Last week I brewed my first sour mash beer, a Belgian Pale. Before we start; yes, Belgian Pales are not traditionally sour. This bastard recipe actually began life as a clone of Russian River’s Redemption; one of the few commercially brewed Belgian Singles of Enkels. Vinnie Cilurzo (RR Brewmaster) had graciously provided the following recipe to a member of Homebrewtalk.com:
91 percent 2 row
3 percent acidulated
3 percent wheat malt
3 prcent vienna malt
Bittered with Styrian Golding
Finished with Sterling
OG 1.052
TG 1.012
Abbey ale yeast white labs
I hope this helps
Looking over Vinnie’s recipe, I got to thinking that a tart, fruitier version of Redemption sounded damn good. And provided a damn good excuse to try a sour mash.
Sour Mash Belgian Pale
8.5 lbs 2-Row
0.5 lbs Belgian Aromatic
0.5 lbs Munich 10L
0.5 lbs Wheat Malt
1.0 lbs 2-Row (sour mash)
.75 oz Sterling (8.7 AA%) @ 60
.75 oz Sterling (8.7 AA%) @ 5
Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale
Estimated Efficiency: 70%
Estimated Attenuation 75%
Estimated OG: 1.049
Estimated FG: 1.012
Estimated ABV: 4.8%
Estimated IBU: 28
Estimated SRM: 7
For those of you unfamiliar with sour mash techniques, HERE is a great description from Dave Green at BYO.
My plan was to mash a pound of 2-row in a thermos and leave it to sour for a few days. I had to scale this back some when I found out that my thermos wouldn’t even hold the pound of dry grain. I ended up mashing about half a pound of 2-row in three cups of water; filling the “tun” to the brim. After letting the mash temp drop to 120°(F), I stirred in an ounce or so of crushed grain and sealed up the thermos…then promptly forgot about it on the kitchen counter.
When my wife and I came home from work the next day, the sour mash had our kitchen smelling horrendous; a mix of bad (or good?) cheese and locker room. I was persuaded to relocate the thermos to the garage. After the first day, the odor actually started to die down. After two days, it was no longer offensive, smelling remarkably close to over-ripe nectarines. I went ahead and ventured a taste. It was cleanly sour; time to brew.
I mashed my main grain bill for an hour at 151°(F). After conversion, I added my sour mash to the main tun and let it sit for 15 minutes before bringing the mash up to 170°(F) and sparging. A sample of the initial running tasted slightly sour; so far so good.
The picture above shows my attempt at multitasking. While sparging, I was sampling the Scottish 70/- I brewed last month and washing some peas I picked from my garden.
I ended up with 5.25 gallons of wort at 1.052. I pitched a 1.5 qt starter of Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale (Duvel), washed from the Belgian IPA I brewed back in December. Taking into account the extra half pound of grain that was used in the main mash, my actual efficiency ended up at 71%.
I just pulled a hydro sample today (day 6) and the beer is down to 1.014. The sample had a hint of sourness, but still quite a bit of yeast bite. I’ll give the beer a few more days to clean up before racking to a secondary. With the highly attenuative yeast and the low mash temps, I expect this brew to finish dry, under 1.010. When I do make the move to secondary, I plan to rack a gallon into a separate vessel, on top of some apricots. Depending on how the two brews develop, they will either be blended back together, or bottled separately.
Cheers!
Kevin