Embrace The Funk

Sour, Funky and Wild Beer

recent posts

about

  • Experimenting with Lactic Acid and ph post ferment

    My professional background is in live television production. If you know anything about live television once it happens its happened….there is no turning back. I like doing things right the first time, then being able to sit back and enjoy. So when it comes to beer post ferment I rarely doing anything else to the beer I didn’t plan from the get go. Sometimes I have thought about maybe adding a little of this or that to maybe make the beer better, but I never do. Last month I wrote about the 3rd runnings bonus beer experiment I did. The beer is still tasting great, but since it was an experiment from the start I thought I might mess around with the finished beer a bit.

    3.6 ph

    I decided to see what the beer would taste like if the ph was lower. The ph level of the beer before anything was added came to 3.6. It had a nice lower level lactic sourness and a bit of Brett leaking through.

    For the sake of providing all the info I can the temp of the sample was 69.7F.

    Since this project would take place with carbed/cold conditioned beer I decided to use Food Grade 88% Lactic Acid to lower the ph. (This very potent acid is the same type you can use to bring down the ph of your mash if it’s too high.) I know of a few brewers that have said using Lactic Acid to “sour” a beer will give off a medicinal or harsh flavor. Accomplished brewer Jamil Zanisheff has likened using Lactic Acid to “sour” a beer to microwaving a steak. I would agree with both of those observations if the Food Grade Lactic Acid was the only form of ph lowering being used.

    I didn’t have a dropper to use for measuring ml so I used a 1/8 tsp and did the test drop by drop. If this was a beer I was prepping for a competition I would seek out a dropper to really dial the levels in.

    The sample I ended up liking the most was with 3 drops of Lactic Acid. Those drops gave me a ph of 3.3.  The resulting beer is definitely on the next level for me. The beer seemed to perk up and become more lively. 

    A ph of 3.3 is on par with many commercial sour beer examples. According to Raj B Apte the ph of New Belgium LaFolie is 3.1, Cantillon Iris is 3.4, and 2002 Drie Fonteinen Gueze is 3.3. Generally speaking most ales are approximately 4.0ph. So I feel pretty comfortable with that ph level in my beer.

    This was a simple experiment that really opened up my eyes to adjusting sour beers after fermentation. I was happy with the original beer, but I’m really please with the adjusted beer. As I said before I don’t think a beer done solely with Lactic Acid would be very good. When I used 6 drops the beer was indeed much more bitter/harsh. Not a beer I would enjoy drinking as it was off flavored and unbalanced. Real live cultures of bacteria/wild yeast and time still remain the way to go for producing world class beer, but I don’t think there is anything wrong with lowering the ph yourself after the fact. What’s a few tenths of a point between friends?

  • Brooks on Beer: Fruit beers

    Quick update for everyone. I’ve got a few posts almost ready to go. Finishing up some fact checking. Here is a great read on Lambic and fruit beers by Jay Brooks.

    Brooks on Beer: Fruit beers – San Jose Mercury News.

    One of the oldest and most enduring types of fruit beers is the Belgian lambic, brewed for centuries in a valley southwest of Brussels. Lambic itself is not a typical fruit beer, and there are some beers that do not use fruit at all.

  • Broederlijke Liefde (Brotherly Love)

    Broederlijke Liefde (Brotherly Love)

    Broederlijke Liefde (Brotherly Love) is a slightly higher gravity interpretation of the saison style. It is fermented with two yeasts – a classic saison yeast as well as brettanomyces from an original gravity of 1066 (16.5 plato). These yeasts yield a dry and slightly spicy ale with a strong hint of farmhouse character that will continue to develop with age. The use of Target and Styrian Golding hops at 37 IBUs add floral aromatics and a balancing bitterness.

    Yep it’s Sunday…that means another new episode of Breaking Bad and time to open something special. This is a collaboration brew between Brian O’Reilly of Sly Fox Brewing Company and Dirk Naudts of De Proef to celebrate Philly Beer Week 2011. I’ve never been to Philly Beer Week, but if they celebrate it by offering a special one off beer with Brett, then that’s a helluva event. If it wasn’t already cool enough the folks at Philly Beer Week held a raffle where a consumer would win a trip to be at De Proef’s brewery in Belgium on brew day. But it doesn’t stop there… that winner got to choose a Philadelphia area brewer to be the partner collabrative brewer. Beer week and festival organizers take note, THAT IS HOW YOU ELEVATE CONSUMER STANDARDS AND GIVE BACK TO YOUR LOCAL BREWING COMMUNITY WHILE NOT LOSING A DIME.

    Appearance-Golden Amber, reminds me of how most Belgian Golden Strongs look. White head that falls like snow flurries, however head sticks to the glass and laces throughout the pour. Pretty clear for a Saison, just an ever so slight haziness.Good carb that lets loose nice tiny bubbles.

    Aroma- First smells I get in order: Pepper, Lemon, Peach and Apple. The Brett is not very forward, I had to search (not very hard) to find it. The De Proef signature Brett aromas of wet hay, grassy, musty.  There is no mistaking the Styrian Golding hops which I am a huge fan of for late additions. As I pull the glass away I pick up some Rose aroma.

    Taste-The taste was a bit weaker in complexity versus the aroma. A bready malt flavor along with apricots spark my tastebuds first. A dark fruity Brett flavor that turns to almost pear overtakes the malt flavors fairly quickly. Ends with a classic saison tartness. It does not taste like an 8% beer, not alcoholic and not warming at all.

    Overall– First I have to confess my beer nerdiness. I did use a small de-carbed sample of this beer to take a gravity reading. At the time of tasting It was 1.006. But overall I’d say it is a tasty beer that I wish was as complex as the aroma. I wish the Brett was bigger, but I understand that when appealing to the masses subtle is good when introducing the wild. **Rambling** I would venture to say that this and Orval would be the perfect beers to help someone ease into Brett beers **Rambling done** I’m glad I have one more bottle of this to cellar for atleast a year. However this is a solid beer when you look at the overall picture. Well done, balanced, and served as a great representation for an event I hope to attend one day.

    This post also marks the first time I have used my new light box to take all the photos. I hope the more detailed pictures will help in the overall quality of the website. All the pictures should be clickable and zoomable for even more deatiled views. Cheers!

  • Getting Embrace The Funk updates

    Geuze bottles resting

    Don’t forget to click the Facebook page for Embrace The Funk, you can like the page for updates there. You can also email subscribe. The link is at the bottom of the page. Thanks for stopping by!

     

  • Great Beer, Even Better Friends

    Last Sunday was the day after the Music City Brewers Fest   and I think we were all moving a bit slower than usual. Loading and unloading cold plates, tap systems, kegs, etc… after a beer fest in the almost 100 degree heat can be brutal. To top all that it’s Sunday…which means a new episode of Breaking Bad. My good friends Ryan and Julie happen to be moving out of state the next day to start a new chapter in their lives. But even in my tired and non beer wanting state I wasn’t going to miss hanging out with them one more time.

    After an hour of chatting and sampling some non sour beers a bottle of Cantillon Saint Lamvinus comes out of hiding. I should have known my friends would have a special sour for us to enjoy together one last time. Thinking back… some of my best sour beer tastings and conversations have been with them. These are the same friends I met up with at Falling Rock during GABF that didn’t even blink twice when I suggested we buy a 3 year old bottle of Isabelle Proximus to share during lunch. As I am thinking this I am also foaming at the mouth to get this bottle open, I have never seen this beer, only read some remarks about it, so here is my review. Comment below and let me know what you think about this beer.

    Cantillon Saint Lamvinus (The picture of the beer in the glass was accidentally deleted)

    Appearance– A type of crimson/red/ruby/plum color I have never seen in a beer before. Pink head that was very thin and fell quickly. Tiny bubbles that were soon gone.

    Aroma- Classic lambic funk blended with red grapes and red wine vinegar. One thing that stood out to me was the aroma of a really good homemade grape jam or preserve. The subtles I picked up were woody, almost freshly bailed hay, and some slight green apple.

    Taste- From the first sip you know it is Cantillon. Lactic tart/sourness, Merlot grapes, bitter grape skins, barnyard funk, oaky tannic. The grapes really ride each sip from beginning to end, but the grape flavor changes from a tart wine grape taste to a funky grape.

    Overall- This is the beer that winemakers worry their precious vino will become if an infection takes hold. It’s a very solid fruit lambic and extremely enjoyable. The body of the beer was spot on, too much more and it would become a bit too much mouth feel. Even though it had all the classic lambic funk, I thought it was on the upper part of mildly acidic. I imagine vintage versions would hold up pretty darn good.

    Because of this beer the wheels are already turning in my head for a new sour recipe. Maybe some real vineyard grapes with the wild yeast and funk still on them or some vinters juice/puree in the secondary…..hmmm.

    This was the perfect beer to say the “See you later / good byes” to. It was awesome and different, much like most sour beer fans.