First time kettle sour advice

[Rotorheadmedic]

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• Rotorheadmedic
• Jan 21, 2019

So I have been brewing since 2003. WHen I started out I was a strict German Purity Laws kind of guy. water, hops, and barley. Thats it. My friends were putting apricots, raisins, chocolate and all manner of evil into their beer and it was WEIRD. Tasted awful and often was infected. I (knock on wood) have had ZERO infections and have won a few competitions sticking to basics. I love a good IPA and brew them alot. As all of us poor saps who get the bug to brew good beer do, I have invested way to much money into this. I now have come from 5gal pony keg direct fired gravity fed kegs sitting on a brew sculpture that could at the same time catch fire or fall over spilling boiling fluids on me to a 15 gal full electric RIMS system with dual pumps, and Spike CF10 conical fermenter with heater and glycol chiller. In light of all this and having developed a taste for sours I now want to try my hand at the "kettle sour" My plan is as follows.

5 gal test batch base beer consists of:
5lb 2 row malt
5lb dark wheat
2lb Honey malt
2lb crystal 60l

Mash as normal 152deg for 60 min then transfer to BK. Boil for 10min to sterilize then cool to 100deg and pitch 1 carton Goodbelly Mango drink, seal kettle and let sit for 18-36 hrs target ph of 3.3. Then boil for 60min adding 2 oz Amarillo hops at 30min. Irish moss at 15min. Cool and transfer to fermenter. Long winded but here are the questions.
1. Should I use a Heff yeast or something cleaner like White labs California ale? I plan on adding 49oz Vinters harvest Rasberry puree at end of fermentation and let age for approx 2-3 weeks

2. For those that kettle sour does this sound like a solid plan. Any thoughts/advice?

 

[deadwolfbones]

Good timing, I literally just posted this: https://brew4fun.wordpress.com/2019/01/21/how-to-brew-a-kettle-sour/

To answer your specific questions:

I take it you're not aiming for a specific kettle soured style (eg. gose or Berliner). This grist will produce a dark, sweet, hoppy (given the 2oz Amarillo), and also sour beer, which sounds very jumbled to me. Certainly unusual for a sour beer. That's a LOT of honey malt and C60. I'd consider cutting both of them down a lot (or cutting them out entirely) and using more base malt. Maybe add a bit of Vienna or Munich if you want more color/sweetness without going over the top.

The process looks fine. You don't need to boil before souring—10-15 mins at 170ish is enough, but a boil won't hurt. You also don't need a full carton of GoodBelly, but it won't hurt either. Half a carton is fine. You also don't need a 60 min boil. Since you're doing the first hop addition at 30 mins, you can just cut it to 30 mins.

Yeast doesn't really matter, but given the sourness you'll probably want to go clean (the phenols/esters will get a bit lost with the low pH). I like Safale K97 or US-05, but any Chico-like strain is probably fine. Pitch more than you normally would to compensate for the acidic environment.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I agree with everything above except I do recommend boiling before souring. There's less risk of contamination.

 

[Rotorheadmedic]

Thanks for the advice! Yes i agree a bit jumbled but one of my favorite sours is a sour IPA i wanted to add a bit more body and color to it along with some malt to come through. Thanks for the link to write up! Super helpful

 

[cactusgarrett]

That's a LOT of honey malt and C60. I'd consider cutting both of them down a lot (or cutting them out entirely) and using more base malt.

Regardless of what style you're shooting for, this, for sure. The resulting flavors from these won't (IMO) meld well with the lacto sourness.

If you're shooting for a sour IPA... are you sure your favorite style is lacto-sour versus brett/funk-sour? Most "sour" IPAs i've had are brett/funky and dry hopped before packaging. I've found the lacto-sour and hop bitterness often don't play well together. I would avoid the hefe yeast strains. There's a LOT going in already in what you're describing; no need to toss in hefe yeast characteristics on top of that.