What are you brewing?

[nzbrewer]

Since this is the most popular thread on the RealBeer.co.nz forum I thought I would start it here just to see what happens

[Stu McKinlay]

where are you planning on sourcing your woodruff from?

[jt]

woodruff

is dandruff an accepted substitute :-)

[JoKing]

As witty as ever MrT.

[jt]

nah, a bit childish really - the minds wandering a bit with a the thought of a Coopers kit Sunday

[Mike Neilson]

Brewed two of them First was all cooked corn and the second one wasnt that sour and had a little funk that I cant remember being in the ones in Germany, But tasted all mighty good with a little syrup!! I must brew another one!!

[Mike Neilson]

Sour Mash for 24 hours with tettnager it worked well the only thing was that I didnt want it to boil to long due to mash hops isomirising to much in the boil which lactic acid or extremly low ph and hop IBUs just dont work, I only boiled for twenty, just enough to boil of the DMS which was not long enough, like the sour mash is a massive dms producer. The next one was lith a lacto starter and a pitch of S05. The lactic was a little old and I suspect that the yeast killed it of before the lacto had a chance to sour it. I would defintly do it the last way again just with a fresh lactic starter (1.010 starter wort gravity though) and dry yeast and not use any hops

[denimglen]

Patrick, yeap - I think style guidelines say 1.028 to 1.032. FG? Dunno? I'm expecting 1.005ish I guess. I've never made it to Germany let alone Berlin haha. And the only BW I've had was the DFH Festina Peche, which I didn't really rate, but thought it had potential.

Rev, ahh dunno, lacto doesn't seem to grow that much and/or it has a really small cell size. Looking in the bottom of the starter it looks like the same amount of slurry you'd get from an ordinary 1.5 - 2L starter. From what I've read the most common problem with BWs is that they don't get sour enough - so I wanna make sure it gets a good head start.

Stu - http://www.zuckerhut.co.nz/category/42/Beverages.boss, haven't look around much but that's one place
I've seen.

Crabbey - I ordered some LD from morebeer (WLP strain). I considered a sour mash too but I don't really have time for a 2 - 3 day brewday haha.

[JoKing]

You da man Glen. Hook a fella up with some LD slurry would ya?

[Reviled]

Good shit Glen, looks like youve done all your homework, as usual! Ill be keen to come over and have a taste when its ready!

How much of that woodruff stuff are you going to put in?

[denimglen]

Tyler, woodruff will be added to the glass to taste, I think that's what they do traditionally. I bought some of the cherry syrup they have too, I reckon that could work well.

Mike, was thinking I may give that a shot if mine doesn't get sour enough, I've heard some others have had some good results by tweaking with lactic acid. Although, this lacto ferment is fucking mental, looks like a good healthy sacc ferment, krausen and all.

[Mike Neilson]

Nice maybee it will sour up, I cnat reall the ones in Berlin that funky just sweet really from the raspberry syrup. I suppose reality is that why not just use acid to sour it because the funkyness disapears anyway once the syrup is added?

[denimglen]

I've heard that the ones that just have lactic acid added aren't the same, but no first hand experience.

I guess it's all the trace amounts of things that all add up to a little something, which makes sense to me.

I guess it would be like removing the sugar from wort and adding vodka, just wouldn't be the same.