puertobrewing
Member
Hi fellow brewers! I recently made a 1 gallon batch (actually more like 0.80 gal.) of an experimental brew which consisted of:
1 lb. Bavarian Wheat LME
Juice of 1 whole cantaloupe (processed with water in the blender and then squeezed through a very fine mesh)
0.30 oz. Vanguard whole leaf @ Flame-in (+ or - like FWH)
1 pinch Irish Moss
Water to reach a 1 gallon boil volume
California Ale WLP001
After adding water and boiling for 30 minutes I ended with about 0.80 gallons of 1.062 OG wort. Ice bathed the thing, put it in a 1 gal. sanitized glass carboy, and threw in the yeast @ 65ºF. At that same temperature, fermentation took place for about 2 weeks with a krausen that lasted almost the whole two weeks, and a constant but not too aggressive airlock activity. Passed to secondary for one week until no airlock activity was present. Final Gravity ended in 1.018 for a more or less 5.8% ABV brew. Primed with a blend of honey, sucrose and DME for 3.2 volumes of CO2.
I was pleased with the results though I don't understand them completely. I wasn't particularly interested in cantaloupe aroma or taste, just wanted to see what happened. It smells almost dead-on like caramel apple and it tastes pleasantly sweet, with burnt sugar notes and, wait for it... a bit of sourness on the background. I'm 99% sure the slight sourness isn't due to contamination, so here are my questions:
Might the sourness come from the fact that most of the fermented sugars came from the cantaloupe and the wheat LME, with no barley in the mix?
From what else could the sourness have come?
Do brews where fruit juice is boiled tend to taste tangy?
I know most experiments can't be understood from performing them just one time but since there are many people here that know way much more than I do, I wanted to ask. The reason I boiled the cantaloupe juice was to get rid of bugs but I knew I would get some caramelization, darken the color, and would lose the taste and aroma characteristics of the fruit. Is there any other way to pasteurize at home without boiling?
By the way, the color is kind of red, which is weird considering no specialty grains were used and that the cantaloupe juice was a pale orange color (like the fruit itself). I understand the boil gave it that color but nonetheless I wasn't expecting such a dark color. Thanks in advance for your comments!
1 lb. Bavarian Wheat LME
Juice of 1 whole cantaloupe (processed with water in the blender and then squeezed through a very fine mesh)
0.30 oz. Vanguard whole leaf @ Flame-in (+ or - like FWH)
1 pinch Irish Moss
Water to reach a 1 gallon boil volume
California Ale WLP001
After adding water and boiling for 30 minutes I ended with about 0.80 gallons of 1.062 OG wort. Ice bathed the thing, put it in a 1 gal. sanitized glass carboy, and threw in the yeast @ 65ºF. At that same temperature, fermentation took place for about 2 weeks with a krausen that lasted almost the whole two weeks, and a constant but not too aggressive airlock activity. Passed to secondary for one week until no airlock activity was present. Final Gravity ended in 1.018 for a more or less 5.8% ABV brew. Primed with a blend of honey, sucrose and DME for 3.2 volumes of CO2.
I was pleased with the results though I don't understand them completely. I wasn't particularly interested in cantaloupe aroma or taste, just wanted to see what happened. It smells almost dead-on like caramel apple and it tastes pleasantly sweet, with burnt sugar notes and, wait for it... a bit of sourness on the background. I'm 99% sure the slight sourness isn't due to contamination, so here are my questions:
Might the sourness come from the fact that most of the fermented sugars came from the cantaloupe and the wheat LME, with no barley in the mix?
From what else could the sourness have come?
Do brews where fruit juice is boiled tend to taste tangy?
I know most experiments can't be understood from performing them just one time but since there are many people here that know way much more than I do, I wanted to ask. The reason I boiled the cantaloupe juice was to get rid of bugs but I knew I would get some caramelization, darken the color, and would lose the taste and aroma characteristics of the fruit. Is there any other way to pasteurize at home without boiling?
By the way, the color is kind of red, which is weird considering no specialty grains were used and that the cantaloupe juice was a pale orange color (like the fruit itself). I understand the boil gave it that color but nonetheless I wasn't expecting such a dark color. Thanks in advance for your comments!
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