Category Archives: Sours

Brewing and drinking sour beers

Licensed Fool, Sour Mashed Belgian Wit

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It was probably a few years ago when I first encountered Boulevard Brewing’s Two Jokers Double-Wit style beer. And in one or two sips, I was hooked along with a few of my fellow craft beer drinkers. My friends were aware that I had started brewing and so the obvious question of whether or not I could clone the beer was proposed. At the time, I had taken my hand at brewing a number of existing clones with great success, usually from the Brewing Network’s The Jamil Show (Can You Brew it) podcast show. One thing I had not yet done was to attempt to clone a beer myself.

Brewing with Wheat includes interviews with Boulevard’s head brewer and he discusses a number of the beers as well as a few details on Two Jokers. Using these tidbits along with a general ingredient list available on their website, I’ve taken a stab at what I think the recipe should look like.

One interesting aspect is that in the book, Boulevard says that they do short sour mash.  They dough-in at 95F, hold for 8 hours and target a pH of 4.8. I really liked this idea and re-used the sour mashing technique I used to create a Berliner Weiss, which I picked up from Jeff Young at Black Star Coop via the Sunday Show interview with them. I’m looking forward to seeing how this extra tartness goes with the Belgian Wit recipe.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
5.3 gal 60 min 16.3 IBUs 5.1 SRM 1.075 1.013 8.1 %
Actuals 1.046 1.01 4.7 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
Witbier 16 A 1.044 - 1.052 1.008 - 1.012 10 - 20 2 - 4 2.4 - 2.9 4.5 - 5.5 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Brewer's Malt, 2-Row, Premium (Great Western) 8.5 lbs 56.43
White Wheat Malt 3.314 lbs 22
Wheat, Flaked 2.937 lbs 19.5
Munich Malt 5 oz 2.07

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Magnum 0.18 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 13.5
Northern Brewer (AHS) 0.5 oz 15 min Boil Pellet 9
Lavender 0.5 oz 15 min Aroma Pellet 12.2

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Calcium Chloride 4.80 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 4.80 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4) 0.50 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Cardimom 2.00 g 30 min Boil Spice
Coriander Seed 0.50 oz 15 min Boil Spice
Orange Peel, Sweet 0.50 oz 15 min Boil Spice
Seeds of Paradise 0.70 g 5 min Boil Spice

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
Belgian Witbier (3944) Wyeast Labs 74% 62°F - 75°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Saccharification 148°F 90 min
Mash Out 168°F 10 min

Notes

Color (EBC) 15.8
Bitterness (IBUs) 15
Original Gravity (Plato) 17.5
Terminal Gravity (Plato) 3.8
Alcohol (ABV) 8%
CO2 - Bottles 3.5 vol. (7.0 g/L)
CO2 - Kegs N/A

Sour Mash
- purge mash tun with c02
- mash in at 95F, hold for 8 hours until pH at 4.8
- add lactic and citric for target pH

Download

Download this recipe's BeerXML file

Not included in the pretty-print form of the recipe is the Spices … I’m actually working on a patch to the beerxml wordpress plugin to display Misc. items in the recipe.  But if you download the recipe directly, it’s all in the XML.  Also, You’ll note Lavender listed as a hop; this is purely because Beersmith doesn’t let me say Spices steep after the boil which is what the BYO Brewing with Spices article discusses.

 

Homebrewer’s Wine Barrel

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American oak cubes, medium toast, soaking in Russian River Pinot Noir red wine

While working on my first sour, a Flander’s Red, part of the original instructions suggest that one can approximate some of the barrel characteristics by using some oak cubes and the ingredients that are typically stored within an oak barrel.

In my case, the Flander’s Red was aged in an old Russian River Pinot Noir wine barrel.  I won’t be getting a full-sized barrel anytime soon, but I can attempt to impart some of the same flavors into the beer.

What I have here is 2.5 oz of American Oak cubes, medium toast in three small canning jars.  I’ve poured a few ounces of Russian River Pinot Noir red wine, specifically some Healdsburg Ranches, Appellation Series Pinot Noir 2010 on top.

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Healdsburg Ranches, Appellation Series Pinot Noir 2010

The article mentions that one should change the wine every few days for a period of two weeks to lessen the oak character helping further to simulate putting a beer into an used wine barrel.

After the soak these wine-soaked oak cubes will sit in the carboy with my Flander’s Red,  in Rubicundiusque, for another  couple of months to mix in the flavors and allow the beer, oak and wine flavors to develop together.

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Oak cubes ready to be stored for two weeks to simulate used wine barrels

Bluebonnet 2013 Results

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Momosuppai, a sour-worted Berliner Weisse with Peaches

Momosuppai, a sour-worted Berliner Weisse with Peaches

The Texas BlueBonnet Brewoff 2013 was held in Dallas, TX March 20-23.  On Sunday night, the results were announced, even tweeted via the Austin Zealots homebrew clubs’ newly announced twitter account, AustinZealotsTX.

I had entered three beers into this competition, Big Fat Phony in category 23 Specialty Beer, Momosuppai in category 20 Fruit Beer, and Kuroppoi in category 5C Dopplebock, even though I have seven beers available.  Unfortunately, the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) rules restrict what one can enter.  For example, the rules prevent a homebrewer from submitting multiple beers to the same sub-category.  While this isn’t in general that bad, it does affect some brewers that are brewing beers don’t yet have official sub-categories.  Rye IPAs and India Black Ale (or Black IPA, or Cascadian Dark Ale) are common beers but aren’t yet recognized by the BJCP.  There is a catch-all category for these beers, 23, Specialty Beer.  I happened to have three beers that would only fit in 23 only (Black Hop Day, Fly Ralcon and Big Fat Phony).  I had to pick the best of these for category 23. I chose my favorite, Big Fat Phony.

As the results came in, I was checking to see which categories I had entered.  And while it was little disappointing, I wasn’t totally surprised that I claimed none of the medals in the categories I entered.

Later that week I got back my score sheets.  One of my biggest fears around Big Fat Phony happened.  The scores for BFF were just too low to be real (average around 20 / 50) and the sheet was marked up with “off” flavors.  Band-aide, medicinal, iodine, “you might have an infection”… If you’ve seen my post on Scotching a Beer, then you know that Big Fat Phony was scotched with an Islay Whiskey, which is known for its, wait for it… peaty flavor which is commonly referred to as “medicinal”.  So, I don’t think Big Fat Phony got a fair shake, but that’s entirely my fault for submitting an experimental beer.

The other two beers did reasonably well.  Kuroppoi scored an average of 34 points, but not enough to move on to the second round.  One judge commented that the beer didn’t have quite the “rich, malty” character that 5C requires and that I should instead just submit it as a 5B, Traditional Bock.  That’s decent feedback.

The best of the group was Momosuppai, a Fruit Beer, which was a Berliner Weiss with Peach puree.   This was my first attempt at a sour-worting and Berliner Weiss which came out really well.  It could have used a few more days to increase the sour intensity, but it was still very nice.  This beer scored an average of 36.5, and made its way to the second round, and re-scored at a 26.5.

After asking around, this lower score during second round is typical, but there is also a lot of randomness too as some members reported having a lower score in the first round, only to see a higher score in the second.

I’m still learning things from competitions and it’s fun making sure the brewing schedule works for whatever is needed for the next competition.

Splitting Fancy Lad, English Mild

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mmm, Fancy Lad likes English Milds

Blue boy is a fancy lad who can appreciate a good dark English Mild

Working with a sour beer pipeline is challenging. Since sours take quite a bit more time than non-sour beers a brewer needs to plan ahead. Back in January I had a “double” brewday of sorts. I was finishing up a sour-worting for a Berliner Weiss which only required a 30 minute heat to 176 and then chill and pitch. I decided that I had enough time to brew a full batch of beer in addition to this short heating and cooling cycle.

This turned out fine, but was one of the busiest brewdays I’ve had, even with help. So, to avoid this extra stress, I’ve instead decided to brew larger batches and split the results. My next planned sour is a Flander’s Brown, or Old Bruin. I’ve also got a nice yeast cake from the Ed’s Best Bitter batch, so instead of wasting that, I’m going to brew an English Mild, right at the edge of the gravity limit for the style and then pitch half on the 1968 yeast and the other half will be racked onto a Roselares yeast cake from a Flander’s Red that’s been souring since January.

in-Rubicundiusque

in Rubicundiusque, Flander’s Red souring since Jan, 2013

Here’s the recipe for Fancy Lad

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
10 gal 60 min 20.4 IBUs 20.9 SRM 1.041 1.015 3.4 %
Actuals 1.046 1.01 4.7 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
Mild 11 A 1.03 - 1.038 1.008 - 1.013 10 - 25 12 - 25 1.3 - 2.3 2.8 - 4.5 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) 12.5 lbs 80
Crystal, Medium (Simpsons) 2.5 lbs 16
Chocolate Malt (Thomas Fawcett) 10 oz 4

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Fuggles 1.41 oz 45 min Boil Pellet 5.3
Fuggles 1.41 oz 15 min Boil Pellet 5.3

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
London ESB Ale (1968) Wyeast Labs 69% 64°F - 72°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Saccharification 158°F 60 min
Mash Out 168°F 10 min

Download

Download this recipe's BeerXML file

2013-03-29 — Brewed with Mark, collected 10 gallons of 1.041 wort, split into two carboys. One repitched onto the Wyeast 1968 cake from Ed’s Best Bitter. The second 5 gallons collected into a 6.5 gallon carboy with the yeast cake from the Flander’s Red.

Split Fancy Boy

2013-04-03 — Gravity Check, Non-sour half, S.G @ 1.016, raised temp to 72F for d-rest
2013-04-03 — Gravity Check, Sour half, S.G @ 1.009, continue ambient temp