Fermenting fruit

Warermelon gets used in beers, likely always in light flavored beers so that the fruit's flavor can shine. Here's a link to a search that I did of this forum that has 'watermelon' in the thread's title. Take a look at these to see if anything motivates you to brew a beer.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...q=watermelon&o=date&c[title_only]=1&c[node]=8

There are many more threads that don't have the word 'watermelon' in the title but the word is used in the discussion, and there may be more ideas for you to consider for brewing a beer.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/search/117817295/?q=watermelon&o=date&c[node]=8

Let us know what you decide and how the beer turns out.

 

Sounds about right.

108 - 115 F is the optimal range for lacto. If you can, blanket with CO2 and loosely seal your vessel (airlock) so no additional bacteria gets in.

A drop from 5.7 pH down to 3.42 pH should take 15 to 18 hours but can take up to 72 hours or so. Cut off at 3.4 to 4.0 pH OR earlier depending on how sour you want it.

I wouldn't worry about the lacto because you're going to boil and kill it off.

I always add fruit following primary fermentation. You might want to rinse the berries with vodka.

 

Pretty much. Though I would pasteurize the wort before souring, ensuring that the only bugs in it are the ones you intend. Also, do anything you can to exclude O2 from the fermentation vessel.

What's your Lacto source? For the post-boil clean fermentation, I recommend pitching a lager-like pitch rate. The soured wort is not the optimal environment for Sacch yeast.

Opinions vary, but I use separate equipment for souring vs. clean fermentation. You mentioned using the same carboy for souring and for the clean fermentation. But you could sour in the kettle and eliminate one potential source of future infection.

I generally shoot for a mash of 5.2 for berliner/gose type worts. From there, adding about 8-9 drops of lactic acid per 5 gallons of wort (after the mash) should bring it down into the vicinity of 4.5, which is a good place to start souring. YMMV on the amount of drops needed...every wort is different. But I'm confident in saying that if you have 5 gallons of 5.2 wort and you add 8-9 drops of lactic acid, you're not going to hurt anything.

I normally shoot for 3.5 after souring. That said, taste is the most important thing. 3.5 +- 0.1 typically gives me the level of sourness I'm looking for in these beers.

 

I think that's true for most Lacto types, but L. plantarum (the one I like) is most effective at about 95F. I mention this because a lot of folks are pitching L. plantarum in the form of Goodbelly or probiotic pills these days.

 

I pitch about 40B Lacto cells into 5 gallons. I don't know the cell count for Omega's Lacto Blend, but that should give you some idea of whether or not you need to build a starter.

Well, that should keep your regular clean beer equipment safe, but you could still end up with an "infected" sour beer, i.e. re-inoculate the boiled (and temporatily sterilized) soured wort with Lacto again. That might not seem like a big deal, but you might want to keep your clean racking/bottling/kegging stuff away from those beers.

In my experience, each incremental decrease in pH comes slower than the last, and once pH hits about 3.5, further decreases come very slowly. I assume this is tied to the logarithmic nature of the pH scale. Not trying to dissuade you from getting a pH meter...I think they are very useful.

 

I haven't soured any perfectly good or even averagely good beer (not presently a big fan) but the October issue of BYO has a good article about kettle souring equipment, process and recipes.
The article at https://byo.com/article/the-lacto-lounge/ might have a paywall for non-members.

 

The lactic acid just gets the pH down to about 4.5, which favors the Lacto over other bugs that may be inadvertently introduced, improves foam retention (because Lactobacillus doesn't degrade proteins as much at low pH), and gives the souring process a head start. You still pitch Lacto to get the pH from ~4.5 down to ~3.5.

 

If you're using frozen fruit, that's enough to sanitize it. The freezing process also breaks all the cell walls so it tends to ferment out faster. I freeze all the fresh fruit I use in my wilds with awesome results.

 

When I add fruit to beer, I usually sort of squish the fruit while still in the bag after it has thawed. Purée-ing is fine, but in my experience, purée sometimes causes racking problems.

 

It helps, but my understanding is that it doesn't actually sanitize to the level of the 99.9% standard. That said, it's a lot better than not freezing. Finally, I'll add that I've used frozen/thawed fruit many times without any pasteurization stage and it has not caused any issues.

 

I don't bag fruit, but I have put it in a hop cage a few times when fruiting in a keg. Just as with hops, anything that constrains the fruit (or hops) can obstruct extraction to some extent. That said, I'd say it's a tradeoff between extraction efficiency and racking risk. Most fruit (that hasn't been pureed) floats in beer. I rack from underneath the fruit and very little gets into the racked beer.

 

I use an extra large hop bag, sanitize, push it into carboy, then place a funnel on top. I push the thawed fruit through the funnel, so in the process it gets “mashed”. I loosely tie the bag, drop it in, then add the beer. I haven’t noticed an extra long extraction process by bagging it. I’ll usually let it sit for 2+ months. Sometimes shorter if it’s less fruit. I recently racked an English mild on a mix of cherries un-bagged and pitched All The Bretts, as kind of an experiment with how not bagging the fruit works. My main reason for doing so was to try to eliminate mold growth with aging, but also make bottling easier. We’ll see how it goes.

 

I’ve never done a clean fruit beer, so sanitization isn’t 100% my intent with freezing, more so the breakdown of the fruit. I suppose if I were to do a clean fruit beer I’d go for the Oregon Fruit Purées.