Petrus Aged Pale Clone

Petrus aged pale is an interesting brew. It's not dark like a flanders red or oud bruin but not funky like a lambic. For a sour beer, it's got a lot of bitterness to it from the unusually large amounts of hops for a sour beer. Usually sour beers are very lowly hopped but aged pale is very much a pale ale gone sour. It is not only sold as a beer in its own right but it's also blended with a clean brown ale to produce Petrus Oud Bruin.

My wife has taken a particular fondness for the aged pale so I agreed to brew her up a batch of a clone, although I also plan on drinking a good portion of it myself. Fortunately, Wild Brews does a good job of discussing this beer and provides a solid clone recipe. The same recipe formed the basis for my clone. The difference is that I am using up the last of a couple bags of hops so I changed the types of hops to fit my needs. Otherwise, everything is kept the same. The beer is going to be fermented initially with the yeast strain I bottle harvested from a bottle of South Austin Golden Ale. I can't tell exactly what strain it is but some websites suggested it is a trappist strain. The South Austin Golden Ale has a lot of the pear notes typical to the Duvel-inspired style but more fruity notes common to tripels. The fermented beer will be racked to secondary in a corny keg and the dregs of a bottle of the aged pale will provide the souring.

Here is the recipe I am using for a five gallon batch. That's right, I'm deviating from my usual gallon recipes.

Batch size: 5.0 gallons
OG: 1.054
Est. FG: 1.012
SRM: 4.9
IBU: 26.0
ABV: 5.51%

Grain bill:
9lb Belgian Pilsner (2.0 SRM)
1lb Carahell (10.0 SRM)

Mash temp: 154F for 60 minutes

Boil volume: 6.5 gallons

Boil time: 90 minutes

Boil additions:
0.30oz Magnum (14%) (90 min)
0.50oz EKG (5%) (90 min)
0.35oz Saaz (4%) (0 min)

Fermentation schedule:
Pitch South Austin Golden Ale strain in 1 liter starter at 68F
Ferment at 66F for 24 hours
Ferment at 72F for 24 hours
Ferment at 76F for 24 hours
Free rise for 11 days
Rack to secondary, add Petrus dregs
Ferment at ambient temperatures for 6-12 months.