Citrine (Batch 01): Recipe

RETRO: Post written on July 24, 2014, but set to publish on the date of the original brew session to maintain order within the blog.

This was the first sour that I brewed, and it came fairly early in my brewing career.  I chose the name "Citrine" to have a theme for what I was then labeling my "sour program."  I thought that gemstones would be a cool idea, as there isa variety of color for naming fruited versions, and the whole "from the earth" thing fits in with the mysterious nature of spontaneous fermentation taking whatever yeast and bacteria are naturally around and using those to ferment a beer.

The recipe for the full batch is as follows:

Batch Number: 15
Brew Date: January 23, 2011
Bottle/Keg Date: June 22-25, 2012
Batch Size: 5 Gallon
OG: 1.048 (estimate)
FG: 1.000 (estimate)
Fermentation Temperature: 65-70*F (Room temperature throughout)
IBU: 0.0
ABV: 6.3% (est.)
SRM: 3.6

Mash: Single infusion at 150*F for 60 minutes

Boil: 60 minute

Fermentables

4lb 8oz Pilsner Malt

4lb 8oz White Wheat Malt

Salts & Water

At this point I wasn't doing anything besides filtering the water and adding 5.2 buffer, so that's probably it.

Hops

3oz Liberty (Aged; 0.0 AAU) at 60 minutes

Other

See fruit additions in notes below

Yeast

Only dregs.  See below.

Notes

Bottle dregs were the only yeast/bugs used.  They were from the following bottles:

2006 Cuvee des Champions

Cascade Sang Rouge

Drie Fonteinen Straffe Winter

2010 St. Lamvinus

2011 Girardin Gueuze 1882 Black Label

07.04.2011 -- Down to 1.012.  The Brett character is really strong with a bit of pineapple and quite a bit of fresh citrus and rind.  Added one ounce of medium-toast Hungarian oak.  Oak smells fairly earthy with a bit of tobacco.  Shouldn't add too much character, though if it does, it's something that would probably work very well with cherries or another dark fruit.

11.18.2011.  Sour Program #1 is fairly citrusy and seems to be more Cantillon-esque.  Hopefully the combination of Sour Program #1 wort and Drie Fonteinen dregs will grow up a culture that is a bit funkier.

05.15.2012.  Notes for Sour Programs #1, #2, and #3.  Two gallons each of #1 and #2 were put in separate one-gallon jugs.  One gallon of #3 was put in a single one-gallon jug.  Here are the fruited portions:

Gooseberry: 6 pounds of Vintner's Harvest Gooseberry Puree was mixed with a little under a gallon each of #1, #2, and #3.

Kiwi: Two pounds of freshly-chopped kiwi was added to a one-gallon jug.  Enough #1 was transferred over to fill the jug.

Blueberry: Two pounds of blueberry that had been smashed and frozen was added to a one-gallon jug.  Enough of #2 was added to fill the jug.

Rhubarb: One and a half pounds of chopped rhubarb that had been frozen was added to a one-gallon jug.  Enough of #2 was added to fill the jug.

06.22.2012.  Bottled #1 and #2 in 375mL Russian River-style corked bottles.  For each, 2 gallons got 3oz of pure can sugar, aiming for 3.5-4 volumes of CO2.  Ran out of CO2 for the Beer Gun and could not bottle #3.

06.24.2012.  Bottled #3 with the same procedure as #1 and #2.

06.25.2012.  Bottled each of the fruited versions, aiming for 3 volumes of CO2 each.  Kiwi, Blueberry, and Rhubarb were bottled in green Belgian 375mL bottles with 29mm caps.  Each yielded 8 bottles.  The gooseberry was bottled in green Belgian 750mL bottles with 29mm caps.  That yielded 9 bottles.

The names are as follows: Jade (kiwi), Sapphire (blueberry), Rhodonite (rhubarb), and Peridot (gooseberry).