Nectarine Sour Blonde (2019)

This year I'll be making a fourth blend of Sour Blonde beer with Nectarine I picked from a local SE PA Orchard (Highland Orchards).  Nectarine is a stone fruit very similar to peaches with the major difference being that the skin is smooth rather than fuzzy.  Some people say they are a bit sweeter as well.  I have about 17 lbs which I picked in mid summer and then froze.  They have a nice flavor and lovely perfume like aroma (although I find the texture off putting enough to not eat them).  I believe they will work nicely in this beer.  It's not a fruit that is traditionally put in Lambic beers but Lindemans has made a peach version and De Cam has a Nectarine Lambic as have many homebrewers.  I plan to use all 17 lbs in this batch.

I cut the fruit in quarters in preparation and save off some of the pits to go in the beer.

For the beer blend I'll be using my more mild beers to let the fruit take center stage - this is based on my latest Sour Blonde Status Report.  In my Raspberry and Cherry Blends this year I went with 5-6 gal and had to pull off beer in the process of adding fruit due to beer cresting the top of the fermenter.  I'm going to go with 4.5 gal of this beer to try to avoid that.

I've chosen the following beers to make up this blend:

• Fermenter #1:
• Overview:
• Aged with Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend
• Sitting on Toasted and Chardonnay soaked oak for the last year
• Mix of beers brewed with Pilsner Malt and Wheat
• Very lightly hopped beers
• Aged in a very full glass carboy with a vented silicon bung

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Earthy with a mineral character.  Slightly wine like aroma as well
• Appearance:  Light gold and slightly hazy
• Flavor:  Lightly sour with a lemon-like character.  Also get a bit of mineral flavor and bit of earthy funk
• Mouthfeel:  Light-medium bodied.  Fairly dry.  Pretty smooth - no real prickliness.
• Overall:  The flavors are pretty bold - particularly the lemon like sourness.  Not all that complex as the supporting flavors are fairly far in the background.
• Volume:
• 1 gal
• Fermenter #2:
• Overview:
• Aged with Bootleg Biology Funk Weapon #1 and a bit of Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend
• Sitting on Toasted and Chardonnay soaked oak for the last year
• Grain bill of Pilsner and Raw Wheat
• No hops in this one
• Aged in a mostly full glass carboy with a vented silicon bung

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Fruity (citrus or peach maybe) with a bit of earthy funk.  Very pleasant
• Appearance:  Light gold and pretty clear
• Flavor:  Lightly sour.  Earthy funk and a fruity flavor are most prominent
• Mouthfeel:  Light bodied and dry.  Slight prickling in the back of the throat
• Overall:  Bold flavor and aroma on this one.  Has a nice amount of complexity which makes for an interesting beer.  I really like this one.
• Volume:
• 1 gal
• Fermenter #4:
• Overview:
• Aged with Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend
• Mix of Pilsner and Flaked wheat malt
• Very lightly hopped
• Aged in glass carboy with 1 gal of head space

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Funky with a bit of fruit and an almost solvent like smell
• Appearance:  Straw colored and little murky
• Flavor:  Very slight sourness with a bit of fruit flavor.  Slight funk along with a bit of mineral
• Mouthfeel:  Light bodied.  Has a slight bit of sweetness.  Prickles the back of the throat
• Overall:  Mild in flavor without all that much complexity.  Rough drinking with the astringency.
• Volume:
• 0.5 gal
• Fermenter #5
• Overview:
• Aged with ECY01 Bug Farm
• Mix of Pilsner and Raw Wheat malt bill
• Lightly hopped
• Aged in glass carboy with 1 gal of headspace

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Fruity and wine-like with a bit of funk.  Also get some malt coming through  Pretty bold aroma
• Appearance:  Light gold and very clear
• Flavor:  Quite sour.  Malty with a bit of fruit flavor and some earthy/leathery funk.  Some bandaid like brett character comes through in the finish
• Mouthfeel:  Light bodied and dry.  Slight prickling in the back of the throat
• Overall:  Bold flavors with a fair amount of complexity.  A bit too sour on it's own but could be a very nice part of a blend with a milder beer
• Volume:
• 1 gal
• Fermenter #12:
• Overview:
• Brewed with Bootleg Biology Funk Weapon #3
• Grainbill was a mix of Pilsner and Raw Wheat.  To attempt to better simulate a cereal mash I drew off a quart of very starchy wort from the cereal mash and added this to the boil
• No hops in this batch
• Aged in a bucket with a solid bung

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Musty and funky aroma along with a slight fruity character
• Appearance:  Golden and slightly cloudy
• Flavor:  Lightly sour with some fruity flavors and a bit of brett funk
• Mouthfeel:  Light-medium bodied and slightly sweet.  Smooth drinking
• Overall:  Fairly mild in flavor but it has some interesting and fairly unique elements compared with the other beers.
• Volume:
• 1 gal

Blending Notes:

• 11/10/2019 - Blending Day
• Pulled off 4.5 gal of beer into a bucket fermenter

• Added the 17 lbs of fruit

• I'm going to let this age for a couple months.  I'll probably back sweeten in the bottle and pasteurize.
• 6/14/20 - Bottled today with 1.5 lb of Invert #1 and a pack of rehydrated Champagne yeast (Red Star Premier Cuvee).  The fruit comes through pretty strongly both in aroma and flavor.  It isn't so strong that the base beer is obscured though.  Got 59 12 oz bottles from this batch.  I will monitor progress of carbonation and pasteurize to preserve a bit of sweetness

• 6/25/20 - Bottle pasteurized in a hot water bath.  30 min between 140 and 180 F.  I caught these a little later than is ideal as the bottles are highly carbonated enough to make pouring a bit difficult.  I had one bottle explode in the process of pasteurization.
• 6/4/22 - Tasting Notes - This is really nice fruit forward beer.  The Nectarine is boldly flavored but (at these usage levels) leaves a bit of room to let the base beer come through and add complexity.  The fruit and beer compliment each other nicely.  The level of sweetness retained in this beer is very nice as it counters what could have been an overwhelming level of acidity