Tepache sour?

[drubes14]

Has anyone messed around with doing a yeast starter from tepache? It's a fermented beverage from panela sugar and pineapple juice popular in Mexico. My girlfriend and I made a batch and I've taken the dregs from the ferment. I am doing a starter now.

Flavor after fermentation for tepache is tart, fruity, and a bit acetic. Kind of a cross between kombucha and a very light lacto ferment. The yeast and bacteria come from the pineapple rind.

Hoping to do a simple Amber ale with some fruity hops, and then tossing in the tepache starter to sour in secondary.

Anyone had any experience with tepache or in doing something similar?

 

[505-Brewer]

Ignorant on this Tepache. Sounds interesting. Id try to exclude O2 to reduce Acetic acid production. Not a fan. Prefer lacto. An amber ale w acetic sounds ruined but thats me. Let is know how it goes.

 

[passedpawn]

If you're trying to make a sour beer, might as well give it a try.

Lots of tepache info here: Tepache!

 

[RPh_Guy]

fruity hops, and then tossing in the tepache starter to sour in secondary.

Hops will inhibit the LAB, so it probably won't be sour.

 

[radwizard]

I'd go hop-less in the boil and dry hop with your fruity hops.

 

[bmulari]

Love this was brought up - I'm not very active on the forum at all, but I've been planning to get something like this on the brew schedule hopefully in the next month or so.

My current plan is to add pineapple, cinnamon sticks, brown sugar, and some ginger to a fairy simple malt bill (60-70% 2-row, 30-40% wheat), with the intention (hope) of a natural fermentation from the yeast/bacteria in the pineapple and ginger.

I didn't think much about the impact of the hops would have on the fermentation, so I'll plan to adjust my recipe for that once I get it finalized. Any thoughts are welcomed!

@drubes14 , please keep us updated!

 

[drubes14]

Awesome! Will do, and likewise keep us posted too.

 

[bmulari]

First update @drubes14 !, Went with a mash of 70% Wheat, 30% pale malt, plus 5oz acidulated malt (as opposed to the opposite percentages of wheat/pale I had planned above ) on Sunday afternoon. I wanted to lacto sour before I started , so I collected 6 gallons into a carboy and threw a couple handfuls of pale malt into the wort. The carboy has been sitting in the garage since Sunday evening, hovering in the mid to low 90's. PH check as of last night was 3.9, so I'll plan to check again this evening and decide if I'll boil the wort this evening, or hold off until tomorrow. Taste is very much wheat forward, with a little lemony funk/acidity starting.

I'll plan to go through a normal boil process when I'm happy with the PH, and then split into two batches: First half of the batch will get a slightly different fruit addition than I planned for above with just Pineapples, mangoes, and ginger being added. For anyone interested, I can update with exact weights when I get everything added.

The second batch will be fermented with Safale-04, with the addition of Pink Himalayan sea salt and POG juice.

Any updates on your end?

 

[SanPancho]

Howd this turn out? We mix tepache with our sour in the glass, been too worried that the yeast will ferment the pina and ,ango flavor out of the beer if we add the juice to the wort.