It started out straightforward enough, with a primarily malted barley base and a little bit of oats and wheat for added body.
After transferring to the copper, it was very lightly bittered, and at the end of the boil, we added a small amount of Willamette hops. These have a flavour similar to blackberry leaf, but also with a hint of grapefruit too. Also in the boil, we add a whole kilo of black peppercorns (the first of the three berries in this beer!) for a spicy counterpart to the fruit to come.
Once it’s transferred to the fermenting vessel, we pitch it with Lallemand Philly Sour yeast. This is a relatively new yeast developed with the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, USA. Before turning its attention to the sugars in the beer to convert them to alcohol, the yeast first produces lactic acid for souring. This enables the brewer to skip the usual process of souring a beer with bacteria prior to the boil, doing it all in one step.
It started out straightforward enough, with a primarily malted barley base and a little bit of oats and wheat for added body.
After transferring to the copper, it was very lightly bittered, and at the end of the boil, we added a small amount of Willamette hops. These have a flavour similar to blackberry leaf, but also with a hint of grapefruit too. Also in the boil, we add a whole kilo of black peppercorns (the first of the three berries in this beer!) for a spicy counterpart to the fruit to come.
Once it’s transferred to the fermenting vessel, we pitch it with Lallemand Philly Sour yeast. This is a relatively new yeast developed with the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, USA. Before turning its attention to the sugars in the beer to convert them to alcohol, the yeast first produces lactic acid for souring. This enables the brewer to skip the usual process of souring a beer with bacteria prior to the boil, doing it all in one step.
The fermentation process is a little slow, partly because it takes a few days to produce the lactic acid and I suspect after that, the low pH may impede the fermentation a little. But it got there in the end! Towards the end of fermentation we add a whopping 100 litres each of blackberry and blackcurrant puree which adds to the already tart beer and gives it fruitiness (obviously) and body. We don’t ferment this beer out too much, so there’s plenty of residual sugars to balance out the tart fruits. We also dry hop with lots more Willamette hops and also Tettnang hops for an earthy, herbal flavour.
The end result is a deep and rich purple-pink beer rich with sweet, sour, tart and spicy flavours. We think it’s got great drinkability, ideal for the warmer months to come. It’s definitely the first of many more sours for us!
Fruits of Labour is now on sale is packs of 6, 12 and 24!
