re: Homebrewing Thread: Volume II

I puree'd 15 lbs of strawberries Thursday and added them to the fermenter of my kettle sour. Kettle sour tasted great, when i did some measurements earlier. Added a lb. of lactose in the boil so i get some good tartness and pleasant sweetness. I added the puree'd strawberries to the fermenter yesteday evening and, of course, i did not remove enough of the beer, so my fermenter was very full. Apparently my blowoff tube was clogged up, and when i checked the fermenting freezer this morning, strawberries and beer were everywhere. Refermentation of the strawberries pushed off the carboy cap, so now i have a mess to clean up this afternoon. Hopefully it still turns out ok, depsite having no airlock/cap on the fermenter for a few hours overnight.

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Oof. Hopefully it's fine, I'd imagine it is if it wasn't off long...

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Yeah. Considering the refermentation is still going on, and its inside a closed freezer, i'm assuming oxygen pickup shouldn't be too high. Also fermented with a sach strain, not a brett strain, so i'm not too worried about putrid brett oxidation.

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Thinking about doing a Berliner this weekend. I'm getting mixed feedback on the process across the internet. Can someone correct me where I am wrong:

- Mash, as normal
- Bring to a boil, then immediately cut heat
- Drop temp to about 95
- Add Lacto culture
- Measure PH daily until it's where I want
- Boil for 15 min
- Cool and pitch regular yeast
- Ferment for a couple weeks
- Keg or secondary

Do I even need to do the second boil or just pitch my regular yeast?

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Milk the Funk Kettle Sour Gose

Read up on the milk the funk kettle sour process. It's what i follow. But here are my steps.

2 days before brew day, make a starter for your lacto culture (and your yeast if you are making a starter). Trust me, without a starter for lacto, you'll have difficulty acidifying the wort. I hear pitching a carton of good belly works well too, but i've only used cultures.
Also, brett brux sach trois (thought to be a brett strain but after white labs testing, confirmed as sach) is a good strain to use. Also US-05 or other aggressively attenuating yeast strains.

1) Mash as normal
2) I do a full boil (60 minutes). I want all of that protein to drop out of suspension. Though this is a good style to experiment with shorter boil lengths, but personally i wouldn't boil less than 30-45 minutes.
3) Cool down to 95-100. Pre-acidify the wort per the milk the funk wiki to just below 4.5 to prevent growth of unwanted bacteria. If you don't have a pH meter, about 1-2 tablespoons of 88% lactic acid should do the job.

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Using 1 mL of 88% lactic acid per .1 shift in pH for 5 gallons of wort is a good starting measurement. As an example, say that 5 gallons of wort has a pH of 5.0 just before pitching the Lactobacillus culture. Begin by adding 5 mL (1 US teaspoon) of food grade lactic acid to the wort for a target of around 4.4 pH (or somewhere between 4.2 and 4.8; target 4.0 - 4.3 if souring with grain or some other non-purified source of bacteria to help inhibit the growth of unwanted bacteria that could produce off-flavors). Stir gently, then take another pH reading. Continue to add 1-2 mL of lactic acid until the wort has the desired pH. Derek Springer has observed that it takes about one tablespoon (15 mL) of 88% lactic acid to reach a pH of 4.2 - 4.8 for 5 gallons of wort [42]; however a higher amount may be required if the brewer's water is high in bicarbonate (24 mL for 5 gallons of wort to reach a pH of 4.4 was reported by Sean McVeigh for his water which contains 375ppm of bicarbonates [43]). Once a pH of 4.2 - 4.8 is reached, pitch the Lactobacillus culture.

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4) once cooled down and pre-acidified, pitch your lacto starter (or good belly).
5) I then place the lid of the brew kettle gently on top, and force a blanket of CO2 over the kettle. I then shut the lid completely and tape down the lid, and move the kettle to my fermenting freezer (unplugged). This provides just enough insulation to maintain higher temps a bit longer.
6) Usually 36-48 hours later i measure my pH and then taste the wort. If i'm happy, i then conduct another 10-15 minute boil to kill the microbes.
7) Cool down wort to yeast pitch temps, pitch yeast, ferment as normal.

Here is the MTF process per the wiki, which is basically what i do, as you'll notice.

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Steps

1. 1-2 days before brewing make a 1 liter starter of 1.040 wort, and add your vial of WLP644. Let it sit at room temperature until use. Also make 1 liter of 1.040 wort, and pour OYL-605 into the starter. Incubate 24-48 hours at room temperature to increase the cell count.
2. Mash in at 145°f for 60 minutes; if hops have to be used, make sure to add the hops to the mash.
3. Sparge as normal.
4. Bring the wort to a boil, add salt and coriander, and then turn the heat off (no need to boil for more than a couple of minutes).
5. Adjust PH ~4.2 to limit growth Clostridium butyricum and other potential off-flavor bacteria. Not necessary, but this is a best practice suggestion. See How to Pre-Acidify for instructions.
6. Chill the wort down to 95°f, and transfer to a CO2 purged carboy or keg. Add the 1 liter of OYL-605 Lactobacillus Blend starter. Allow it to sour for 24 hours. No external heating is required.
7. After the souring phase, chill the soured wort down to ~70°F and pitch WLP644 Trois (boiling to kill the Lactobacillus before adding the WLP644 Trois is optional; see kettle souring). You can aerate if you feel necessary. After 2 weeks a stable gravity should be reached.
8. Rack or transfer off as normal to bottles or a keg.

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Is it worth it to transfer to a keg to sour then transfer back to a kettle after? I ferment in them anyway. Or will I mess up my keg?

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I would sour in the kettle then boil it to kill all of the lacto. I just did a batch. I mashed as normal, boil it for about 15 minutes, lowered PH with lactic, brought it down to 90 degrees and pitched a quart of good belly. It took about 24 hours and my beer was nice and sour. I then did a full boil like a regular batch. I didn’t purge the head space with CO2. I used plastic wrap directly on top the beer to keep O2 and funk out and then put the lid back on.

I'm not sure where you are located, but I got it at Rouses. It was in the "healthy food" aisle. I'm sure whole foods would have it.

Good Belly

That's a link to the product I used. They have a "find a store" button. That may be helpful.

Always liked Parish Dr. Hoptagon. Are you going to try and make a black NEIPA?

Brewed my Berliner a week ago. Going to go buy some peaches or apricots this week to add. Thinking 6 or 7 pounds for a 5 gal batch.

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Always liked Parish Dr. Hoptagon. Are you going to try and make a black NEIPA?

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Eventually, i might. Probably in the fall when the weather cools off. Just thought a black NEIPA sounds interesting.

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Going to go buy some peaches or apricots this week to add. Thinking 6 or 7 pounds for a 5 gal batch.

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With lighter fruit, always go more. I'd do 2 - 3 /lbs gallon. For something like raspberries, 1.5-2 lbs/gallon is usually recommended. Regardless, its your decision. Try 6-7 lbs and if its not enough, remember for next time.

FWIW, the strawberries were 3 lbs/gallon.

True, I'll probably end up doing about 7.5 then. Hopefully Southside Produce has the frozen fresh peaches or apricots because I don't think they are in season yet.

Any of you guys ever get into distillation? I mean, making beer is sort of the first step in making some whiskies, and I feel like I've got that part down. So I'm half way there. Anyway, I've been reading up on it and watching some videos. Looks intriguing and I'm thinking about giving it a go.

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. Should I put these in the carboy or in a bucket and rack the beer on top? I'm normally not a fan of a secondary, but seems like it would be a pain in the arse to get 7+ pounds of peaches out of the tiny neck of a carboy.

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I’d put them in the carboy. You may want to cut them up a bit after they thaw before adding to carboy. Utilize your funnel to get them in the neck of the carboy and the back side of a wooden spoon to unclog.

You could also do a bucket but buckets are a perfect vessel to oxidize your beer. Refermentation of the fruit would help to push out some of the O2.