In our July/August 2024 issue we released a Yeast Q&A discussing a new sour yeast strain from Pinnacle Brewing Ingredients properly named “Crisp Sour.”
Each summer at Abettor Brewing we launch our seasonal sour “Dread Pirate Roberts.” This year it made sense to do what our other readers do and follow suit in trying new ingredients discussed within the pages of Brewer Magazine — thus we used “Crisp Sour” purchased through Country Malt.
When the initial idea of producing a sour was brought to my attention by our first brewer I was timid due to the chance of infection of our tanks, lines, and such. At the time we were a nano brewery on a 1.5bbl system and infecting an entire 1,400-square-foot brewery and taproom was terrifying.
After some initial conversations, we decided to utilize White Labs’ WLP672 “Lactobacillus brevis.” We didn’t infect the entire brewery, but the results weren’t quite what we had desired. Moving forward we went with the “kettle souring” method which enhanced the product significantly. As we progressed to our current 10bbl brewing system we kept with our kettle souring method through last year.
“Dread Pirate Roberts” is a Berliner Weisse that we commonly refer to as a sour for the best customer response. In post-fermentation, it’s dosed with blackberry puree from LD Carlson.
While this is a significant seasonal seller for us we still felt the need to be experimental.
“This was my first experience with this specific type of sour yeast,” explained Abettor Brewing’s Head Brewer Cody Thompson. “I was excited to try it on a previous recipe to see how the product compared.
“This yeast is unique in that it ferments the wort in a standard/traditional sense, but also then produces lactic acid without the aid of bacterial reaction such as with lactobacillus brevis.”
In the kettle-souring process, the production time on Dread Pirate Roberts took additional days due to the addition of lactobacillus and multiple boiling regiments.
“With ‘Crisp Sour’ yeast that whole process could be bypassed and the beer could be brewed as standard operation,” explained Thompson. “With the ease of operation and manageable fermentation, this yeast produced a superior product to the aforementioned kettle-souring process.
“The flavor was crisp and pure, not overly tart, and with no off-flavors that can commonly arise with bacterial souring. The yeast added an almost fluffy-like body which complemented the wheat malt and adjunct fruits allowing them to really shine.”
The lightly-hopped Berliner Weisse was perfect for the taproom and distribution consumers without them being able to know the beer didn’t go through the same painstaking steps it had in previous years.
“I am overjoyed with the outcome of the product and am excited to put it to further use in future recipes,” concluded Thompon.
Crisp Sour Yeast was purchased by Abettor Brewing Company and Pinnacle did not have any influence in the development of this article.
Be the first to comment