For many years, my homebrewing activities have been limited to "Children's Beer," a low-alcohol, low-everything all-grain mash of 3.5 to 4 pounds of malts in a six-gallon batch. On the 24th, I started a new batch using Philly Sour yeast (2 packets) instead of the usual BRY-97 West Coast American ale (or sometimes Verdant ale) yeast using my usual recipe except that I added a little glucose to feed the lactic acid. After two days of slow fermentaton, I added a packet of BRY-97 to take it on out.

On Sunday morning, racked the 6 gallons to 5 gallon fermenter, bottling a couple of 2 liter bottles mid-stream to take up the slack. Chilled a bottle yesterday and tasted a sample last night. Tried about 2 oz sample (about 0.04 standard drinks). Souring definitely worked. Had a nice tang and nothing funky (at least not yet). I used exact recipe as previous batch except for the weird souring yeast, which was pretty hoppy for a weak beer (1 oz Amariillo 10% AA hops in the boil, 1/3 oz same hops added immediately after boil). I see now why people usually use less hops for sour beer: the bitterness of hops sets off the sweetness of malt nicely, but in the sour the malt sweetness is covered up by the acid, so a good dose of hops, too, seems a bit excessive. Not undrinkable, but a beer judge would fault it.

Just to be clear: I call it Children's Beer, but I don't give it to children!

I've never cared for sour children, but I'd quaff that beer at least once. I should try and brew a batch during our rainy season, if it ever gets here, that is.

CDF

You're a real pro Buck. Personally instead of using sour yeast I'd rather add more hops, but it was an experiment and you learned from it. Happy brewing !

Here is the full recipe for Children's Beer that I wrote up a few years ago. I used to use Wyeast liquid yeast, but have switched to the Lallemand dry yeasts mentioned above for convenience. I can't tell the difference (except when using the Philly Sour, of course).

Note that this is all-grain brewing but doesn't require the large and elaborate equipment usually used for that process. Due to the tiny amount of grain, you can mash in a large kitchen kettle. When I sparge, I just drain the grain bag for a couple of minutes through a large colander set on top of the kettle, put the drained bag into a large saucepan (8 quart? 10 quart? I should measure it), pour in boiling water from a tea kettle to almost fill, stir a little with a big spoon, drain again and repeat, then add hops and boil.


Crushed grains

2# organic 2-row light malt
0.75# Gambrinius honey malt
0.75# 60L crystal malt

Yeast starter

Two days before mashing, smack a pack of Wyeast #1272 American Ale II yeast, Allow to grow overnight at room temperature.

One day before mashing, boil 3/4 cup light dry malt extract (or equivalent malt syrup) in 1 L water + a few hop pellets (optional) + a tiny pinch of sea salt (only if you have soft water) for 15-20’. Set saucepan in a bath of cold water and ice until at about room temperature. Decant into a small fermenter (such as a sanitized 2 L bottle), add the smack pack yeast culture and install airlock. Allow to grow overnight at room temperature.

Mashing

Put grains + 1/4 teaspoon gypsum in a large filter bag lining an stainless or enameled kettle (largest size that can fit in oven, mine is 14 liters, or have a sleeping bag on hand to wrap kettle). Turn on oven to lowest setting 15’ then turn off. Heat 3.5 L water to 135° F, add to grains and stir. Temperature should be about 115° F. Put in warm oven or wrap kettle with sleeping bag, wait 20 to 30’ for “protein rest.”

Turn oven back on to lowest setting. Boil about 3 L of water and add to kettle. Temperature should be about 145° F. Put back in oven or wrap with sleeping bag, wait 30’ for starch conversion.

Sparge grains 2 or 3 times with about 1 liter each time hot tap water or boiling water, adding sparged liquid to kettle. Bring to boil and wait for hot break. Add 0.75 to 1 ounce Amarillo hop flowers in mesh bag, or pellets. Reduce heat and cover, maintaining a moderately rolling boil. Let boil 30’. Add any aroma hops, if desired. Remove hop bag, if using, re-cover kettle and let cool until barely warm (may be overnight if mashing was done in the evening).

Fermentation

Put 2 gallons cold water in 5 gallon or 6 gallon fermenter. Add contents of kettle and verify that temperature is low enough to be safe for yeast. Pitch yeast culture. Add cold water q.s. to fill fermenter nearly to the top (avoid filling too full unless using a blow-off hose). Install airlock and let ferment at room temperature (or ideally at about 65° F) for 3 to 5 days.

Rack to a clean fermenter (optional). Let residual yeast settle for 1 to 2 days.

Boil 3/4 to 1.5 cups light malt extract (depending on how fizzy you like your beer) in 1 L water for 15 to 20’. Put boiled malt extract in bottling bucket and siphon beer into bucket. Bottle and allow to condition a few days at room temperature before drinking.

I dried down a sample of one batch on a tared glass slide, weighed on a laboratory analytical balance and calculated that this beer (from a 6 gallon batch) had a total of 17 grams of residual solids per liter. I figure about 5 grams of carbs per 12 ounce serving, assuming most of the solids are carbs.

I haven’t taken an initial gravity, but I estimate that this beer is about 1 to 1.5% alcohol. Drinking a couple of glasses has almost no effect. Yet it *almost* tastes like beer.

Sorry/not sorry for the mix of US and metric units.