Sour Mash Crick

[OldRalHoleBrewing]

If you want to follow this adventure on my blog, click here.

So I'm undertaking my a big endeavor here; a trifecta of firsts. I'm doing a sour mash, oak fermented, cherry wheat beer. We're calling it "Crick" because it'll be like imitation Lambic, with sour mash replacing the lacto culture. And of course, when I hear sour mash I think of some good old sour mash KY Bourbon, so there you go: Crick.

The grain bill consists of (plus 3.3 lbs wheat malt extract, to be added to the main mash) :
-3bs 2 row Pale
-2 lbs Wheat malt
-1 lb Flaked wheat

Day 1: I took 5 oz of the grist, mashed in 1 quart of water at 150 for 60 minutes. Then I cooled it to 120 and poured it into a thermos, filling it almost to the brim. I threw in a handful of raw malt, and sealed tightly.

Day 2: I opened the container, pH was about 5, and temperature was 80. So then I boiled a couple cups of water in a tea kettle and set a drip tray under the thermos for spillage. Then I poured in boiling water, mixing with a spoon until the temperature was back to 120. I sealed it tightly, wrapped a towel around the thermos, and set it in a warm place in the closet. I'll check later today and repeat as necessary, probably a three day total.

After this I'm going to do my mash as usual, then ferment at 65 degrees on top of 3oz American House Roast oak cubes. After primary fermentation is complete, I'm going to bring 10 lbs frozen cherries to fermentation temperature by flash boiling them, then throw them in the beer for a second bubbling round. Should be a good one.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

 

[OldRalHoleBrewing]

Alright so I just checked pH, it's at 4, so I'm giving it another day. Added more boiling water to top it off back to 120F. Smells very cleanly sour. Tomorrow we should be good to go!

 

[TBrosBrewing]

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Sounds tasty

 

[OldRalHoleBrewing]

Yes, today it the day, around 6 or 7 (Eastern Time) we're brewing. Should be a fun (but hectic!) brew day with Easter stuff going on, but I think we'll be sober enough post-dinner to manage.:cross:

 

[OldRalHoleBrewing]

This post is taken directly from my blog, Bunker Brewing
Awkward blank spaces are where the pictures go. To see the full version click here.

So I'm undertaking my a big endeavor here; a trifecta of firsts. We're doing a sour mash, oak fermented, cherry wheat beer. We're calling it "Crick" because it'll be like imitation Lambic, with sour mash replacing the lacto culture. And of course, when I hear sour mash I think of some good old sour mash KY Bourbon, so there you go: Crick.



Fermentables:
-3bs 2 row Pale malt
-2 lbs Wheat malt
-1 lb Flaked wheat
-3 lbs Bavarian Wheat DME (65% Wheat, 35% Barley)

Hops:
-Tettnang 4.7% 60 min

Yeast:
-Safbrew T-58

Others:
-3 oz American Oak cubes (house toast) in primary
-10 lbs frozen pitted tart cherries during secondary

Day 1: I took 5 oz of the grist (no extract), mashed in 1 quart of water at 150 for 60 minutes

Then I cooled it to 120 and poured it into a thermos, filling it almost to the brim. I threw in a handful of raw malt, and sealed tightly.

Day 2: I opened the container, pH was about 5, and temperature was 80. So then I boiled a couple cups of water in a tea kettle and set a drip tray under the thermos for spillage. Then I poured in boiling water, mixing with a spoon until the temperature was back to 120. I sealed it tightly, wrapped a towel around the thermos, and set it in a warm place in the closet.

Day 3: Here we go! Sour mash pH was 3.5.

Time to brew!

We heated 5 gallons of water to a strike temperature of 157 degrees Fahrenheit, rigged it with our trusty strainer bag,

and poured in our 6 pounds of milled grains. But...oh crap, I miscalculated!

When pouring the grain, I had forgotten to account for space displaced by the grains (one too many homebrews, eh?). We had a bit of spillover, and boy, what a nasty mess. Sadly, there were no photo opportunities, because we were both in frantic action. All I can say today is thank god for baking soda and scrubbies. In retrospect, we should have mashed with 4 gallons instead of 5, or maybe even less, of course adjusting temperatures accordingly.

So we poured a gallon of the wort into a clean bucket, and held back 3 cups to sour a bit and add during the boil just for the hell of it (actually it was 3 cups over a gallon...double oops).

When all was said and done, though, our mash still landed right at 150F, the projected temperature. After mashing for 60 minutes, wrapping the pot with a towel,

and ending at a temperature of 140F, we sparged with 1 gallon of 170F water for 10 minutes. Then we raised the temperature, adding the hops at 190F,

and brought the wort to a rolling boil for 60 minutes.

30 minutes into the boil we lowered the heat and added the 3 lbs Bavarian Wheat DME, stirring constantly to prevent clumping. For the first 45 minutes of the boil, I periodically added the quart of sour mash as evaporation occurred.

Then in the final 5 minutes of the boil, we added the American house roast oak cubes, for sanitizing purposes.

We turned the burner off (flame out) at 60 minutes, and let stand 20 minutes before cooling in an ice water bath in the sink.

Once that sucker hit 88F it was on! We pitched the eager yeasties onto their fresh malt meal, and this morning the airlock was bubbling away. Golly those things sure are gassy. (heheh)

Uh oh...in an inebriated state, I seemed to have forgotten to take an Original Gravity reading! Those VD American Ales sure are tasty...

But at 75% Brewhouse efficiency, this beer would have an OG of 1.076 . We usually hit more around 80% or 90% efficiency, and maybe even higher on this batch, considering the high water/grist ratio. And with the addition of cherries to secondary fermentation, you can only imagine how monstrous this beer will be. We're talking 12% to 15% ABV here people!

This is one Crick you don't wanna be caught up without a paddle...

 

[OldRalHoleBrewing]

We put the cherries in last night, after putting them in our brewpot, raising the temperature to 180F and holding for 20 minutes, then cooling to 80F. The beer already smelled great, though the sourness was not apparent. For pictures and more details check out this:

http://bunkerbrewing.blogspot.com/2010/04/throwing-cherries-in-crick.html

 

[OldRalHoleBrewing]

We bottled the beast the other night, get a load of these pictures:

This stuff turned out super pink! It tastes very sour and tart, with barely a hint of cherry aroma, and no noticeable hop presence. We carbed it pretty high, I can't wait to break it out in a couple weeks. And funny enough, I was drinking sour mash whiskey later that night in celebration, and I kept thinking I was smelling the beer (which was already safely bottled and stored). After a couple of sips of my drink, I realized the sour mash bourbon was tricking my nose!

 

[maskednegator]

That's a rad color.
One thing to keep in mind when adding fruit is that you're adding both sugars and water to the fermentor, so they very often lower your OG instead of raising it.

 

[jessup]

And funny enough, I was drinking sour mash whiskey later that night in celebration, and I kept thinking I was smelling the beer (which was already safely bottled and stored). After a couple of sips of my drink, I realized the sour mash bourbon was tricking my nose!

mind over matter, eh? the two ain't even close do you mean whiskey sour mix? i guess i'll get to see soon enough...

 

[OldRalHoleBrewing]

mind over matter, eh? the two ain't even close do you mean whiskey sour mix? i guess i'll get to see soon enough...

no, I mean sour mash whiskey. It has a distinctly sour and tart taste to it. I'm talking bourbon i.e. Jim Beam, Old Crow, Mark Twain etc...

Get a whiff

 

[jessup]

i love my elijah craig 18 year single barrel bourbon and i just don't the resemblence between the two. hmmm.

 

[OldRalHoleBrewing]

jessup

i love my elijah craig 18 year single barrel bourbon and i just don't the resemblence between the two. hmmm.

You haven't smelled it yet!

It could just be the way my sniffer works (I know different people pick up different scent subtleties). I didn't use corn or any adjunct besides wheat in my mash, but nonetheless, it was a sour mash. It may not be distilled, but at room temperature, I catch definitely tell it's sour mash, not Brettanomyces fermented.

I think you'll like it alot.

 

[android]

have you tried this one yet? i've been wanting to do a sour mash for a while now.

 

[OldRalHoleBrewing]

Yes, and it is great. It's a little too sour for my lady, but then again, she's not a fan of sour tastes in general. I really dig this stuff alot, been drinking a couple every night since it's been carbed. The sourness comes through great! As stated above, it's tart, but not to the point of puckered face. Although as I type this my mouth is watering...

I'm pretty proud of this one as a sour mash in general. I'm going to bring some next time I hang out with the brew buddies to get more insight, but I gotta say, I really enjoy this one. And I'm my core audience, so I'd consider it a success!

Good luck with your sour mash, hope it turns out just as good!

 

[jessup]

great success. while i stand by the fact it's nothing at all like bourbon, i also think it's a great beer and a fantastic success

it tastes more like a berliner weiss since it was done with the sour mash and drank early on rather than later in its age. it was very similar in taste to my BW except yours had an amazing glowing red color to it. to say vibrant would not do it justice!:rockin: this beer has the refreshing tartness and not overboard on sour by any means. for a more "funky" beer follow the Papazians joy of homebrewing appendix 6 - sour mash/extract beers and belgian lambic. it gives you a recipe done with a sour mash and then adding your brett B & L. the combo of lacto from the sour mash with brett(s) will superattenuate the beer over a year. i def liked you beer, though. thanks

 

[electric_beer]

Great blog! I have been very curious about sour mashes since the Kentucky Common thread. I might just have to try something like this soon. I'm thinking about doing a mock Oud Bruin. Any ideas on how to make this happen? I have an idea of the grist, but not 100% about how much or long to sour.

 

[drummstikk]

no, I mean sour mash whiskey. It has a distinctly sour and tart taste to it. I'm talking bourbon i.e. Jim Beam, Old Crow, Mark Twain etc...

Get a whiff

Well, I was confused on this one for a while. But the "sour mash" in bourbon production refers to adding some of the fermentation products from the last batch to the next batch of unfermented wort. It doesn't rely on lactic-acid bacteria like the sour mash we do in beer brewing.