Greetings!
I was in my backyard the other day and I noticed that my neighbor has a 50' tall tree full of these little fruits. I used to think they were kumquats but I recently found out that they are Loquats, also known as Chinese pears. I picked a few and found out that they are delicious.
Then I thought to myself, "Self, you have yet to brew a sour beer. You're not the biggest fan of them but you live in Florida and you don't want to drink a ridiculously high ABV IPA all day, although Jai Alai is AMAZEBALLS. Why don't you use those fruits and make yourself a sour beer??"
So, that's what I'm doing. Here's the plan:
1. Start a sour culture with pure Lactobacillus delbrueckii from a vial of WLP677. Step it up from 500ml to 1000ml to 2000ml over the course of a week or so. Use a heating pad connected to my STC-1000 to keep the temp at about 110F or 43C.
2. Mash a 50/50 blend of pilsner and white wheat at 154 for an hour, obtain about 6.5 gallons of wort. Cool to below 120F and pitch the lacto culture in the kettle. Purge oxygen with CO2, tape the lid shut, and use the heating pad to keep the temp at 110F for 36-48 hours until the taste is pleasantly sour.
Option: split off a gallon and add a handful of 2-row to get some complexity from the other bugs.
3. Boil for 20 minutes with 1lb of Loquats, add an ounce of Cascades at 10min, then cool to 65F and ferment with US-05 dry. Since it is a sour beer, I'm not going to be reusing the yeast (just in case), so a packet of US-05 is the cheapest (read: easy) option.
4. Primary ferment at 65F for a week with a half pound of loquats. Since the active primary ferment will likely blow off any flavor or other compounds, I'm only using a small amount in primary.
5. Secondary ferment on at least 2lbs of loquats. They have a very pleasant and delicious sweet/sour flavor and I really want that to come through.
6. Carbonate to 3-ish volumes in the keg. No finings, want to keep that pleasant haziness typical of a Berliner.
Stats:
OG: 1.041
FG: 1.010 (or lower)
ABV: 4.1%
IBU: 9.7
Batch size: 5.5 Gallons
Grist:
5lbs Briess Pilsner
5lbs Breiss White Wheat
Hops:
Cascade 6% AA 15mins
Yeast:
US-05
Bugs:
WLP677 lactobacillis delbrueckii
Fruits:
Loquat, 1lb, boil 15min
Loquat, .5lb, primary ferment
Loquat, 2lbs, secondary ferment
Cheers! I've attached a picture of a loquat so you can stop scratching your heads!
I was in my backyard the other day and I noticed that my neighbor has a 50' tall tree full of these little fruits. I used to think they were kumquats but I recently found out that they are Loquats, also known as Chinese pears. I picked a few and found out that they are delicious.
Then I thought to myself, "Self, you have yet to brew a sour beer. You're not the biggest fan of them but you live in Florida and you don't want to drink a ridiculously high ABV IPA all day, although Jai Alai is AMAZEBALLS. Why don't you use those fruits and make yourself a sour beer??"
So, that's what I'm doing. Here's the plan:
1. Start a sour culture with pure Lactobacillus delbrueckii from a vial of WLP677. Step it up from 500ml to 1000ml to 2000ml over the course of a week or so. Use a heating pad connected to my STC-1000 to keep the temp at about 110F or 43C.
2. Mash a 50/50 blend of pilsner and white wheat at 154 for an hour, obtain about 6.5 gallons of wort. Cool to below 120F and pitch the lacto culture in the kettle. Purge oxygen with CO2, tape the lid shut, and use the heating pad to keep the temp at 110F for 36-48 hours until the taste is pleasantly sour.
Option: split off a gallon and add a handful of 2-row to get some complexity from the other bugs.
3. Boil for 20 minutes with 1lb of Loquats, add an ounce of Cascades at 10min, then cool to 65F and ferment with US-05 dry. Since it is a sour beer, I'm not going to be reusing the yeast (just in case), so a packet of US-05 is the cheapest (read: easy) option.
4. Primary ferment at 65F for a week with a half pound of loquats. Since the active primary ferment will likely blow off any flavor or other compounds, I'm only using a small amount in primary.
5. Secondary ferment on at least 2lbs of loquats. They have a very pleasant and delicious sweet/sour flavor and I really want that to come through.
6. Carbonate to 3-ish volumes in the keg. No finings, want to keep that pleasant haziness typical of a Berliner.
Stats:
OG: 1.041
FG: 1.010 (or lower)
ABV: 4.1%
IBU: 9.7
Batch size: 5.5 Gallons
Grist:
5lbs Briess Pilsner
5lbs Breiss White Wheat
Hops:
Cascade 6% AA 15mins
Yeast:
US-05
Bugs:
WLP677 lactobacillis delbrueckii
Fruits:
Loquat, 1lb, boil 15min
Loquat, .5lb, primary ferment
Loquat, 2lbs, secondary ferment
Cheers! I've attached a picture of a loquat so you can stop scratching your heads!