1st Gose recipe thoughts?

[mrphillips]

There's just something about this style that has completely stolen my heart. Several microbrewers in my are have started producing them, and with every new brew I try, I fall deeper in love with Gose beer.

Since Gose isn't exactly a sour-bomb, I'd like to use aciduated malt to lower my PH. At the same time, I REALLY like sour beers, so I would like to push the aciduated malt as far as I can.

5 Gal. Batch - est. OG 1.045, est. FG 1.010, est. ABV 4.6% - est. IBUs 6

FERMENTABLES
3 lbs. Wheat DME (47.6%)
2 lbs. Pilsner DME (33.3%)
2 lbs. Aciduated Malt (19.1%)

HOPS
.5 Hallertau @ FWH

YEAST
S-05

OTHER
10 gr. coriander seed @ 10 min.
20 gr. sea salt @ 10 min. (I like'm nice and salty!)



Thanks for any advice/experience.

 

[mrphillips]

I'm looking for people who have experience with aciduated malt.

 

[billybryson54]

I've never made a gose, but I use acidulated malt from time to time. I don't use it for taste, I use it to lower mash pH. I will say this though that in my experience, a little bit goes a long way

 

[rokfreek]

I also have fallen in love with gose. I have brewed 3 in the last 6 months. The first one was very similar to yours at about 20% acidulated malt and I did not get much sourness. The last 2 I used the white labs lactobacillus as well as an appropriate amount of acid malt given my water and ph. The sourness is much more pronounced and very pleasing.

I have been pitching the lacto and holding it at 90 using a brew belt for 3-4 days then pitching a starter of wlp029 after lowering to 65ish.

 

[IslandLizard]

With Gose, Berliner Weisse, and other "young" sours, it's not just the pH or acidity that makes them taste good, it's the flavor and complexity introduced by the "bugs." You're not going to get that from just adding acidulated malt or half a bottle of lactic acid.

Sour mashing or kettle souring is still the best way to get there.

Added:
Just looked a bit closer at your proposed recipe, and missed that you're trying to do this with extract. For that, kettle souring is a very good option. You need to find a way to keep the kettle with wort warm around 100-120F (not higher!) for a couple days. The old "hay chest" comes to mind. Wrap the kettle with a heating pad in a sleeping bag or thick blanket.

In the recipe as you have it, the acidulated malt needs to be mashed or you're going to end up with a lot of starch in your wort/beer. You can't mash it just by itself, it's too acidic.

 

[beergolf]

Here is a recipe from BYO magazine that uses acidulated malt.

https://byo.com/stories/issue/item/2349-gose

 

[mrphillips]

With Gose, Berliner Weisse, and other "young" sours, it's not just the pH or acidity that makes them taste good, it's the flavor and complexity introduced by the "bugs." You're not going to get that from just adding acidulated malt or half a bottle of lactic acid.

Sour mashing or kettle souring is still the best way to get there.

Added:
Just looked a bit closer at your proposed recipe, and missed that you're trying to do this with extract. For that, kettle souring is a very good option. You need to find a way to keep the kettle with wort warm around 100-120F (not higher!) for a couple days. The old "hay chest" comes to mind. Wrap the kettle with a heating pad in a sleeping bag or thick blanket.

In the recipe as you have it, the acidulated malt needs to be mashed or you're going to end up with a lot of starch in your wort/beer. You can't mash it just by itself, it's too acidic.

I planned on mashing for a full hour. Thanks for the advice. If I like things sour...and I mean...SOUR...how long should I let the lacto do its thing before I toss in the other yeast?

 

[SteveH aka shetc]

Here is a recipe from BYO magazine that uses acidulated malt.

https://byo.com/stories/issue/item/2349-gose

Have you made this recipe?

 

[IslandLizard]

I planned on mashing for a full hour. Thanks for the advice. If I like things sour...and I mean...SOUR...how long should I let the lacto do its thing before I toss in the other yeast?

Are you stepping away from your extract recipe and go all-grain for this?
An hour (saccharification) mash is typical for most all-grain brews, although some are longer, some shorter.

A sour mash however would take around 2 or 4 days depending on the method used. You then lauter it, boil, add hops and any other things you want, chill, rack to fermentor, oxygenate, and add yeast for your alcohol fermentation. You'll enjoy a decent sour beer in a few weeks.

If you want it very SOUR, you may run into some problems as most sacch yeast gets tardy in low pH environments. WY3711, US-05 and WY1007 are among the more acid tolerant, but even they have limits. Brett would become your next logical candidate, but she's a slower worker, and needs a few months to really shine.

Kettle souring follows a similar procedure, which offers some benefits over sour mashing.

Here's some good reading to start with, and there's plenty more on the web.

BYO article on sour mashing.

BYO article by Michael Tonsmeire (author of American Sour Beers) on kettle souring.

Of course our own Lambic & Wild Brewing forum has a wealth of information on these topics and very knowledgeable members. That's really where this thread belongs.