Sour Dortmunder



Sour Dortmunder Export



My buddy Matt asked for a Dortmunder Export for his annual birthday beer a few years ago and I didn't have the time or space to lager a beer for him as I had a Maibock going at the time and I can only lager one beer at a time. I made him an Alt that turned out very well and scored a 36 in the AHA Regional in 2010, advancing to the mini-round, where it was stomped by my friend Jennifer's Kolsch. Anyhoo, I thought I would make him a Dortmunder for his birthday last year and I rushed it. Good advice here for lagering--don't rush it and make a huge starter. I split two gallons out and soured that with La Folie dregs and bottled the rest for Matt. What he really got for his birthday was hoppy saccharin bottle bombs. Worst batch of beer I have ever made. I got the stuff back from him and messily opened the gushers, pouring them into a bucket and pitched an ale yeast on it to dry it. Well, it got infected and still tasted like shit, so I put the lid back on until I figured out what to do with it. In the meantime, the soured version turned out awesome. I had never soured a lager before and never had a commercial version either. After many months I took the 3 gallons of shit beer and put it into a magical device that condensed the stuff into a quart and a half of delicious beverage once watered down to 50% ABV and aged on a little oak. All in all, it was a nice save and kind of fun to drink the delicious sour Dortmunder while turning the rest into drinkable stuff in the back woods.

I won't even bother with the recipe for this beer since it was such a disaster, but I will provide the heads up that souring a lager with New Belgium's La Folie dregs is a good thing.

Matt ended up getting a mediocre Pale Ale about six months late for his birthday. This year I plan to do better--especially since he took me to Willie Nelson for my birthday.