Souring a Beer with Acid Malt - Ithaca Brute Style
It is hard not to get embedded in a rut when you really get into brewing sour beers. The investments of time and effort are so big that it discourages major risk taking (just take a look at all of the lambic brewers who essentially brew only one beer!). While I'm confident enough to adjust the grain bill, or add interesting new ingredients, my basic method hasn't changed much since I stared to be happy with the results a few years ago. As I hinted at in my Great Souring Experiment post, I’d like to try mimicking the methods that several respected craft breweries are using. I doubt all of these batches will be as good as my default, but maybe I will find a way to make sour beers that is faster, more reliable, or produces a unique flavor.
I started the mash for my inspired by batch at 159 F and allowed it to convert before adding the acid malt. Ithaca does not wait to add the acid malt, but I was a bit worried about getting really terrible starch to sugar conversion. I initially added 1.5 lbs of the tangy sourdough-flavored acid malt from Weyermann. When this didn’t result in a pH as low as I expected I added another 1.5 lbs. Now at 20% acid malt, the mash made it down to a pH of 4.5. As pH is a logarithmic scale, the final pH of Brute ~3.7 would require more than six times as much acid to reach. On their website Weyermann suggests 8% acid malt to sour a quick Berliner weisse, but I don't see how this would work when 20% in this beer gave no noticeable acidity.
I'm interested to see how far the Brett will be able to lower the pH on its own, it is also possible that Brute had other microbes, which had not been pitched, at work in the dedicated tank. Jeff has also said that he felt that seasonal temperature swings were a big part of what made Brute work, so I'll be letting this batch sit outside of my temperature controlled basement "fermentation" room next summer... maybe.
I failed to take many pictures during the brew day, but the American University journalism project were around throughout the day snapping photos of ever step of the process.
Acid Malt Soured Saison
Recipe Specifics
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Batch Size (Gal): 5.50
Total Grain (Lbs): 15.00
Anticipated OG: 1.069
Anticipated SRM: 4.1
Anticipated IBU: 10.1
Brewhouse Efficiency: 67 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes
Grain
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66.7% - 10.00 lbs. German Pilsener
20.0% - 3.00 lbs. Weyermann Sauer(acid) Malt
13.3% - 2.00 lbs. Wheat Malt
Hops
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0.50 oz. Hallertauer Tradition (Pellet, 6.00% AA) @ 60 min.
Yeast
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WYeast 3726 Farmhouse Ale
Water Profile
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Profile: Washington DC
Mash Schedule
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Sacch Rest 45 min @ 159 F
Acid Malt Sacch 30 min @ 159 F
Notes
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Brewed 12/04/11 with my neighbor Josh and the American University journalism crew
Mashed 45 minutes before adding the 1.5 lbs of Weyermann acid malt, waited 15 minutes, and pH was still at 5.5, added 1.5 lbs more which took it down to 4.5. Not quite as sour as I wanted, but it should be interesting.
Double batch sparge. Ended up with a bit more gravity than I wanted. Pitched yeast cake from one carboy of the first refill of the apple brandy solera. Shook to aerate.
Fermentation was going strong after 12 hours at 64 ambient. After 24 hours total I added 1 gallon of distilled water to lower the gravity.
After 48 hours placed it in a pot on the radiator to get it up to ~82 F.
12/10/11 Racked to secondary, down to 1.015. Not much acidity, I may have to pitch more microbes that I was intending.
1/13/12 Added ECY Brett Blend #1 via dregs from my Brett'd Rye Saison.
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13 comments:
Tried a similar experiment based on the Ithaca Brute recipe Jeff gave out on the Brewing Network. Here is the recipe Jeff gave:
Mash at 162
Pils
White Wheat
Red Wheat
12 % Flaked Corn
13% Acid Malt
Ferment 3 days with ale yeast, then transfer and add Brett
My recipe (brewed 5/24) started at 1.060 and only got down to 1.042 after 4 days. Stayed at 1.042 for 2 more days so I transferred and pitched Wyeast Brett Lambicus. Never tested PH and not sure why ferment stalled at 1.042. Notes when transferred - blend of fairly sour and sweet at same time with a grainy tartness.
Was down to a steady 1.010 in October (6 months later) so I bottled a 12 pack and added Door County tart cherries to the remainder (still in carboy). I am happy with the bottles and think they matured quicker than other Brett beers I have done. Haven't taken notes yet on the bottles but can update when I do.
You have to remember that additional pH lowering will likely occur during the fermentation. I've never really tested pH of unfermented wort in comparison to fermented wort in a clean beer but there is a drop in pH. I'll have to check that this next batch.
Looks like we are almost on the exact same time frame with very similar beers!
My 13% sour malt got me nowhere near sour enough, and I added a 24 hour sour mash which got it really sour, but I didn't have a pH meter to get a number.
I pitched Brett B and Brett L into my amber farmhouse base a couple weeks ago, and it's starting to crunch the gravity down. I'm aiming to give this no more than 6-8 weeks on the brett, but I'll go longer if it needs it.
Next up is a berlinner weisse with a full sour mash, then bottle off a bit after a clean primary ferment. Then split the batch and add the Brett B/Brett L blend to 1 carboy, and only Brett B to the other.
I'm going to be back out east in March or April. Moving back to Ohio. Maybe a swap and tasting is in order!
You kept the IBUs fairly low. Knowing that the sour malt didn't do as much souring as you anticipated, do you think this beer could handle a bit more bittering?
That is the sort of ultra-low attenuation I was worried about, glad to hear the Brett ended up chewing through it. Glad it turned out well.
Certainly the pH will drop, I'm just suspect that it will drop enough to make it a truly sour beer. The way pH works it is much more acid to drop from 4.0 to 3.7 than it is to drop from 4.3 to 4.0 for example.
It’ll be interesting to read your notes on how well yours turns out. I’m tempted to just dump in a bunch of microbes, but probably better to just see how it works with Brett only. Where are you moving to in Ohio, Audrey is from outside Dayton and we should be driving through sometime during the summer.
It is hard to judge, if it doesn’t drop much below pH 4.0 it could certainly take 25-35 IBUs, but much lower and it could take more. I’m already about the same gravity that Brute finishes at, so it is hard for me to know how this beer will end up.
I'll be moving to Athens Ohio and working at Jackie O's as the pub brewer. Brad Clark, the Jackie O's brewmaster, is going to take on the new production facility. We'll be sending out an "official announcement" soon. You guys will have to swing by! If you come up 33 to 70, it would be right on the way.
Excellent, easy stop for me on the way to Dayton. Congrats! Only had a couple beers from Jackie O's, but they have all been good.
Just listened to the recent BN podcast with Jeff O'Neill - it sounds like Peekskill is going to be one amazing place. Just the brewery/pub set up sounds incredible.
Also, I drank one of my acid-malt sours last night (13% of the grist) and, while I think it is a good beer, I found it lacks complexity. It was pretty sour, but I don't know how much was the acid malt and how much was the cranberries, but I couldn't help thinking that it needed a little citrus flavor to 'brighten it up'. Curious to see how yours turns out.
what is the final gravity of Brut?
I just picked up ingredients to try something very similar to a Brut clone although the aged hops I could get were Vanguard and Palisade. Planning on fermenting it with ECY03 Farmhouse Brett since I have a nice yeast cake of that ready to be used. Recipe seems similar to Brewcrew76's but with 19% acid malt.
Shockingly 1.016ish. Good luck!
So if I wanted to replicate Ithaca brute's style for fermentation I'd pitch some English yeast in primary and secondary with Brett C and oak chips?
Yep, pitch English yeast (preferably Whitbread), let it ramp up into the 80s, and then crash chill when it gets close to 1.030. Then rack and pitch a big starter of Brett Drie (White Labs will be releasing it as Brett Brux Trois this summer). Ithaca uses light toast French oak spirals, but cubes would work fine as well.
I followed Weyerman's advice on 8% acid malt to make a Berliner weiss. I was skeptical, but I was really shooting for something like Bell's Oarsman, which is more subtly acidic than a BW. I used 9.5% acid malt. I did not find the approach sufficient even for the subtle acidity I was going for. I would not have commented on any sourness in a blind tasting.
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