Spring has arrived and it is time to make more pink beer. I am further refining the technique and materials. I like doing this as a double size batch (10 gal) due to the extra time and steps involved. Plus I want to try adding marshmallow flavoring to half
Kettle sour
5 gal water
12 lbs Bavarian Wheat Liquid Malt Extract
6lbs Breiss Pilsen Light Dry Malt Extract
Starting pH = 6.05
4 grams (approx) Llalamand Sour Pitch lactobacillus. Reconstitute in 50% wort and water mix for ~ 1 hour . Start this before putting the wort on to boil (above). The remainder of the 10g package was sealed and placed in the freezer.
Rest 36 hours at 85F – heater wrap on the brew kettle
Final pH = 3.14 – I could probably have reduced the amount of the sour pitch
Boil
Stir the wort to get the bacteria off the bottom. You dont want them to scorch
Add 3 lbs Pale Dry malt extract (could double this if you like).
Add 2 oz Tettnanger hops
Boil for 60 min
Rapidly chill to ~75F with wort chiller and then mix with cold water for final temp of 62F.
Primary fermentation
Reconstitute 2 packs of T-58 yeast in 1.5 l wort and place on stir plate. I did this for about 2 hours but overnight (as a proper starter) would probably be better.
OG ~ 1.060
Ferment at basement floor temp (62F ) for 3 days and then slowly raise 1F per day to 69F
Secondary Fermentation
Transfer to secondary – at 10.020 SG
10 lbs frozen mixed berries – 3.5lb blackberries, 4lb blueberries, 1.5 lb raspberries, 1lb strawberries. I am sticking with the ratio of 1lb of fruit per gallon of beer. These were allowed to thaw in a large stainless bowl overnight and then the stick blender was used to break them up .
These were added to the beer in the secondary fermenters. It came to about 2.8l each.
Lower temp to 65F for 3 days then raise to 75 at 1 degree per day to finish off.
Kegging
The stick blender turned out to be a horrible mistake for filtering (may have helped flavor, but was an unbearable PITA for filtering and kegging ). The fermented fruit pulp matted up the various filters almost immediately. I tried multiple methods to filter and not simultaneously oxygenate the beer. No clear winner here but the stainless filter, drawing from the bottom fermenter valve with very careful non-disturbance of the trub seemed to work best. Using a pump siphon just stirred everything up and led to a lot of mess and frustration as the filters (bag or stainless), had to be cleaned multiple times.
Here is the result posted by my daughter, Jessie.
