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===Resources===
'''Before''' getting started making a sour beer, we recommend reading these resources. It is also recommended that you understand the basics of brewing before getting started into sour beer brewing.* The book "American Sour Beers: Innovative Techniques for Mixed Fermentations," by Michael Tonsmeire. This book is very friendly for brewers who are new to mixed fermentation brewing. This is probably a better resource to begin with before diving deep into this wiki.Before getting started making a sour beer, we recommend reading these resources:
* This wiki! Specifically, these pages: [[FAQ]], [[Mixed Fermentation]], [[Wort Souring]], [[Gose]], [[Berliner Weissbier]], [[Mixed Cultures]], [[Alternative Bacteria Sources]], [[Lactobacillus]], and [[Brettanomyces]].
==A Brief Background of Yeast/Microbes==
When brewing sour beer, there are a few more players to the “yeast” side of the ingredients list. In addition to ''Saccharomyces'' or “Sacch”, which is commonly referred to as "brewers yeast", in wild beer brewing the brewer is also often dealing with ''Brettanomyces'', which is another genus of yeastthat is closely related to ''Saccharomyces''. ''Brettanomyces'' yeasts produces novel fruity and sometimes funky flavors often over a long period of slow fermentation. Bacteria are used to produce sourness in the form of lactic acid. These bacteria are called "lactic acid bacteria", or "LAB" for short. Specifically, and they are ''Lactobacillus'' and ''Pediococcus'', which are both . Other bacteria. such as ''Acetobacter'' (acetic acid bacteria) and ''Enterobacter'' do (enteric bacteria) sometimes play a part in some sour fermentations, however, they are not often intentionally added.
===''Brettanomyces''===
Pure commercial cultures of ''Brettanomyces'' are available at most yeast suppliers (see [[Brettanomyces#Commercial_Cultures||''Brettanomyces'' cultures]] for a comprehensive list). ''Brettanomyces'' does NOT provide a universal flavor. Just like the various ''Saccharomyces'' strains most brewers are familiar with, each ''Brettanomyces'' strain can produce a vast array of different flavors, depending on the particular strain, temperature and time.
===''LactobacilluLactobacillus''s===
''Lactobacillus'' is a rod shaped bacteria that can grow with or without oxygen and produces lactic acid - most people are familiar with the sourness found in yogurt, sauerkraut, pickles, and so on. ''Lactobacillus'' converts sugars to lactic acid (and sometimes CO2 and ethanol). It can produce varying complexities of sourness from the one dimensional to the more complex, depending on which type is used.
==Your First Beer(s)==
(To do)
===The Kettle Sour===
===Mixed Fermentation Sour===
Also called "a real sour", this is where multiple microorganisms are pitched into the fermenter and aged for many months in order to produce a sour beer.
==See Also==
===Additional Articles on MTF Wiki===
* [[Beer_Judging_Supplemental_Guide_-_Understanding_Flavors_and_Aromas_in_Sour_and_Mixed_Fermentation_Beer#Introduction|Beer Judging Supplemental Guide]]
* [[Mixed Fermentation]]