A new yeast varietal called Crisp Sour is a Lachancea thermotolerans species isolated from what started with a nest of wasps. It’s become a new product that has the ability to create lactic acid along with alcohol. Eliminating the need for something like kettle souring or using a second yeast strain.
Debuting from Pinnacle during the Craft Brewers Conference, Tenaya Creek worked with the yeast and made “Country, Time Lemonade,” a lightly fruited Sour Blonde Ale. Since then, a few breweries have ventured in their own systems to make a beer using the yeast to see how it can be leveraged for best use.
“Some other strains require additional work compared to Crisp Sour,” explained Brian and Maria Bremer from Runaway Blue Brewing. The Newark, New York brewery made a 4.1% Gose with sea salt and coriander called “There She Gose Again.”
“Some strains produce lactic acid and do a portion of the fermentation but will not complete fermentation,” they said. “A secondary yeast strain must then be added to finish fermentation after lactic acid production is complete.
“Crisp Sour is also not genetically modified and has a great flavor profile.”
Yeehaw’s head brewer Jarrett Demos has used Crisp Sour two times so far: a Guava Mango Berliner Weisse and a Key Lime Pie Smoothie Sour.
“Both beers came out super good and what I have really liked about Crisp Sour compared to other similar products is how it drops the pH to the perfect level of sour for just about any sour style beer,” he said. “It also has a really nice tropical fruit aroma through fermentation. And for those reasons I don’t think I will go back to using other similar products.”
BREWER: Are there any technical challenges or tips you have for using Crisp Sour that make it work best for you?
BREMER: We really liked the results that we got from fermenting at the higher end of the recommended temperature range.
DEMOS: I have only used this product a couple times so the only tip I can give is there could be some lag time for fermentation to start up so don’t freak out if it takes a day or so, just keep checking the pH and you’ll see it dropping.
BREWER: What flavors/aromas did you expect … and didn’t expect from Crisp Sour? How did you use them to your advantage or have to alter the idea of the beer?
DEMOS: The first time I used it I had no idea that the fruity aromas would be as strong as they are, but it worked so well with the fruited Berliner that I knew I wanted to use it more so I made the key lime pie and the fruit and extracts I used didn’t clash with the tropical aromas of the yeast either so I can’t wait to test it out even more!
BREMER: The floral, honey and citrus notes produced by the yeast were perfect to complement the coriander in our Gose.
BREWER: What do you feel are great complementary hops that go with Crisp Sour?
DEMOS: I have used Tradition, Huell Melon, and Amarillo and the fruity esters of the yeast have worked well with the aromas and bitterness of the hops but I have kept the IBUs low on the products I have produced with it. I could see just about any tropical- or citrus-leaning hop working well with Crisp Sour.
BREMER: We think that this yeast would pair really well with most citrus forward hops like Lemondrop and Mandarina Bavaria
BREWER: Do you have any ‘out of the box’ ideas for that Crisp Sour yeast that you want to share?
BREMER: We are excited to keep experimenting and make new beers with this yeast. We are especially looking forward to trying out some higher alcohol beers. After the results Crisp Sour gave us in this beer, we will definitely make more products using this yeast.
DEMOS: I can’t say that I have thought of any out of the box ideas but the more I use it, I know something will come to mind.
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