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Monday, February 6, 2017

Gose: NEIPA Principles for Coriander

Hot-dog-water, celery, hammy… these are all descriptors I’ve heard for coriander-flavored beers. Nearly essential for wits, sometimes an accent in other Belgian beers (like those from Rochefort). Coriander, the seeds of cilantro, sometimes seem more at home in a taco than a beer, but there are two things brewers can do to ensure it imparts more pleasant aromatics like lemon, lime, and floral.

Close-up of Indian coriander.First is one I’ve touched on in previous gose recipes, use Indian coriander. It has a slightly oblong (i.e., more football than basketball) shape than the typical supermarket variety and a much fruitier aroma – Fruity Pebbles. Indian markets are also inexpensive compared to supermarkets and specialty spice stores, a 7 oz bag set me back $1.99 (compared to Amazon for $10).

Second allow coriander-yeast interaction. Glycosides and biotransformation are hot topics in hoppy beers, but they may be even more interesting for beers with fruit and spice. Coriander contains linalool and geraniol, compounds also found in hops. While unexciting in its standard form (floral and rose), yeast activity converts geraniol to B-citronellol which provides a flavor similar to lemon or lime.

"From the screening of various hop cultivars, Citra hop was selected as a geraniol-rich cultivar. In addition, it was observed that coriander seed, which can be used in beer production as a flavourant, contained not only linalool but also geraniol at high levels." The Contribution of Geraniol Metabolism to the Citrus Flavour of Beer

Wellfleet Smoked Sea Salt In the past I’ve added crushed coriander near the end of the boil or to the whirlpool, allowing it to infuse into the hot wort. That is also what was done in the study linked above. However, for this batch I drew off wort for this beer pre-boil, adding the coriander directly to the fermentor at the same time as the yeast. The rest of this batch became Loral-Hopped Funky Saison. I've found that dry hopping during fermentation is essential to the "NEIPA" character. I was hoping the same might apply to coriander!

I pitched the Right Proper house lactic culture harvested from my Quinoa Grapefruit Hoppy Sour. I didn’t have access to the high temperatures (October vs. July), and as a result sourness didn’t kick in until keg conditioning. I was recently at Right Proper brewing a collaborative smoked, juniper-infused, Norwegian farmhouse ale with Modern Times! More on that batch later...

Sodium chloride is sodium chloride, but there is nothing wrong with a story. I grew up spending summers on Cape Cod (where I still have a crate of Cranberry-Orange mead buried). Originally I’d planned to make the trip to collect bay water to dose in for salinity… but the timing didn’t work out. I had a jar of smoked sea salt from Wellfleet from my mother, close enough! Between the low dosage and low smoke-intensity I wasn’t expecting a perceptible smoke character in the beer, but sub-threshold complexity can’t hurt.

Golden Gose

Smell – Bright zesty citrus aroma. Mild graininess. Slight sulfur. I don't detect anything I would identify as coriander.

Appearance – Cloudy golden yellow. White head disperses rapidly. Not intentional, but it could pass for a NEIPA (other than the poor head retention).

Taste – Zippy lactic acidity, without the funkiness of Brett. Lots of bright fresh citrus, especially lemon (without being artificial or furniture polish). The finish has a little no-boil grainy-wortiness that I don’t mind, but it may not be for everyone. Maltiness from the Munich isn't as pronounced as I expected.

Mouthfeel – Slightly fuller than the classic versions thanks to the oats.

Drinkability & Notes – The best gose I've brewed! Refreshing and unique. The citrus from the coriander is outstanding! Sulfur aroma is the only detractor.

Changes for Next Time – Seems like this mixed culture really benefits the warmer fermentation temperature. The acidity hit its mark with extra time, but the fermentation wasn't vigorous enough to blow-off the sulfur. With the maltier grist the no-boil flavor was more assertive when young than similar all Pils/wheat beers that I've brewed - I might go for a 60 minute boil.

Golden Gose, finished beer

Recipe

Batch Size: 6.00 gal
SRM: 5.3
IBU: 0
OG: 1.041
FG: 1.005
ABV: 4.7%
Brewhouse Efficiency: 74%
Boil Time: 0 Mins

Grain
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65.9 % - 7.5 lbs Dingemans Pilsen
27.5 % - 3.12 lbs Weyermann Munich I
6.6 % - .75 lbs Simpsons Golden Naked Oats

Mash
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Sacch Rest - 30 min @ 152 F

Hops
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None

Other
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0.5 oz Indian Coriander Seed - Fermenter

Yeast
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Right Proper House Lacto Blend

Notes
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Recipe adjusted so this can be brewed as a single batch.

Brewed 10/10/16

Water was all filtered DC tap with 2 g of CaCl and 1.5 g of gypsum. Added 1 tsp of lactic acid. Mash pH measured at 5.12.

Ran off 5.5 gallons of 1.041 wort once the wort hit 180F. No hops or whirlfloc. Chilled to 95F with the plate chiller. Added .5 oz of crushed Indian coriander to the wort. Pitched Right Proper house culture, woken up with 1 L of wort 24 hours prior. Added 2 tsp of lactic acid to lower pH to 4.5. Left at 70F to ferment.

10/23/16 Kegged (still no salt) with 3.25 oz of table sugar.

1/7/17 Dissolved .5 oz of Wellfleet smoked sea salt and added to the keg.

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25 comments:

  1. Does boiling destroy the linalool and geraniol? Presumably this technique could help with wits?

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    Replies
    1. They are essential oils, which are generally delicate and easily destroyed by light and heat.

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  2. Boiling certainly doesn't destroy them. Flipping through Hops, I can't spot anything about what conditions are ideal for linalool/geraniol extraction. I find I get more aromatics from cold-side hop additions than hot, and more interesting character when added during fermentation than after. Seemed worth a shot given a similar set of compounds in coriander.

    I think this would be perfect for a wit!

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  3. Hi, sorry I am just not completely clear if you did any sanitation on the coriander prior to pitching into the fermenter? Was it just crushed and added, or steeped in pre-boil wort?

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  4. Crushed and added directly. Given it is a sour beer I wasn't too worried about introducing spoilage microbes. For a clean wit, I'd toast the seeds in a pan for a couple minutes before crushing.

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  5. Great tips about coriander! I assume lemon/citrus comes primarily from coriander and not the yeast?
    I wonder about your opinion using a lot of acid malt, vs. lactic acid (plus clean sacch yeast) vs. lacto blend for gose, since it's only moderately sour. Also - you are adding salt at the kegging stage - does salt in the kettle interfere with fermentation, or do you do this so you adjust to flavor as needed?

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  6. Did you pitch the yeast/lacto blend while the wort was in the 90s, or am I misreading? Were you worried about pitching yeast at such a high temperature? I realize the yeast would survive just fine, but I would worry about off-flavors.

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  7. Didn't realize you keg carbed this rather than force carbing (not that it should make a difference). Long period between kegging and salt addition as you were waiting for the acidity to surface first?

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  8. When you talk about biotransformation the answer is the flavors come from both the yeast and the spice. I haven't tasted this much citrus from the culture even in some beers right proper has made with citrus though, so it isn't an unconnected ester.

    Correct, pitched in the 90s. If you go back and read the first post about it (Quinoa Grapefruit Hoppy Sour), this blend does its best work hot!

    I like to dose flavors as late as possible so I can taste and adjust. Once you dial in a recipe no harm adding salt (or lactose) in the boil, but for a new recipe I like to wait and dose to taste.

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  9. How do you suggest calculating how much acid to add to drop the pH?

    Should I just use Brun Water spreadsheet and get the mash pH down to 4.5pH and accept the lower efficiency (see recent Brulosophy test with low pH mashing)?

    Or is there a way to calculate based on post-mash/pre-boil pH, how much more acid to add to lower the wort pH to 4.5pH?

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  10. Add the acid to the chilled wort so it won't affect the efficiency. A pH meter is the only way to know the result of the acid with certainty, but you can estimate with a spreadsheet. It usually ends up at 2-3 ml per gallon for me.

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  11. Hey Mike!

    Great sounding recipe. Have any other lacto/yeast blends you'd suggest for this? I don't think I can procure any from a brewery in DC :)

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  12. Hi Matt, it happens that I went back and read the post on the quinoa grapefruit hoppy sour, and in that post he wrote:

    Really impressed with the Right Proper culture at home, it was quick, clean, and easy! You could likely get something similar by mixing Omega's Lacto Blend and HotHead Ale.

    What he meant is that kveik ("Hothead Ale") is known to ferment well in the high 90s, which is convenient since that's generally within the optimal temperature range for lactobacillus. This blog post has more information about kveik, including some excellent links.

    By the way, Omega is not the only vendor that supplies kveik. You could try Sigmund's Voss from Yeast Bay, which also sells a lacto blend. Yeast Bay will ship their products to you, unlike (as far as I know) Omega. But if you live near a store that sells Omega products, that would also work.

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  13. (I should have clarified that "kveik" is a generic term that encompasses any type of yeast traditionally used in Norwegian farmhouse brewing, excluding commercial yeasts. The strains of kveik sold by Omega and Yeast Bay happen to be very similar to each other, and so people have come to associate those yeasts with the term "kveik," but really Hothead and Sigmund's Voss are just particular examples. So what I should have said is: kveik that is commercially available in the U.S. is known to ferment well in the high 90s. Anyway for your purposes I think those two types of kveik are just about interchangeable.)

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  14. Hmmm my original comment seems to have been filtered out. Matt, Mike's original advice was that you could achieve a similar effect by using Omega's Hothead yeast with Omega's lacto blend. I would add that you can get a very similar yeast (Sigmund's Voss) and a lacto blend from Yeast Bay, which may be more convenient for you because they will ship directly to you (unlike, I believe, Omega).

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  15. Hi, I was actually making a lemon gose tonight (sour wort with L. plantarum) and I wonder whats the difference between adding the sea salt in the boil and making a salty water solution and adding it straight to the keg like you did. can the salt interfere with fermentation?

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  16. Hey Marc, this is addressed above:

    "I like to dose flavors as late as possible so I can taste and adjust. Once you dial in a recipe no harm adding salt (or lactose) in the boil, but for a new recipe I like to wait and dose to taste."

    I've brewed a gose with salt in the boil, and the fermentation proceeded with no discernible problems. That was at a rate of about an ounce per 5 gallons, if you go much above that, then I don't know.

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  17. Just curious why you added 3.25 oz of table sugar to the keg? Were you looking to sweeten the beer? If so, would a similar effect be achieved by adding lactose during the boil?

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  18. I naturally carbonated the keg with the sugar. I often do that when I have a full kegerator, especially for sour beers which often benefit from additional time.

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  19. So question. If you use the Lacto blend from Omega, and the Hot Head from Omega... How do you stop the lacto activity in your primary? Or do you not need to before terminal gravity is reached and ready to keg?

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  20. I imagine you don't kill the lacto at any point - lacto will hit terminal PH pretty fast, it's not like pediococcus that can slowly churn away for months or make beer sick/ropey. I would wager a kveik/lacto combo wouldn't take much longer than pure kveik to hit terminal OG, and any delay in hitting terminal OG I would attribute to diminished yeast performance at low PH rather than the lacto slowly churning away.

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  21. Correct. There are certainly brewers who target a pH with Lacto, kill it, and then ferment. But I don't. I assume you mean FG or terminal gravity? Lacto really won't lower the gravity much on its own, ~.004 according to experiments with pure cultures. It might keep producing lactic acid after the yeast is done if you have a strain that produces alpha glucosidase, but that wouldn't cause much concern for over-carbonation or anything.

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  22. Was the poor head retention a result of the biotransformation between the yeast and the geraniol?

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  23. I'm not aware of any relationship between geraniol and head retention. Lack of hops would be the more ready area to blame. I have a quick sour fermenting now on peaches and nectarines that I'll dose with tetra hop extract, which is supposed to substantially improve head retention.

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