101 on how to plan a beer:
J: @N I have All Bretts yeast from Omega, assuming it works… ideas?
N: Checking my notebook…
N: I got this power combo
N: ale with lacto pitched at 40ºC and free fall for some days, followed by a fruity brett with a high pitch rate + munkebo raspberry yeast, aged on raspberries and vanilla
N: I haven’t got my hands on the munkebo yeast yet, but we can skip that one
J: without munkebo sounds easy. What about the grist? Base malt + something else?
N: If it’s to go on top of the raspberries, maybe some crystal malt that helps with fruity notes
J: Makes sense, 3% crystal light e 2% aromatic? 10% wheat and the rest is base malt?
J: Cooldown to 40°c, pitch lacto, let it fall naturally to 20°C and pitch Brett?
N: Yap, right on
J: 10% spelt/wheat
N: Wheat
P: Raw wheat and we close this?
N: Sold
Only if life was always this easy…
And so another brewday set in mention at the Brett Hotel.
This time, we present you a Golden Sour, acidified with lactobacillus and fermented exclusively with several strains of Brettanomyces. The base recipe, inspired by The Rare Barrel‘s Golden Sour, a staple among mixed fermentation brewers. Founder Jay Goodwin has been promoting alternative fermentation beers, not only with his brewery but on The Sour Hour podcast.
The idea is to have a light, fresh, acidic and fruity beer. A thirst quencher for summer afternoons, that are coming in a few months. Perfect plan, to let the beer acidify and be ready in the summer. A reckoning with the quarantine. In addition, it seems like a good time to make some stock, or to make those beers that were lost in the notebooks, since the successive price increases of vanilla will not calm down anytime soon. All elements lined up, the attraction here lies in the raspberry to grant some jam notest; and the vanilla to round up the palate, make sipping easier and increasing jamminess perception.
With an alcoholic fermentation 100% dependent on the work of Brettanomyces, which has a lower production index of glycerin compared to brewer’s yeast Saccharomyces, it is necessary to ensure that the final body is not too light. With additions of raw wheat, unmalted oats and a touch of crystal malt, we guarantee enough elements for a final structured body and even some dextrins to feed the brett.
Using unmodified cereals is necessary to guarantee mashing temperatures so that the enzymes can break down the starches, leaving the sugars available for yeast and bacteria. The usual brewing regime at out Hotel makes it possible to reach all the necessary temperatures. In order to let the lactic cultures work, almost no hops were added, a mere 2 IBU in the boil for 60 minutes. After boiling, the wort was cooled to ~35ºC, in order to protect the foam retention, the pH was reduced to 4.32 with the addition of 20 ml of lactic acid and then the culture was inoculated to acidify the wort.
In order to obtain the necessary acidity for this beer the idea is to give the lacto some advance to grow before Brett goes on to keep him company in the fermentation. To do this, we initially inoculate the beer only with Lactobacillus plantarum, at 32ºC, giving it a day of solo action, to acidify the wort. After the initial 24 hours, inoculation was done with the Brett blend, at 21ºC, starting the alcoholic fermentation.
Finally, the beer will age with raspberries in a portion of about 250 gr. per liter, along with 2 Madagascar Grade A vanilla pods.
Because raspberry and vanilla work well on everything and make the world a better place.
Raspberry Vanilla Sour
Batch: 20L
Total cereal: 4.91 kg.
Original Gravity: 1.046
IBU: 2.5
Efficiency: 70 %
Boil Time: 60 minutos
Cereal
75% – 3.7 kg. pilsner malt
10% – 0.5 kg. unmalted oats
10% – 0.5 kg. raw wheat
3% – 0.15 kg. aromatic malt
2% – 0.1 kg. Crystal T-50
Hops
5 gr. mixed hops laying arround (pellet, ~4.50% AA) @ 60 min.
Extras
Yeast nutrients @ 5 min.
4 kg. raspberries
2 vanilla pods
Yeast
Lactic Acidification – Lacto Blend OYL-605
Alcoholic Fermentation – All the Bretts OYL-218
Water
Ca: 93
Mg: 28
Na: 30
Cl: 151
SO4: 131
Cl to SO4 Ratio: 1.15
Mash
Protein Rest – 15 min @ 52ºC
1st Saccharification- 30 min @ 63ºC
2nd Saccharification- 30 min @ 72ºC
Wheat: 55ºC – 64ºC
Oats: 53ºC – 72ºC
pH@15 5.31
Observations
22/02/2020
Secondary 4 kg. raspberries turned into puree
Gravity: 1.021
pH: 3.44
11/04/2020
Bottling.
Priming with 6 gr. table sugar per liter, with champagne yeast Lalvin EC-1118 hydrated in previously boiled water.
Final Gravity: 1.010
Final pH: 3.14
Alcohol: 4,8% ABV
11/06/2020
Beer keeps on changing. The initial tasting had more sweetness. Now the live lacto keeps increasing is presence and the vanilla is taking a secondary role.