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Date: 24 Oct 2006 14:16:38
From: brian@yahoo.com
Subject: Cranberry whear tastes sour
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I brewed a 5 gal cranberry wheat (AG) where I made up a standard wheat
recipe with a bit extra crystal and dextrin malt and light on the hops
to make it a bit on the sweet side. Then I added 3lb of pureed
cranberries to the primary after the main fermentation was over. I
tasted it a couple of days after the cranberries were added and it had
a strong sour flavor. I am kicking myself for not tasting it before
the cranberries were added to determine if the cranberries are giving
that flavor or if it was already in the beer. The cranberries seemed
to ferment off quickly (like a day). I'm trying to figure out if the
sourness is from the cranberries (sour, not tart like a cranberry) or
if it was an infection in the underlying beer. Is it the acid in the
cranberry? Should I add some chalk to neutralize the acidity a bit?
If so, how much? Will it mellow with age? How can I speed up this
aging? How soon should I rack to secondary? Will sitting on the
larger yeast cake of the primary cause the beer to mature quicker or
will racking off the cranberry trub make it mature quicker? Can I fit
in another question here?
Any thoughts or help will be appreciated.
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Date: 25 Oct 2006 04:08:49
From: Adam Preble
Subject: Re: Cranberry whear tastes sour
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Are you sure it's sour, and not bitter? Bitterness would be from the
skins. That will age over time--a few months. There will still be a
lot of acidity in a cranberry beverage, based on my experiences with
making a cranberry wine. I wouldn't consider it sour, but it is
overwhelming in large doses.
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Date: 24 Oct 2006 14:19:37
From: Scott L
Subject: Re: Cranberry whear tastes sour
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brian@yahoo.com wrote:
> Should I add some chalk to neutralize the acidity a bit?
> If so, how much? Will it mellow with age?
Chalk... Interesting idea. Why not draw off a quart or so. To this, add
chalk in little increments until you feel the acidity is diminished,
then scale the amount up for the whole batch. I have no experience
adding chalk post-fermentation so I have no idea if this will ruin your
beer or not, another good reason to test on a small sample first :-)
Scott
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Date: 25 Oct 2006 14:43:24
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Cranberry whear tastes sour
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On 24 2006 14:16:38 -0700, <brian.sico@gmail.com > wrote:
> I brewed a 5 gal cranberry wheat (AG) where I made up a standard wheat
> recipe with a bit extra crystal and dextrin malt and light on the hops
> to make it a bit on the sweet side. Then I added 3lb of pureed
> cranberries to the primary after the main fermentation was over. I
> tasted it a couple of days after the cranberries were added and it had
> a strong sour flavor. I am kicking myself for not tasting it before
> the cranberries were added to determine if the cranberries are giving
> that flavor or if it was already in the beer. The cranberries seemed
> to ferment off quickly (like a day). I'm trying to figure out if the
> sourness is from the cranberries (sour, not tart like a cranberry) or
> if it was an infection in the underlying beer.
It's hard to tell without actually tasting it. I think you need to send a
bottle to everyone on here for analysis. ;)
The berries will give it a tartness, bordering on sour. It shouldn't be
as strong as you are describing though, but it's hard to tell subjective
things like that over the internet.
IMO, let it finish and give it a chance to age in the bottles/keg. If you
still don't like it (to the point of not wanting to drink it) after giving
it some time, then sacrifice it to the sewer god.
John.
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