wlp655 with berliner base and apricots

[Vesteroid]

I wanted to try something so I brewed a basic berliner base and pitched wlp655.

My plan is to wait two weeks and rack to secondary and add frozen oregon apricots ( I bring them to room temp and puree then in the blender) then wait another 4-6 weeks.

Any insight on how this would work?

There was some debate about doing this as an ale base and doing a standard ale yeast then pitching the sour at secondary with the apricots...one of the guys at the shop even suggested pitching a brett at secondary.

I am new to sours so wanted to see what the thoughts here were.

 

[Agate]

First question, how do you want the beer to turn out?

 

[Vesteroid]

fair question.

Ideal: sour on a scale of close to or less than a almanac dogpatch, small amount but discernable of apricot flavor and a bit of bret thrown in for complexity and fun.

 

[Agate]

There's brett in that blend, right? I think your plan is fine, in would mash high (158°F-ish) and keep hops low. Pitch your vial in primary and let it go until you have the sour character you want (plan on 6 months, I think). Maybe more. Once it's where you want, rack it to secondary over your apricots. Leave at least half the pits in! They add character. Plan on about 6 weeks on the apricots. They're very tannic, so be prepared to rack it again to clarify once the fruit character is right. Bottle only if your gravity is under ~1.005. Sounds like a great plan!

 

[CorporateHippie]

I'm brewing something similar to that this weekend. I plan on doing a kettle sour with probiotic pills until the pH reaches 4.0. Then boil for 30 minutes and pitch a house blend of various Brett strains as the only yeast. I usually get about 80% attenuation within 10 days. Then I'll rack The 5 gallon batch onto 10 pounds of apricots. After secondary fermentation is done (One weekish) I plan to dry hop with 2 ounces of Cetra and 2 ounces of Amarillo. Should be grain to glass in like 4 weeks.

 

[Agate]

^^^ To be honest, I would go that route as well. You can absolutely use that blend, and it'll probably be great, but it'll take a long time. Several months. But you can turn it around faster if you switch up your cultures. I would pre-sour as mentioned above, ferment out with brett only (Amalgamation FTW!) and add your apricots once primary is done. Lots of ways to skin a cat! End goal is important for sure. It will not be as complex, and side by side the long aged one will probably be better. But a simple sour beer with some fruit and brett flavors, that might not be the ideal culture.