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Author Topic: Additions to the seconday  (Read 1364 times)

Offline troybinso

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Additions to the seconday
« on: August 18, 2014, 05:45:25 pm »
I have a batch that I split between four carboys. The original recipe is 75% Pilsner and 25% Munich I. I added 6 IBU of first wort hops and boiled the wort for 15 minutes. I took 5 gallons and chilled to about 100 degrees then added Wyeast Lactobacillus Brevis. Original gravity for this was 1.047 and it is down to 1.005.

The rest of the batch I boiled for 75 more minutes, got the IBU up to 23, and added a smidge of Crystal hops at flameout. The three yeasts I used for the other carboys are WY3942 Belgian Wheat, Wy3522 Ardennes and WY1469 Yorkshire. The two Belgian strains taste great out of the carboy and I am ready to carb and serve them. The English yeast is kind of boring and I am thinking about adding some fruit to the secondary.

My question is this - I think I would like to add fruit to either the Lacto batch, the English batch or both, but I am not sure which fruit to add. I was thinking blackberries to the Lacto, but now I am worried that it will be too tart. It is already pretty darn sour. Maybe berries in the English version and something less tart in the sour version?

Any suggestions?

Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Additions to the seconday
« Reply #1 on: August 18, 2014, 06:20:33 pm »
I vote for the blackberry sour. I tried a homebrewed version once and enjoyed it immensely. I'm sure either would work though.
Jon H.

Offline erockrph

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Re: Additions to the seconday
« Reply #2 on: August 18, 2014, 10:16:42 pm »
Blackberry sour sounds good to me, too. Maybe dry hop the English one?
Eric B.

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Offline Werks21

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Re: Additions to the seconday
« Reply #3 on: August 19, 2014, 02:49:36 am »
+2 on the blackberry sour. In my neck of WA they grow wild and my GF makes all kinds of great stuff with them. Why not a good sour? Follow your gut. Also tartness varries with age/growing conditions of the berry, so maybe seek out sweeter berries if you can find them.
Jonathan W.
Snohomish WA

Offline kramerog

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Re: Additions to the seconday
« Reply #4 on: August 19, 2014, 11:08:26 am »
You could make a simple syrup with blackberry to add to a glass of your lacto beer if you want something like a Berliner Weiss with syrup. 

Offline reverseapachemaster

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Re: Additions to the seconday
« Reply #5 on: August 20, 2014, 09:12:07 am »
Blackberries will add some acidity but not like tart cherries or raspberries. You will probably be ok in the lacto portion but my first thought is to do something to spruce up the English yeast portion. That may be a better candidate for fruit.
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Offline troybinso

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Re: Additions to the seconday
« Reply #6 on: August 20, 2014, 09:33:18 am »
Maybe I will just do fruit for both of them. Blackberries for the Lacto and Sour Cherries for the English version. I've used Hibiscus flowers in a Saison before and it turned out really well, maybe I will throw them in somewhere too. Hibiscus-Cherry blonde ale?