Ok, so I was interested in trying my hand at a sour beer and have also been trying to reduce my alcohol intake. I have been drinking a lot of brewdog’s AF beers when at home.

I decided to do a kettle sour with hibiscus flowers as the flavoring instead of fruit. I’m doing a minimal berlinerweisse for the malt.

I aimed for 5gal (20l) in the fermenter. I used a 110v brewzilla.

Here is my bill:

• 3lb 2row
• 2lbs wheat malt
• 16oz good belly mango-flavor probiotic drink
• 7ml lactic acid
• 3oz dry hibiscus flower in boil (5min)
• Safale 05 dry yeast
• No hops

Steps:

• Heat 5gal water to 168°F
• Mash in, hold at 168 x 1hr
• Drain the grains
• cool to 90°F
• Add lactic acid to get pH to 4.5
• Add good belly, cover with plastic
• Set temp to 85°F and wait
• When pH reaches 3.2 - 3.4, bring to boil for 10min
• Add hibiscus, boil for 5min
• Cool to 80°F, rack to sterilized fermenter, pitch yeast.

SG 1.026

Lessons learned: Boiling soured wort in the house makes the house stink. The wife was not impressed.

Pitching yeast at higher temps than 100°F kills the yeast.

Morebeer takes 4 days to ship a simple packet of yeast from one state to the next.

Beer is currently happily fermenting at 65°F. I’m going to float another couple of oz of hibiscus as a “dry hop” in a couple days. I’ll attempt to update this post with FG and tasting notes when complete. I hope to end at 1.010. That’ll put it around 2%.