Ok, so I was interested in trying my hand at a sour beer and have also been trying to reduce my alcohol intake. I have been drinking a lot of brewdog's AF beers when at home.
I decided to do a kettle sour with hibiscus flowers as the flavoring instead of fruit. I'm doing a minimal berlinerweisse for the malt.
I aimed for 5gal (20l) in the fermenter. I used a 110v brewzilla.
Here is my bill:
- 3lb 2row
- 2lbs wheat malt
- 16oz good belly mango-flavor probiotic drink
- 7ml lactic acid
- 3oz dry hibiscus flower in boil (5min)
- Safale 05 dry yeast
- No hops
Steps:
- Heat 5gal water to 168°F
- Mash in, hold at 168 x 1hr
- Drain the grains
- cool to 90°F
- Add lactic acid to get pH to 4.5
- Add good belly, cover with plastic
- Set temp to 85°F and wait
- When pH reaches 3.2 - 3.4, bring to boil for 10min
- Add hibiscus, boil for 5min
- Cool to 80°F, rack to sterilized fermenter, pitch yeast.
SG 1.026
Lessons learned:
Boiling soured wort in the house makes the house stink. The wife was not impressed.
Pitching yeast at higher temps than 100°F kills the yeast.
Morebeer takes 4 days to ship a simple packet of yeast from one state to the next.
Beer is currently happily fermenting at 65°F. I'm going to float another couple of oz of hibiscus as a "dry hop" in a couple days. I'll attempt to update this post with FG and tasting notes when complete. I hope to end at 1.010. That'll put it around 2%.
It's green. And math is blue.