With this beer, I'm going for a lacto-only sour ale (not a Berliner Weisse), similar to many beers made by Cascade Brewing of Portland, OR. Couldn't find a good clone recipe, though, so I just winged it. There are countless methods for creating sour ales, and after consulting with homebrewers in my club, reading the recently released American Sour Ales book and many threads online, I have decided to keep things relatively simple and easy: 90-minute mash at 155 F. 90-minute boil. Chill wort. ...
I usually cheat a bit on some of my sours by doing a sour mash with a couple of pounds of the malt. This time I'm using a pure lacto culture. This can be problematic in beers that rely on the complexity of the souring process, but here that shortcoming is hidden under a wave of cherry goodness. Does the yeast in this recipe attain an 90% attenuation? Probably not, but the various bugs will whittle away at the available sugar and get the final gravity down below the calculated amount. Looks like ...
2/19/13: Made starter (3 oz light DME, 1/4 t yeast nutrient and 1 qt. water) with the Belgian Ale 1214 yeast. 2/20/13: Brew day. OG 1.058. 3/7/13: Transferred to the secondary and added: 1/2# pitted dark sweet cherries (frozen), 1/2# raspberries (frozen), about 30 ounces (I drank some of the 32-ounce bottle) of Eden 100% Organic Montmorency Tart Cherry Juice, and topped it off with Brettanomyces Lambicus (Wyeast 5526). 6/11/14: Bottled with 2 Prime Dose capsules per 12-oz. bottle. FG: 1.012
A 5 US Gallon Lambic intended for the addition of fruit during secondary fermentation.