Recipe and brewing instructions included.
We have been doing a lot of work in the garden this Spring. Thinking of ways to tie the garden into brewing, we dreamed up this Beetroot Sour. Definitely an interesting beer to brew, it fermented slow and made us wonder at times, but it turned out wonderful. Light and refreshing. You can pick-up an earthy beet taste, but it’s subtle. You have to be thinking about it. The color however is far less subtle. It’s an in your face beautiful purple!
This recipe uses a standard two step kettle sour process. Our Columbia hops give the sour a nice kick while the Lutra yeast results in near lager clearness. The recipe and instructions are below. We plan on planting a whole row of beets in the hop yard as a cover crop.
Beetroot Sour Recipe
- 11 lbs Pale US 2-row malt
- 1 lb Aromatic Malt
- 12 oz roasted beets (Mash)
- 12 oz roasted beets (Secondary)
- 1oz Darbro Farms Columbia Hops 30 min boil
- 1oz Darbro Farms Columbia Hops Whirlpool 15 min at 150ºF
- 1 package Lutra Kveik liquid yeast
- 8oz container plain organic Greek yogurt
- 1 Whirflock tablet
- 1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
Mash the grains and first 12oz of beets using your standard mashing procedures. I shot for a 148º mash to give a light body. Collect 7.5 gallons of wort and transfer to kettle. Bring to a rolling boil for just a couple minutes to sterilize. The boil will take away the pretty purple color. Don’t worry, you’ll get that back in the secondary. Cool to 80º transfer to fermenter and pitch Greek yogurt. I make a yogurt slurry by adding an equal part of water to the yogurt before pitching. This helps to get the yogurt to dissolve in the wort.
If you have a way to test pH, I shot for around 3.5. This provides a nice level of sourness. When you’re happy with the level of sour you’ve achieved (mine fermented on the yogurt for about 4 days) transfer back to the kettle. Don’t be scared if there’s a white pellicle on your beer at this stage. The lactobacillus in the yogurt can do interesting things. You will re-sterilize the wort during the second boil. This will be a 30 minute boil. Add the Columbia hops on schedule. With 10 minutes left add Whirflock tablet and Yeast nutrient. After last whirlpool of Columbia hops, chill to 80º and return to cleaned and sterilized fermenter. Pitch Lutra Kveik yeast.
I achieved 1.055 as an original gravity. When my beer had dropped to around 1.030, I added the last 12 oz of beets to the fermenter. My beer fermented fairly slow, this may be due to the lower pH. My final gravity was 1.018. I closed transferred to a keg and forced carbonated. I shot for a pretty high level of carbonation.
If you have any questions or comments, or need hops, please reach out to us. We’d love to hear about what you brewed!
