Brew #35: Talk to me Gose, January 16, 2016

For no reason in particular, this beer has a Top Gun name.  This tribute to the late Nick Bradshaw is a quick and easy sour.  I didn't want to mess around with bacteria and I wanted something I could quickly get in the keg for tap #2, so after receiving assurances from my brother (who is an actual card-carrying professional) that adding lactic acid in the kettle is fine and that's how they do their Berliner Weisse I set to work finding/creating a recipe.  Again I took to the internet for guidance. The recipe that follows is mostly based on this page, but I also looked at this one among others to try to establish the lactic acid, salt, and coriander additions. I planned to go light on the lactic acid and salt additions and add more to the keg if necessary.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.049 (1.048)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.011 (1.010)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 69% (68%)
IBUs: 8.3
Color: 3.8 SRM
Style: Gose
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
4.5 lb German Wheat
4.5 lb German Pilsner
8 oz Acid Malt
8 oz Rice Hulls

Hops:
0.5 oz Saaz

Other:
10 tsp Lactic Acid 88%
1 tsp yeast nutrient
10g sea salt
1 oz Coriander Seed (crushed in projectile-shaped blender)

Yeast:
Safale US-05

Brewing Notes

1/15/16 - Yeast Starter:
This was a small weak starter, but I wanted to give the yeast a chance to re-hydrate and build some cell walls before pitching it into the acidic wort.  I used 4c water, 3oz wheat DME, 1/4tsp yeast nutrient boiled 10 minutes and chilled, then pitched US-05 and fermented overnight on the stir plate.

1/16/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 12.5 quarts of water without a pH buffer to 168 F in 8 gallon stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner.
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls.  Mash in temp was 151-152F
• 60 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: temperature was 151-152F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 150-151F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 149-151F
• 60 minutes, did not measure temperature, measured pH of 4.9. Began vorlauf
• Manual Vorlauf: I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• New fly sparge process based on what I learned brewing with my brother at Dock Street.  Rather than using a measured amount of sparge water and then run until everything is dry, I heated extra sparge water with no pH buffer (like 7 gallons) and then ran off and fly sparged until I had my appropriate boil volume (6.25 gallons) in the kettle.  This keeps my grain bed from compacting so I should get more consistent efficiency especially on big beers, more consistent volume into the fermenter, and less sediment from those last runnings.  All I needed to make this change was a measuring stick for my boil kettle.
• Brought to boil - 60 minute boil time
• Added:
  0.5 oz Czech Saaz (pellets) @ 60 min.
  10 tsp (2oz) Lactic acid @ 15 min.  Target pH was 3.5.  At first I had 3.6 but after a little bit it dropped to 3.2.
  1 tab Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
  1 tsp yeast nutrient @ 10 min.
  10g sea salt @ 5 min.
  1 oz freshly crushed coriander seed @ 5 min
• Chilled with Immersion wort chiller to 70F
• Siphoned to BMB
• Took a Brix reading of 12.2%, calcuated to 1.048. pH was 3.9.
• Volume was 4.75 gal. I'll correct my boil off in BeerSmith
• Pitched all of the little starter

1/16 - 1/25 - Primary Fermentation:
Siphoned to 5 gal glass carboy on 1/25. Brix was 6.2% which calculated to 1.010.  I noted that it was just sour and salty enough.

1/25 - 2/13 - Secondary Fermentation:
This was less about conditioning and was more about waiting for the kegerator to be finished and getting off of the yeast while I traveled for work.

2/13 - Kegging:
Siphoned to Keg. Final Brix was 6.2% calculated to 1.010 FG, 5% ABV.  Pressurized and vented 3 times, then re-pressurized to 10psi serving pressure and put it in the kegerator to force carb.  I had a hell of a time getting this keg o-ring to seat. We decided that it didn't need any more lactic acid or salt.

2/20 - 4/20/16 - On Tap:
Delicious from day 1. Clean, Crisp, and Tart.  I would not change salt or lactic acid at all as these are well-balanced and not overwhelming.  My (other) brother calls it "beer Gatorade" because it is quite refreshing on a hot day.  There is some mild peppery tasted in the background.  I plan to repeat this beer, possibly with some small variations like black pepper or Thai basil.