Unfermented Sour Blonde Top Up Batch - 2019

This will be a double batch of Sour Blonde beer that I'll use to top up my Sour Blonde Fermenters after making several blends in the last couple months (Plain, Cherry, Raspberry, and Nectarine).  I had previously topped up the fermenters half way with an already fermented beer (see post here).  This batch will fill them up the rest of the way with unfermented wort which I hope will give the microbes enough to chew on over the next year.

Like my other recent sour blonde ales this will be made with a mix of pilsner malt and raw wheat which I will cereal mash.  I'm lightly hopping this to hopefully keep Lacto restrained as my beers seem to be getting more and more sour over the generations. 

Additionally, like last batch, I'll be adding a half a lb of flour to the beer in the boil kettle to increase the starch levels and give the slower microbes more to chew on.  I did this in my last top up batch and made the mistake of dumping the dry flour into the boil kettle which resulted in lots of lumps.  This time I'm going to add the liquid to the dry first and add to the kettle after the flour is well incorporated into the water.

Feeding my fermenters

Anyway, these sour blonds seem to be doing well year to year.  Hopefully the prep work I'm doing today will sow the seeds for another good one next year.

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 15 lb Pilsner
• 2 lb Light Munich
• 4 oz Acid Malt
• Cereal Mash:
• 8 lb Raw Wheat
• 2 lb Pilsner
• 8 oz White Flour (added to the boil)
• Hops:
• 1 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 4.7% AA) at 15 min
• Yeast:
• NA - Directly into Sour Blonde Fermenter
• Water:
• 12 gal Spring Water
• 8 gal Tap Water
• 1 tsp CaCl
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 13 gal
• Mash:
• Cereal Mash:
• Rest at 110 F, 155 F and then boiled for 20 min
• Main Mash:
• 160 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 90 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• Ambient Basement Temperature
• Primary Duration:
• NA
• Secondary Duration:
• 1-3 years

Results:

• OG:
• 1.053 (Target 1.050)
• Efficiency:
• 73% (Target 71%)
• FG:
• Target 1.000
• Apparent Attenuation:
• Target 100%
• ABV:
• Target TBD

Brewing Notes:

• 11/17/2019 - Brewday - 11:00 AM to 6:30 PM- Including Cereal Mash, a lunch break, setup, and cleanup
• Cereal Mash:
• Milled my cereal mash grain into 3 gal of hot tap water
• Let the mash rest for 10 min
• Heated to 150s and then let rest for 20 min
• Heated to a boil for 20 min
• Let this rest while I went out for lunch

• Heated 8 gal of strike water up to 190 F
• Milled the main mash grain
• Added 7 gal of strike water to the mash tun and cycled through the RIMS at 170 F until the temperature had settled
• Temporarily halted the rims.  Added the cereal mash.  Then started the RIMS again.  Ended up with about 10 gal of volume at this point which didn't leave enough room for the main mash (in the 11 gal mash tun).  Pulled off about 1.5 gal of starchy liquid into the boil kettle.
• Stopped the RIMS and added the grain.  This ended up being a very thick mash that I could barely stir.  Started the RIMS again and just about got a stuck sparge.  Ended up cycling the RIMS very slowly to account for this.

• Mashed for 60 min
• Slowly drained the mash tun into the boil kettle.  Started heating after collecting a few gal and had it at a boil after collecting about 8 gal.  Probably boiled for 45 min before I finished the sparge 
• Mixed water into the flour mix until it was a milkshake consistency. Added this to the boil

• Boiled for probably 20 min more after the mash was done as I was stilling at about 12 gal
• Added the hops and Irish moss at 15 min.  Put the hops in a double layer cheese cloth sack to avoid them escaping.
• Added the chiller to sanitize
• Chilled down to 70 F

• Collected 11.25 gal of wort that measured 1.062 SG.  This is right about on target for efficiency.  I'm going to dilute with 1.75 gal of spring water to get down to about 1.053
• Transferred the beer into my sour blonde fermenters.  It is a very cloudy wort.  Used it as follows:
• 1 gal each into fermentors 1-6, and 8 & 9
• 0.5 gal in fermentor 10
• 2.5 gal in fermentor 11
• 2 gal in fermentor 12

Lessons Learned:

1. Mixing water into flour worked well to avoid clumps (didn't find many at all at the bottom of the boil kettle) and it produced a very starchy wort.  It will be interesting to see if these beer clear for me and if they'll have a bit higher FG due to this
2. Added the cereal mash to the mash tun before the main mash grain was a terrible mistake as I couldn't mash normally due to the sticky and starchy cereal mash partially clogging the false bottom.  I was trying to avoid a significant temperature change when adding the cereal mash but this was worse.