantly, I now know how hard it must be to do this and I have even more appreciation for “Sour” Jim who heads up the program. To figure out which blend is best is not easy.
