Sour Apricot Beer Recipes

Listen to Brewer's Network - Sour Hour podcast with Tim Clifford from SARA. He gives away the recipe. Base beer is their Saison (Anais) which is 75% Pilsner, 10% Wheat, 5% Acidulated, 5% Oats, 5% Vienna. He doesn't mention hops used, but he said he uses American/European hybrids. So I'd say Saaz or Tettenger is a good safe bet, probably not over 25 IBU. He originally said that he sources his yeast from Gigayeast in the bay area. They only have 3 belgian saison strains. If you can get your hands on a bottle of WA or even Saison Bernice, use the dregs to dump into secondary, along with Apricot Puree (he said he uses puree) along with some oak cubes to simulate barrel aging properties. You could even soak them in pinot noir first if you want since that was the original WA barrel, although newer batches are coming out of foudres.

 

So I made a starter about a month ago and added the dregs of Bernice. I'm planning on brewing this weekend and making a clone (or try to). I was thinking just pitching the starter (dregs of Bernice) to the primary and then once the gravity hits around 1.010 I'll add the fruit. Would you guys recommend pitching 3724 first to the primary then add the starter (with bernice dregs) to a secondary? I figured there would be most likely some type of Belgian Saison yeast already in the starter with the bugs. What are your thoughts?

 

No reason to wait on the dregs, unless they are bottling with a killer wine yeast.

I'd wait on the fruit until the gravity is stable. The fruit flavor will fall over time, better to add it as late as possible so it is at its best when you're drinking the beer.

 

I made a starter with 3724 and a day before I brewed I added the dregs from Bernice to my starter. Pitched everything at the same time. After the gravity stabilized I added apricot puree. If you're interested here is what I did for my Bernice/ West Ashley clone.

 

Does the sour hour have an official website? I see the podcasts but I cant find it on the BN website

 

Thanks guys! Do you think the dregs already has some type of begian saison yeast in it that I can skip buying the 3724 and just use the dregs or should I spend a little more and get the 3724?

Link to all the Brewing Network Podcast (including Sour Hour)

http://livestream.com/thebrewingnetwork

Cheers!

 

Decent chance there is some Sacch in there, but I'd get the fresh yeast anyway. If you build up the dregs it is impossible to know what the dominant microbes are.