Cranberry Sour Red Ale

Cranberries are one of only three fruits that originated on North American soil, along with blueberries and concord grapes.  Cranberries are usually only served as a side dish at Thanksgiving, but I enjoy cooking with cranberries year round. A few years ago I used cranberries for a different sort of holiday ale inspired from an orange ginger cranberry sauce recipe. I've been wanting to brew a sour beer with cranberries because the natural tartness of cranberries should complement the sour flavors in a Flemish inspired red ale very well. So, I'm going to add a copious amount of whole cranberries and cranberry juice for a deep ruby color and a lip smacking tart flavor.

Cascade Brewing in Oregon made a sour cranberry ale and New Belgium did as well as part of their Lips of Faith series. This home brew Gose with cranberries sounds good too.

In this batch I'm using whole cranberries from Vermont Cranberry Company and (100%) cranberry juice for a deep cranberry color and flavor. The whole cranberries were added with ten minutes left in the boil, while the juice was added to the fermentor.

Recipe: Pale malt, Aromatic malt, Honey malt, Caramunich 60, Melanoidin malt, and chocolate malt. Mash warm. Lightly hopped. A pound of fresh cranberries, half a gallon of juice. Fermented with Wyeast 3628 Roeselare Yeast Blend.

Strawberry Sour

Brewing with my favorite childhood fruit is always fun, but I wanted to try this fruit in a sour style beer such as Upland Brewing Co.'s Strawberry Lambic and I believe Mr. Barlow brewed a strawberry sour that is currently ageing. While many home brewing texts state that it is difficult to attain a pleasant strawberry flavor or that it changes into something like apricot I have not had this problem. By using fresh fruit and adding it to primary fermentation the flavors of the fresh fruit have been woven into the beers aroma and flavor in ways that surprised me.

With this beer I added two pounds of strawberries to two and a half gallons of amber wort (12.6*p) and pitched wyeast roeselare yeast blend. I'm really enjoying the flavors that are developing in my aging flanders inspired red, framboise, and oud bruin that featured this yeast blend. I brewed this batch a couple weeks ago and the aroma is already fantastic. I'm looking forward to drinking this sometime next year. I may or may not add more strawberries next spring when strawberries are in season once again depending on flavor development until then.

Recipe: Pale malt, Munich malt, Melanoidin malt, Flaked Barley, Briess Crystal 120. Fermented with Roeselare yeast blend and two pounds of strawberries.

Pomegranate Wild Ale

My first experience with this brand of Pomegranate juice was while I was working at my first brewery job at Olde Saratoga Brewing Co. in Saratoga Springs, NY where we poured hundreds of bottles just like the one pictured into fermentors to create Origin by He'brew.

Olde Saratoga Brewing Co. is a contract brewery that is owned by the UB Group which owns a plethora of different distilled brands, malt beverage brands, a chemical and fertilzer co., an airline co., and an Engineering co.. That's why Kingfisher brand beers are brewed at Olde Saratoga. I didn't realize who owned the company until after I saw my first pay check and didn't recognize who was paying me. So, I took the time to look up the company. For me, it rubbed me the wrong way, this isn't what craft beer means to me. I felt like all of a sudden I was a number that worked for huge multi-national company that probably didn't care about a lowly factory worker. I don't have a problem with contract brewing I have a problem with profits going to a far off land away from the American economy in which I live.

In this world in which we live in I believe one of the only ways we have left to vote is with our wallets and pocketbooks. Every time we buy something we're making a political, social, and philosophical act. Do you want to support this or that? Who do you want to give your hard earned money too? I prefer to support the community in which I live. For example; independently owned restaurants, not chains. Now, I'm not trying to be all high and mighty as not everything I buy is a responsible purchase (upcoming iphone release for example) but I try hard to choose the more responsible purchase than not, even if it costs more. I'm shocked that even many retailers sometimes don't even know where the beer their selling and stories their regurgitating come from. For example I had to explain to a retailer that cans of 21st Amendment are not brewed in San Fransisco (Bitter American by 21A is one of the best new beers around, go try it) but are contract brewed in Minnesota. He wouldn't believe me until I showed him on the side of the can exactly where it was brewed. Also, I find many self proclaimed beer geeks hold beer stories near and dear to their hearts without actually looking into the origins or whether the story (marketing) is actually true. Even after I've told people truths I know about the process of how beers are produced they still don't want to believe it. I've even over heard them tell the same false story to somebody else after knowing the truth. Why is this? Why do so many people prefer (and even knowingly choose) romance over reality? As you probably figured out I'm a purist that's become a little jaded from what I've seen (and had to do). When brewing my beers I hold myself to the highest possible standards. We're here (on earth) for such a short period of time, what's the point of pulling the wool over peoples eyes or allowing ourselves to be blind. Be honest, buy local, and take the time to investigate. Ignorance isn't bliss it's just ignorant, rant over.

I've been wanting to brew with pomegranate juice for awhile and I felt the cranberry like tannins and tartness of pomegranate juice would be great in a sour beer. I pitched a Lambic yeast blend and 32 fl. oz. of juice into the primary fermentor. Time will tell how it turns out as this will age for up to a year.

Recipe: Pale malt, Munich malt, Melanoidin malt, Flaked Barley, Briess Crystal 120. Lambic yeast blend and Pomegranate juice.

Kriek

As I discussed in the Pineapple Wild Ale post a great way to stretch a brew day is to brew a batch of lower gravity wort and split the batch between different fermentors and add a twist to each fermentor whether being yeast, fruit, spices or keep one as a control. As part of a double brew day this batch of Amber wort started at 12.6*P (1.050 SG) and was hopped to 10 IBU's but then had different juice added directly to each fermentor. In this one I added dark cherry juice and pitched roeselare yeast blend to try and re-create the flavors of classic Kriek.

Recipe: Pale malt, Munich malt, Melanoidin malt, Flaked Barley, Briess Crystal 120. Aging with Roeselare yeast blend. Black cherry juice (32 fl. oz) added to primary fermentor.

Carrot pLambic

As the title suggests I brewed a carrot beer. A couple months ago I made a small one gallon test batch (50/50 wort/carrot juice by volume) and fermented it with American ale (dry) yeast to see what a carrot beer would even taste like first. The finished beer was very earthy, slightly tart, and orange. At a rate of 50/50 by volume of wort and carrot juice it was a little absurd but it allowed me to fully understand the impact of carrot sugars in a fermented beverage. I could see carrots working in many styles such as saison, Belgian white, Gose, and Berliner Weiss. Or even something malty with many carrot wine recipes having a rum raisin or even pumpkin pie like spice blend why not try other orange vegetables such as butternut squash, carrots, sweet potatoes and yams in fall seasonal beers and not just pumpkins.

The direction I'm taking with this batch though is a bit more wild, pitching Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend. Accentuating the earthy and tart flavors the carrot juice provided. This was the third part of a split batch of golden wort that also produced pineapple wild ale and a tropical wild ale.

Recipe: Pale malt, Flaked Oats, Wheat malt, Flaked Barley, Flaked Maize, and CaraPils. Bittered with whole leaf centennial. Fermenting with Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend. 80/20 wort/carrot juice by volume.

Oud Bruin with Figs & Raspberries

My FunkHouse (beers with wild yeast and/or bacteria) is growing rapidly as of late last year and into two thousand eleven. I now have over thirty gallons of beer getting "funky". It's been an exciting new realm of brewing that's pushing my understanding of malt, hops, water, and Yeast (especially fermenter's besides Saccharomyces Cerevisiae). Watching pellicle's grow on the top of some, while smelling and tasting what's happening along the way.  It's amazing the flavor development taking place from the use of Brettanomyces Bruxellensis, Brettanomyces Lambicus, Lactobiccullus, and Pediococcus.

My next foray into the world of sours is an Oud Bruin brewed with Figs & Raspberries. Knocked out January 16th and pitched Wyeast Roeselare Yeast Blend 3763. I used this yeast blend in my Flemish style Red brewed November 2010 and the flavors are developing in the same direction I would like this Oud Bruin to go.

A layered grist bill of Munich Malt, US Two Row, Belgian Aromatic, Honey Malt, Belgian Cara 60, Briess Chocolate Wheat, and Thomas Fawcett Chocolate Malt. Target color is 15*SRM, a dark ruby edged color that fades to chocolate in the middle of the glass. A ninety minute boil for extra kettle caramelization and a more dextrinous wort.  At the end of boil four liquid ounces of Fig concentrate and Raspberry concentrate each was added at start of cool down and stirred in.  This is to boost the abv some and add a layer of complexity to this Bruin (may add fresh fruit from farmers market this summer when racked to 2nd). With a starting gravity of 18*Plato (1.072SG) this is no lightweight Oud Bruin. Looking for this one to be ready sometime early in two thousand twelve, tasting along the way to see how it develops. Did I mention, this is fun!

Framboise

This style of beer is part of the Lambic "family" of beers that have fruit added.  These are Framboise (Raspberries), Kriek (cherries), Cassis (currants), and Peche (peaches).  These four fruits are the most traditional in the Belgian brewing tradition of adding fruit to oak barrel aging Lambic beer.  Recently, American brewers having been adding all types of fruits to the fast growing segment in the brewing industry, American Wild ales, this link also provides a list of the top American Wild ales as rated on Beer Advocate.

The grist bill for this Framboise is based off of my Flanders style Red I recently brewed in November 2010 which I tasted last week and am happy with the direction.  A grist bill of Munich malt, Aromatic malt, Honey malt, Flaked Oats, and Chocolate malt.  A cup of Raspberry concentrate was added at end of boil to lay a foundation of tart berry flavor.  When raspberries are in season this summer at my local farmers market I will rack into secondary and add a few pounds of fresh raspberries for the punch you in the face kind of tartness. Fermented with Wyeast 3763 Roeselare Blend. I'm having a lot of fun brewing with wild yeast strains and bacteria. If you have the space you should have a go at it. 

Flemish Style Red

The complexity in the best examples of this style of beer called the "Burgundy of Belgium" by BJCP is nearly sublime. A red ale fermented with a plethora of different yeasts and bacteria such as Brettanomyces, Lactobicillus, and Pediococcus. This is done to create sour beers ranging from lightly tart to full on pucker face. The sourness comes from the lactic and acetic acid produced from these acetobacters that convert ethanol into aforementioned acids. Where as usual brewers yeast ferments from start to finish (for the most part) in less than two weeks it can take up to at least 6 months or more until there is a noticeable sourness in the beer, many times aged up to two years. Putting patience to task and creating an opportunity to blend different aged beers in the souring process to hit a desired flavor profile you're looking for. Blending young and 'old' beer for not only consistency but to balance the vinous flavor, sourness, and fruitiness (cherry pie, plum, and red currant flavors are desired) in the final beer.

For my first attempt at this style of beer I'll be using Wyeast Roeselare Blend which has brewers yeast, sherry yeast, and myriad of souring bacteria (as talked about above) to achieve the complex flavors in this style of beer. The Wyeast website suggests that it takes 18 months of aging to achieve desired flavor profile. Is it sour yet?

Recipe: Munich Malt, Biscuit Malt, Honey Malt, Carastan 30-37, and Chocolate Malt. First wort hopped with Celiea. Fermented with Wyeast Roeselare Blend.

pLambic 1.2

In August I brewed my first beer fermented with wild yeast and bacteria. A pLambic style (more info on style in first post) beer fermented with White Labs WLP655 Belgian Sour Mix. Today I'm brewing up a batch using Wyeast 3278 Lambic Blend in one carboy. Then I'll be racking the first batch out of primary into secondary and knocking out the rest of today's batch of wort onto the White Labs yeast cake. The grist bill in today's batch is similar to the first with only the addition of some Honey malt to add more un-fermentables for the bacteria to feed on during conditioning. Excited to taste the 3 month old batch of pLambic when I rack it today. To start racking these 'wild' beers I purchased a new Auto Siphon and retired my old one to rack my FunkHouse beers only. Unless you have an autoclave at home I would recommend not using the same equipment (cane, hose, bottling bucket, etc.) for racking both funky beers and 'clean' yeast strains beers. Have separate equipment and keep it separate, or everything could go sour.

Recipe: American Two Row, Munich Malt, Flaked Maize, Wheat Malt, Honey Malt, and Acidulated Malt. First wort hopped with Celeia. Now we wait.

pLambic 1.1

The title for this post is not a spelling error. The lower case 'p' stands for 'pure culture' since real Lambic beers are only produced in the Pajottenland region of Belgium. Lambic beers from this region are brewed with a plethora of wild yeast and bacteria that creates sour and vinous flavors. These bugs of the brewing world lend a complexity to beer that doesn't exist in pure brewers yeast. Tomme Arthur writes about these bugs on the White Labs webpage. To read more about the history of Lambic beers read on.

For my pLambic today I performed a single decoction mash to create the web of dextrins necessary to make a flavorful Lambic. Also did my best to have a turbid mash which is to do the opposite of what good brewing technique dictates. By stirring the mash periodically during runoff I affected the turbidity of the wort I collected. Again, normally you want clear wort when you runoff but when preparing wort for wild beers it's a little different. You want tannins, dextrins, and other proteins to make there way to the fermentation vessel. What normally is a detriment to creating a high quality beverage is in this case needed to feed the bugs.

I'm going to split this batch between two 3 gallon FV. One I'll pitch White Labs WLP655 Belgian Sour Mix. The other I will pitch a pure brewers yeast strain, Fermentis US-05. To then pitch a different blend of bugs to that 3 gallon version later on. The caveat with these bugs is they take up to six months to really begin to emerge. So what is brewed today is enjoyed a very long time from now.