Advice on making blueberry sour?

[TwoLeggedPirate]

Hi. New to the forums, not entirely new to brewing, but new to brewing sours.

So I found this on the forums for which seemed to have good instructions to follow:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/really-easy-fruit-sour.675345/#post-8917879
So now comes the question time.(Sorry about any lack of technical terms, still trying to get a hang of it in my native language).

1)As for 'sour'yeasts in that recipe that matches what is in my local store I've got the choice between 'Lallemand philly sour'
and 'Lallemand sour pitch'. Is there any best/correct choice of yeast here?

2)I'm using fresh blueberries(currently in the freezer). What good steps is there to take make sure it's sterile?

3)I currently am just using plastic fermenting tanks before putting the almost finished beer into bottles. Is there anything I would
need to change in the recipe to adapt to this difference?

4)The recipe calls for a grain bag or paint strainer bag to store the berries. I'm not quite sure how that translate, but what am I
looking for here?(Is it just a larger version of the type of bag I would keep the hops in maybe?)

And more generally: Does that recipe seem fine? What are some common pitfalls? I can't think of anything more to ask right now.
Anyways thanks for any and all answers to my quest to make a blueberry sour.

 

[Jag75]

Welcome to the forum and hobby !

This is how I brew a blueberry sour .

70% 2 row
30% white wheat

Mash @ 149 for 60min

Boil for 60 min - no hops during the boil.

Get down to pitching temp and pitch WLP644 yeast .

24-48 hrs later add 1 carton of Goodbellys Blueberry Acai probiotic juice (Albertsons)

At the end of fermentation add 5-6# of thawed blueberries. No bag needed.

Once fermentation is complete(fruit will start up fermentation again)by checking via hydrometer add .5oz of your choice of hops. I use Azacca or Mosaic.

2 days later package .

 

[JPDosey]

I just did a blueberry wheat. For my addition of the blueberries, I bought the frozen type, Then I thawed & did a light smash. I used cheese cloth to fashion a sort of bag.
-Line a bowl with the cheesecloth
-add the smashed berries (any fruit)
-gather the ends of the cloth & secure. I used some string, tied tightly. Then cut the excess of cheesecloth off.
I added my berries about halfway through the fermentation.
Of course, make sure all items are sanitized. This is my second time using this method & it really helps with the transfer.
Hope this helps.
Cheers!

 

[Rob2010SS]

Hi. New to the forums, not entirely new to brewing, but new to brewing sours.

So I found this on the forums for which seemed to have good instructions to follow:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/really-easy-fruit-sour.675345/#post-8917879
So now comes the question time.(Sorry about any lack of technical terms, still trying to get a hang of it in my native language).

1)As for 'sour'yeasts in that recipe that matches what is in my local store I've got the choice between 'Lallemand philly sour'
and 'Lallemand sour pitch'. Is there any best/correct choice of yeast here?

- So the difference between those two you listed is this: The philly sour is yeast and bacteria, so you pitch that by itself and it's one fermentation step. With the Sour Pitch, that's just bacteria so you'd have to pitch that as well as yeast of some kind. Personally, i think it's going to come down to how sour you want it. I think you'll get more sourness with the Sour Pitch than you will with the Philly Sour. If you're OK with just a slight tartness, go with the philly sour. If you really want to drive the pH down, go with the sour pitch. Do you have a pH meter to check the level of sourness?

2)I'm using fresh blueberries(currently in the freezer). What good steps is there to take make sure it's sterile?

- Personally, I never bother with sanitizing the fruit. I know that's taking a risk but I have yet to have an issue. The alcohol and the acidity help to keep unwanted things from taking hold for the most part. However, if you want to be safe, you could put the berries in a tupperware dish, put some water in there, and crush a campden tablet in there and let it sit for 24 hours. This will kill any wild yeast on the berries.

3)I currently am just using plastic fermenting tanks before putting the almost finished beer into bottles. Is there anything I would
need to change in the recipe to adapt to this difference?

- No, you're good.

4)The recipe calls for a grain bag or paint strainer bag to store the berries. I'm not quite sure how that translate, but what am I
looking for here?(Is it just a larger version of the type of bag I would keep the hops in maybe?)

- Some people use muslin bags or grain bags to add the fruit. This makes it easier to transfer the beer later. Again, just make sure it's sanitized before doing that.

And more generally: Does that recipe seem fine? What are some common pitfalls? I can't think of anything more to ask right now.
Anyways thanks for any and all answers to my quest to make a blueberry sour.

Responses above in red.

 

[marc1]

Responses above in red.

Philly Sour is only yeast, no bacteria. We have been discussing it here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/any-lallemand-philly-sour-feedback-or-experience-to-share.682096/
It should work.

 

[Rob2010SS]

Philly Sour is only yeast, no bacteria. We have been discussing it here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/any-lallemand-philly-sour-feedback-or-experience-to-share.682096/
It should work.

Valid point. I misread that.

 

[marc1]

Hi. New to the forums, not entirely new to brewing, but new to brewing sours.

So I found this on the forums for which seemed to have good instructions to follow:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/really-easy-fruit-sour.675345/#post-8917879
So now comes the question time.(Sorry about any lack of technical terms, still trying to get a hang of it in my native language).

1)As for 'sour'yeasts in that recipe that matches what is in my local store I've got the choice between 'Lallemand philly sour'
and 'Lallemand sour pitch'. Is there any best/correct choice of yeast here?

2)I'm using fresh blueberries(currently in the freezer). What good steps is there to take make sure it's sterile?

3)I currently am just using plastic fermenting tanks before putting the almost finished beer into bottles. Is there anything I would
need to change in the recipe to adapt to this difference?

4)The recipe calls for a grain bag or paint strainer bag to store the berries. I'm not quite sure how that translate, but what am I
looking for here?(Is it just a larger version of the type of bag I would keep the hops in maybe?)

And more generally: Does that recipe seem fine? What are some common pitfalls? I can't think of anything more to ask right now.
Anyways thanks for any and all answers to my quest to make a blueberry sour.

1) As I mentioned above, Philly Sour should work, but if you are trying to follow the recipe from the thread you linked, you should use the Lallemand Sour Pitch bacteria and a regular yeast like US05.

2) I've never used fruit in a beer (that's planned for later this year!), but it looks like people have had good experience using as-is.

3) Make sure that it is completely finished fermenting before you put it in bottles with priming sugar.

4) This is a fine mesh bag so that the juices can ferment but the chunks won't clog everything up.

The recipe in the other thread looks fine, the fruit seems really flexible so you can try what you have and them modify amounts for the next batch to suit your tastes.

Edit - please don't forget to update when you make it with how it came out!

 

[TwoLeggedPirate]

Sorry for not responding. Delays happened, but will probably get going before the weekend.

Firstly, someone asked if I had a pH-meter.
I don't.
Looking up the price range for decent pH-meters, I'm thinking that I'm not going to invest in one (yet), seeing how I don't have a specific desired final pH-reading. So I'm going to buy just strips for starters.

Secondly I found some discrepancies between the recipe I posted and the 'best practices' data-sheet from the wildbrew sour pitch:
https://www.lallemandbrewing.com/do...EqXvubhr-xHU37I5jJoAUoqFDrKemikCnlsAKGbwJMRto

*Data-sheet calls for reducing worth pH to 4.2-4.5, but recipe doesn't call for it.
*Recipe calls for adding the US05 together with the sour pitch, while the data-sheet seems to imply waiting until the souring process is done.
*Recipe calls for fermenting at 66-70F, but data-sheet calls for 84-104F (preferably 95-100)(At least while the souring is happening).
Thoughts on this?

Finally, it might be the case that I would need to skip using the wildbrew sour pitch and instead go for the philly sour. And to confirm what I might have read or misread: I would only need to pitch that by itself, no other yeast needed?

And thanks for all feedback so far

 

[marc1]

Sorry for not responding. Delays happened, but will probably get going before the weekend.

Firstly, someone asked if I had a pH-meter.
I don't.
Looking up the price range for decent pH-meters, I'm thinking that I'm not going to invest in one (yet), seeing how I don't have a specific desired final pH-reading. So I'm going to buy just strips for starters.

Secondly I found some discrepancies between the recipe I posted and the 'best practices' data-sheet from the wildbrew sour pitch:
https://www.lallemandbrewing.com/do...EqXvubhr-xHU37I5jJoAUoqFDrKemikCnlsAKGbwJMRto

*Data-sheet calls for reducing worth pH to 4.2-4.5, but recipe doesn't call for it.
*Recipe calls for adding the US05 together with the sour pitch, while the data-sheet seems to imply waiting until the souring process is done.
*Recipe calls for fermenting at 66-70F, but data-sheet calls for 84-104F (preferably 95-100)(At least while the souring is happening).
Thoughts on this?

Finally, it might be the case that I would need to skip using the wildbrew sour pitch and instead go for the philly sour. And to confirm what I might have read or misread: I would only need to pitch that by itself, no other yeast needed?

And thanks for all feedback so far

Philly sour is yeast, so no extra yeast would be needed. If you want to get more sour beer, you might want to pitch two packets/5 gallon batch.

The recipe for Sour Pitch seems tested by several people with good results, so I would not worry as much about deviations from Lallemand best practices if you want to make that recipe.

From everything I've seen, pH strips generally aren't very accurate for beer testing. Making decisions based on bad data can be worse than from no data