Sour Raspberry Wheat

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oceanic_brew
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Sour Raspberry Wheat

Post by oceanic_brew » Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:02 pm

Made this recipe after my girlfriend raved about Big Spruce's similar beer for long enough that I developed a hybrid sour mash technique and put the recipe through a good few runs before deciding I would post it. This has been a hit among my sour addicted friends.



Sour Raspberry Wheat

60% Pilsner
3% Wheat
10% Acidulated Malt (separate)


1.5OZ Tett at 45 ( I no chill so normally would be 60)

Wyeast 3278 Lambic Blend (or handful of unmashed grains)

Weheinstephaner 3068

3.5 LBS of Raspberries

OG 1.048. FG 1.010


Sour Keg Mash

After doing a few bad sour beers I searched around and compiled a few different techniques in order to get a very predictable method that's worked many times for me now. These were the first sour mashed beers that I've done where the aroma from the mash was very pleasant and clean. This technique employs a keg as a mash vessel and co2 to purge oxygen. . When the mash is complete I add 10% of the grain bill as Acidulated malt which depending on your water and grist PH will help to lower the mash PH prior to adding the Lambic culture or raw grains but avoids messing with your main mash. I've read that a PH of 4.2 inhibits the growth of certain bacteria but this is definitely just a precaution on my part. Either way this Acidulated malt will only add to the sour profile of the beer. However I think any sour mash technique that you feel works for you would be fine for this beer.

If you haven't tried a sour mash before I would suggest some studying on the technique to understand the process rather than just doing the steps. I've only scratched the surface but It's important to know what's going on here and it's rewarding to make a great sour beer.

Mash Steps

Fill keg with all grains except for acid malt
Pour in strike water and stir as normal
Close top and wrap keg in a sleeping bag or blanket for insulation
After 50 mins (or complete conversion) add Acidulated Malt and stir

Attach CO2 to the out on your keg and purge with 20 psi. I usually let the keg sit upright and purge the top head space first. Then I will turn the keg on its side and shake it back and forth, this might help to get any oxygen that's trapped in the grains out. Purge again.

I use a thermometer strip on the side of my keg to monitor the temp.

When temp reaches desirable range for lacto (90f-120f) add Lambic Blend or raw grains. Lactobacillus prefers 100F so you'll be attempting to keep the temperature there. I've heard that anything over 120 will start to kill Lacto. I actually preferred the beer when just using the raw grains but the difference is slight and I would have to do a split batch experiment to see for sure, however with the lambic blend you are a little safer than throwing in raw grains.

Secure lid and purge again with co2

At this point I'll place a towel on a chair and then the keg on that with the keg wrapped in a sleeping bag (bungee chords around it) and a towel stuffed in the top part where the blanket isn't covering the keg.

I'll boil 1 Liter of water at a time and pour into the keg each morning before work, when I get home (5ish) and before bed) each time I purge with co2 and notate how much water I added. This seems to keep the temperature near the suggested range.

You can use a PH meter each day to gauge how sour your mash is getting but I've found that on the third day it was plenty sour for most beers just by tasting it. If you wanted a moderately sour beer I would suggest two days.

After the sour mash complete pour your contents into your normal mash vessel along with the rice hulls and sparge normally taking into account your boiling water additions from the sour mash.

I've gotten a stuck sparge once so a pound of preheated/soaked rice hulls mixed in the mash will help here.

Keep in mind that if you try that recipe the raspberry adds quite a bit of tartness.

Boil for 90 minutes, chill, add 1L starter.

As for the fermentation, I control mine to 17-18degrees for one week,

After the first week and if fermentation is near completion I'll heat the raspberries with a little bit of water to170 for 15 minutes, let cool, and ad to secondary along with the beer. ( you could use a Muslin bag)

One week on the raspberries and then whatever you plan to do for conditioning. The beer drinks well young and benefits from higher carbonation level. I do 3 volumes.

Bottle and sell to hipsters for $38

Would love opinions or suggestions to this technique, if anything seems out of place please let me know. This is my first post and first recipe posted with over 6 years of brewing!

Thanks and enjoy

chalmers
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Re: Sour Raspberry Wheat

Post by chalmers » Sat Feb 06, 2016 3:57 pm

30% Wheat, correct?

Looks great, the idea of using the keg as your mash and incubation chamber will do a great job of keeping it totally free of oxygen.

Just a bit confused on adding the hot water during your 3 days: am I understanding that you are adding it to the keg, thereby bringing up/maintaining the temp, but diluting the beer/wort/mash, correct?

Many of us cheap buggers would say, "If you can't tell the difference between the raw grains and lambic blend, save the $8 and just go grain". Though, you could always harvest from the first go-through, and the price for subsequent batches would be minimal.

Thanks for writing it down and sharing! Now, how do we get to taste it? :)

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Re: Sour Raspberry Wheat

Post by jtmwhyte » Sun Feb 07, 2016 9:17 pm

this is a cool idea. Food for thought with that extra keg I never seem to be able to fill...
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Re: Sour Raspberry Wheat

Post by Lucas » Mon Feb 08, 2016 12:51 am

I never would have thought of adding a lambic culture to the sour mash. I wonder what happens to the saccharomyces at 100F? I'm guessing a lot of it would just die right away. I think that leading a bunch of microorganisms immediately to their death bothers me a little bit. I would stick with a pure lactobacillus culture if that is the only bug you really want in your mash.
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Re: Sour Raspberry Wheat

Post by oceanic_brew » Mon Feb 08, 2016 1:00 am

Hey Chalmers,

Yeah I'm definitely diluting the mash with each water addition but I take that into account when collecting my sparge water.

I've done a bit of thinking on the impact of having a diluted mash in regards to tannin extraction but from what I'm reading tannin extraction is only a major issue as the grain bed gets higher in its PH range (5.8? Or so) nearing the end of the mash. With a sour mash I'm usually around 3.5.

My knowledge of mash PH has some ways to go but I've recently heard a segment of Beersmith's online radio where he had a guy on advocating for homebrewers to start trying a thinner mash ratio to lessen the tannin extraction from excessive sparging among other reasons. This certainly came to mind when considering how I was diluting my sour mash.

As for trying it I'm definitely planning on getting out to some of the brewnosers meet-ups if that's a thing still. Would love to have some homebrewer opinions on some of my beers.

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Re: Sour Raspberry Wheat

Post by oceanic_brew » Mon Feb 08, 2016 1:13 am

Lucas wrote:I never would have thought of adding a lambic culture to the sour mash. I wonder what happens to the saccharomyces at 100F? I'm guessing a lot of it would just die right away. I think that leading a bunch of microorganisms immediately to their death bothers me a little bit. I would stick with a pure lactobacillus culture if that is the only bug you really want in your mash.

Hahha yeah seems a little mean doesn't it. Now I feel bad hahaha.

I tried to order a straight 5335 lacto culture from Noble Grape and ended up getting the lambic blend every time. I believe that has pedicoccus as well which would survive that heat but I tried both the raw grains beer and the one with the lambic culture last night and the differences in the beer aren't worth mentioning. Since I haven't actually used the lacto culture yet I wanted to state in the recipe exactly what I've done, although if anything on those raw grains other than lacto infected my mash It wouldn't go unnoticed.

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Re: Sour Raspberry Wheat

Post by chalmers » Mon Feb 08, 2016 9:35 am

oceanic_brew wrote:Hey Chalmers,

Yeah I'm definitely diluting the mash with each water addition but I take that into account when collecting my sparge water.

I've done a bit of thinking on the impact of having a diluted mash in regards to tannin extraction but from what I'm reading tannin extraction is only a major issue as the grain bed gets higher in its PH range (5.8? Or so) nearing the end of the mash. With a sour mash I'm usually around 3.5.

My knowledge of mash PH has some ways to go but I've recently heard a segment of Beersmith's online radio where he had a guy on advocating for homebrewers to start trying a thinner mash ratio to lessen the tannin extraction from excessive sparging among other reasons. This certainly came to mind when considering how I was diluting my sour mash.

As for trying it I'm definitely planning on getting out to some of the brewnosers meet-ups if that's a thing still. Would love to have some homebrewer opinions on some of my beers.
Thanks for the explanation.

And yes, meetings are definitely still a thing! Second Tuesday of the month, so it should be tomorrow, assuming the weather cooperates.

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