Sour Apricot Beer Recipes

I can't speak to the grist bill for West Ashley, but I've had really good results with a very simple grain bill. Not traditional lambic

5 gal batch:
7 pounds Castle Belgian Pilsner Malt
4 pounds Great Western Whtie Wheat malt
Mash @ 155

I used whole (halved, pitted) Blenheim apricots at like 2 pounds /gal


I can't *absolutely* confirm what SARA use for West Ashley, but they do have a lot of this stuff sitting around:

 

@atpca that sounds delicious. What kind of bugs are you pitching for the base beer pre apricots and what kinda time frame did this beer take?

This recipe sounds delicious.

 

I have an apricot sour that I think came out great. I dont have the recipe on this computer but it was something similar to:
60% Pils
40% Wheat
about 5 ibus
some oak cubes
ECY20 Bug County
about 11 months in primary
I used 2 cans of Oregon Apricot Puree for the last 2 months.

Keep the grains simple and let the bugs do the work. Let the beer tell you when its done, do not rush it.

 

I've used dried apricots. Brown in the bag, golden in the beer. Long lasting apricot flavor too.

 

Sour beers are more about process and microbes, the finer details of the recipe aren't as important. For a pale sour mostly Pils, 10-30% wheat (malted or flaked) and sometimes a touch of Vienna and/or light crystal is my default. Pitch a blend and dregs from any sour beer you like the character of. Age it until the gravity stabilizes, then go onto loads of apricots for the last couple months. Bottle, and enjoy that fresh fruit!
Adding some fruity dry hops to a gallon for a week right before bottling could be lots of fun too…

 

I use my "house culture", a wild blend captured in the back yard and nurtured for a couple years now. Base beer tastes good after 8-12 weeks, then 2 months on fruit & 2 months in bottle.

 

if fou'foune's your inspiration, my 1 bit of advice (if memory serves me correct):
leave pits in for 1/3 of your apricots.
leave them on the fruit for a max of 8 weeks. it goes "bad" after that (not sure what that means, but keep that this is coming right from the horse's mouth).

another suggestion for you if you don't a) want the complexity b) want to commit the time to wait 1 year.

make a nice blonde ale. low mash temp (150 F). keep the grains simple (2-row, 10% acid malt with 5% flaked whatever). use brett clauss as the yeast.
use citra as the bittering hops.
primary for 1 month.
rack to 2ry that has the apricots. let it sit for 1 month. rack to bottling bucket but add an acid blend. Do this properly and you'll get the pucker that you get from bacteria without the mess of making a good starter, etc.

 

I don't think Jean leaves the pits in Fou. I've used the pits from my apricot beers for Creme de Noyaux, Amaretto, etc. They've got a strong almond aroma. I don't get any of that from any of the Fou vintages I've had.

 

I can tell you that the grist for West Ashley is pretty simple, the house yeast blend is very complex though. They always puree the fruit in any beer they make for ease of handling and better extraction of flavors and sugars. Each batch ages for at least 3-4 months and then conditions in the bottle for about six weeks.

 

Their yeast blend most likely includes plenty of bottle dregs as well, according to Tim he's a big fan of Hill Farmstead's funky yeast blend...

 

FWIW, per Brewing Network's 'Sour Hour' , Side Project uses 3#/gal of apricot & Rare Barrel used 1#/gal of apricot in their apricot sours.

I think in terms of grist, if you want something very sour you would want a somewhat turbid mash with unmalted grain for its starch content which the bacteria would have sole access to. @OldSock correct me if I'm wrong, but a semi-turbid mash and high mash temps would favor aggressive sourness.

Also, I would let the beer ferment out to dryness with the apricot. And carbonate on the moderate to high end of the spectrum. That's just my taste preferences though: light, puckering, fruit, dry.

 

like i said:
straight from the horse's mouth. 1/3 pits, 2/3 unpitted

 

Sounds more like a Kriek recipe to me!

 

i tthink i heard that its the same recipe as saison bernice..

75% pilsner
10 wheat malt
5 acid malt
the rest is flaked oats and vienna..

for primary its a blend of ddupont french saison

 

Yep. Tim gave the recipe for Anais - the base beer that is used in Bernice and West Ashley - on The Sour Hour.

75% pils
10% wheat
5% acidulated
5% vienna
5% flaked oats

Blend of 3711/3724, then he pitches the house strain of bugs. Aged in oak, and he uses the apricot puree from Oregon. You could probably get pretty close pitching with a sour blend and maybe some bottle dregs and use the Vintner's Harvest apricot puree.

 

Show Off

 

Showing off Tim's collection, not my own! That's from SARA.