Kettle Sour Collaboration with Chronicle Brewing Company

by admin Nov 23, 2018

A collaboration brew is a great learning and bonding experience for any brewer and brewery. We’re able to bounce ideas off each other, talk about performance and efficiency issues in the brewhouse, discuss the current state of the industry, and most importantly, collaborate on a great beer together!

This is the second beer Chronicle and Upper Thames have collaborated on together. The first batch you may have caught was the “Salad Haze” New England Session IPA we made in October with them. That went so well, that the Chronicle brewmaster Ted, came to Woodstock to help us brew a Dry-Hopped Kettle-Sour.

A kettle sour is a type of mixed-fermentation beer that is different than the other brews we typically make at Upper Thames. It’s still an ale, but in order to achieve the desired sour-ness, it will be left in the kettle to sour after pitching lactobacillus. Lacto is given a “head start” as it’s pitched before the yeast so that it’ll be able to produce large amounts of lactic acid before the normal yeast strain kicks in to finish it off. This is a broadly defined technique, and there are many ways of souring wort.

What is lactobacillus? Lactobacillus or “lacto” is a bacteria that produces acidity and sour flavours in the form of lactic acid. It’s also used in many yogurts, cheeses, sauerkraut, wine, cider, and pickles. Don’t worry, you won’t find those flavours in this beer!

This beer was soured for 2.5 days in the kettle, while maintaining a constant temperature. After reaching the desired acidity, we boil the wort to kill the lacto bacteria that is still active. After this is done, it’s the same type of fermentation and procedure in order to finish our beer. We cool it down, pitch the yeast, and let it ferment. We then dry-hopped with ample amounts of American varieties Citra and Azzaca to pack an amazing aroma of lemon, peach and mango!

If you’d like to have further reading on the subject of kettle-souring and lactobacillus-spiked beers, http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Main_Page has plenty of resources to keep you busy reading about the topic.

For now, enjoy the release of our Dry-Hopped Kettle Sour! We hope it finds your taste buds well and reminds you of warmer days! Cheers.

Hazy, pale and light-yellow in colour with a sharp, lemony tartness on the nose. Dry-hopped with Citra and Azacca, this beer has a citrusy, lemon-lime tart flavour with a refreshing, tangy mouthfeel.
Available in 12oz, 20oz & for retailed in 750mL bottles.

Written by Nigel Inglis

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