Lambics are funky, wood-aged tradition in a glass, but people have come to appreciate quick sour beers for their bright, refreshing tartness. Even though the classic wild-fermented beers often revel in a robust complexity, quick sours offer more than just the shorter time to getting beer in the glass. In particular, with quick sours, brewers have a finer control over the level of sourness with greater predictability. It may seem like a compromise to give up the funk and settle for a cleaner sourness, but that clarity can vary from a mild, focusing tang to a sharp accent. Another bonus is that you don’t generally have to worry about infecting your equipment.
As a homebrewer, you have three main options for getting into the fast lane to sour brewing, moving from easiest-to-control to least-predictable: dosing your wort or finished beer directly with lactic acid, kettle souring, and sour mashing. Although sour mashing is riskiest, none of these is particularly difficult.
Dropping Acid
Using lactic acid cuts out the indirection of pitching Lactobacillus, reducing the chance of other infection. It’s incredibly simple, but some people claim it leads to a less nuanced, artificial sourness. If you’re aiming for a very tart beer, this is more likely to be true, but I’ve tasted goses where it worked very well.