I’m sure you guys get tired of hearing about the “Brewing TV” days, but I do remember years ago Dawson mentioning that Northern Brewer was going to put together a decoction brewing video. If you guys ever have it in your mind to do something like that it would be way cool. Triple Decoction of course! :) Thanks for the helpful videos. Always enjoy watching.
@@NorthernBrewerTV Please can you advise me? I live in the UK, and I have recently purchased one of your Block party amber ale kits. I decided to brew it last Saturday, and followed the instructions to the letter! When I was brewing the kit, I couldn't find any information on the instructions regarding the original or finish gravity targets! My original gravity was 1.030, which I felt seemed to be a bit on the low side? It wasn't until the next morning, it suddenly dawned on me that the instructions said, fill the fermenter up to the 5 gallon mark with cold water, yet 5 US gallons is less than 5 imperial gallons I'm used to here in the UK! If I'm correct, is there anything I can do about this 2 days into the fermentation process? Would you recommend I add some additional sugar to the wort at this stage? And if so, how much?
Perfect timing, I just received the Funktional Fruit Sour recipe kit and now I'm ready for brew day! Wish me luck with the homemade raspberry puree I'll be adding 🤞🏾
Best of luck. Have you brewed it yet? Let us know if we can be of any help here or possibly more quickly via text or email: www.northernbrewer.com/pages/contact-us
Great video, I have been wanting to make a sour beer and this was very helpful and informative! I have the Hanna pH meter also and would love to see a video on the calibration process FOR IT.
We're on it! Are there any styles in particular you are looking for that perhaps we don't have in our recipe portfolio already? What's on your To-Brew Wish List?
First of all, amazing video! ❤ I have a question: is there a reason why you put salt right into the keg, rather than at the same time as coriander? Salt might affect yiest?
After bottling the Duck Duck Gose, how long should the bottles sit to condition (for this particular Gose or Gose beers in general)? The instructions say the Gose can be refrigerated after 2 weeks after bottling. Is that all the time needed for the conditioning process to finish?
It should be enough time. If you have the bottles resting somewhere a bit warmer they might carbonate faster than ones in a cooler spot. It's good to crack one bottle after about a week to see if it has the proper or preferred level of carbonation. If not, let it sit another week. If it does, place the rest of the bottles somewhere cooler or even a fridge to make sure they don't over-carbonate.
Awesome video. After watching this video I have ordered two sour kits from you. One of your kits I entered it into a craft brew competition and won first place in the open and grand champion. I want to upgrade my mash tun to one like you used in the video, please send info on the one you use in the video.
I'd love to her more about the brew you entered and about the prizes it won. If you email me more info to and put "Please FWD to Chip Walton" in subject line I can also tell you more about the mash tun to help you out. Cheers!
Newbie question: You added lactic acid to the wort to give the bacteria a head start, but the bacteria creates lactic acid... Why not just add enough lactic acid to bring the ph down to the right value, and skip the extra three days?
You could do that, and it's not an awfully uncommon practice. In fact, you can actually brew and ferment your beer clean and then add lactic acid to finished beer to sour. But please note, lactic acid alone is very sour, and simply adding lactic acid can be rather one dimensional. Since the lactobacillus is a living microbe, it also produces other by-products that add an extra depth of flavor to the soured wort.
I had 2 sour recipe kits laying around that I haven't wanted to touch because of thinking about possibly contaminating my set up. I had no idea you could sour before the boil! Could I do all my sours this way? Or do some need to be done after the boil? I know I have a berliner weisse and one other one
You can do a lot of sours with the kettle souring method. Some more traditional and classic sour styles might not be able to be mimicked this way but you can get a nice level of tartness through kettle souring especially when you get into exploring different strains or sources of lacto. As for cross-contaminating, we'd argue that by and large that is sort of a brewing myth and a really strict cleaning and sanitizing regimen should keep any cross-contamination from happening, especially on glass and stainless steel items. Not a bad idea to have a dedicated siphon, beer thief, etc. (plastic items) for sour beers, but fear of cross-contamination shouldn't hold you back. That being said, kettle souring is a fun new world to experiment with. Go for it!
Not sure if this goes deep enough into fruited sour territory to be considered "405 style", but we have a fruited kettle sour kit called Funktional Fruit that might be something you want to check out. Hopefully we can do a video sooner than later on the topic as well. Cheers! www.northernbrewer.com/products/funktional-fruit-sour-extract-beer-recipe-kit
Am I correct that you are taking the OG reading just before adding the yeast? If so, how does the lactic acid and the fact that the lactobacillus used some of the sugar affect the OG reading and the computation of the ABV?
Lacto did eat some sugars, and left alcohol. You can use hydrometer (for best result), or corrected (considering some alc already inside)refractometer reading.
Brad says that the amount of fermentation done during souring is the noticeable, but does suggest taking the OG before ale yeast fermentation and FG for a closer read on what the beer's ABV will actually be.
Great video!. One Question I have. I was hoping use a Fresh Wort Kit (ie wort with Hop Boil already complete). Would it be OK to do the lactoferment with hops already added and secondly, is it necessary to boil the work post lactofement - or is it ok to alcohol ferment with live lactobacillus in the wort?
First off just want to do a shout out to Chip Walton! Secondly, Brad. I cannot decide if you look like Buffalo Bill Cody or General George Armstrong Custer with the long hair and goatee
Absolutely not. Contrary to long-standing homebrewing myths, as long as you practice proper cleaning and sanitation practices there is little to no concern for any sort of cross-contamination. with kettle souring because those souring agents are "locked in" during the kettle sour process and subsequent boiling... and then you actually ferment with a cleaner ale yeast. So kettle sour takes away most if not all the concern here. With true post brew day sour (wild, with bacteria, etc.),j it's not a horrible idea to keep two sets of certain gear juuuuust in case (like I have separate bucket, beer thief, stoppers, etc), but kettle sour much less of a concern.
Sorry for the delay. Wondering if you already made the kit and how it turned out. It really does help to provide a blanket of CO2, but I'm eager to hear your experience w/o using it if you did in fact brew it already.
@@NorthernBrewerTV I tasted it last night and it is good. I added two quarts of pure pasteurized pomegranate juice to the secondary. I did get a film, perhaps a pellicle on the secondary but on advice just went with it. Beer tastes good after a week in the bottle. Looking forward to it next week.
Great Video, never thought of using my heat wrap for that. i will give that a whirl. i have 1 question though. how do you figure out the abv on this beer? also similar situation to adding fruit to beer, after initial fermentaion?
Re: ABV. It's the same you would do for any other beer as far as using original gravity and final gravity to determine ABV. The acidity doesn't affect that at. Lactos doesn't ferment sugars to alcohol, only to lactic acid. Take a gravity reading after main "brew day" boil and again after fermentation to determine ABV. Re: Adding fruit. Many people add the fruit in a secondary setting. However, there has been a lot of interest recently in fermenting fruit in primary. We don't have a lot of A/B experience with that to speak to the differences, but in general you'd put the fruit puree (or frozen then thawed whole fruit) into secondary fermenter and rack beer on top of it.
More from Brewmaster Brad: The beer will go through a little bit of fermentation during souring, so that amount of sugar will be unavailable to the yeast. After the main boil when the lacto is killed off, that is the remaining sugars available to the yeast, so take an OG then and an FG as normal to get ABV.
How exactly will boiling and killing an added supplement of lactobacillus bacteria prevent microbial infestation in a brewhouse??? Do not microbes dwell on all surfaces to some extent?
To be fair, kettle sour beers aren't the simplest beer to brew, so the details are a bit more layered than most brews. We hope we made the process at least a bit less daunting than it really needs to be. Can we help in some other way?
![[Watch Party] RoV Pro League 2024 Winter | with Moowan ( Bacon Time Vs Talon )](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/CCEDhu6dPN8/mqdefault.jpg)
Nice work! Saved this video for future use! Thank you
Most excellent! Glad to hear it.
I’m sure you guys get tired of hearing about the “Brewing TV” days, but I do remember years ago Dawson mentioning that Northern Brewer was going to put together a decoction brewing video. If you guys ever have it in your mind to do something like that it would be way cool. Triple Decoction of course! :) Thanks for the helpful videos. Always enjoy watching.
The way back machine has spoken! :)
We'll add it to the Wish List for Brad. (BTW - this is Chip. I'm back at NB, so there is certainly some BTV vibes back in the house!)
@@NorthernBrewerTV WHAAAAAAT?!?! Yay!!
@@NorthernBrewerTV
Please can you advise me?
I live in the UK, and I have recently purchased one of your Block party amber ale kits.
I decided to brew it last Saturday, and followed the instructions to the letter!
When I was brewing the kit, I couldn't find any information on the instructions regarding the original or finish gravity targets!
My original gravity was 1.030, which I felt seemed to be a bit on the low side?
It wasn't until the next morning, it suddenly dawned on me that the instructions said, fill the fermenter up to the 5 gallon mark with cold water, yet 5 US gallons is less than 5 imperial gallons I'm used to here in the UK!
If I'm correct, is there anything I can do about this 2 days into the fermentation process?
Would you recommend I add some additional sugar to the wort at this stage?
And if so, how much?
Perfect timing, I just received the Funktional Fruit Sour recipe kit and now I'm ready for brew day! Wish me luck with the homemade raspberry puree I'll be adding 🤞🏾
Best of luck. Have you brewed it yet? Let us know if we can be of any help here or possibly more quickly via text or email: www.northernbrewer.com/pages/contact-us
@@NorthernBrewerTV just finished preparing the wort, letting it sour now!
Awesome video for someone like me attempting my first kettle sour, thanks!
Please let us know how it goes for you? How are keeping the wort warm for souring? What lacto and ale combo?
Duck Duck Gose Recipe Kit:
* Extract: bit.ly/2SBgZKQ
*All-Grain: bit.ly/3d8BNmv
See our article "How to Kettle Sour Beer:" bit.ly/3iGvur8
Really enjoyed this video. I love sours and think I might have to try a kettle sour after watching this.
What sort of beer you thinking about trying first? Let us know how it goes.
NorthernBrewerTV I think I’ll try some sort of fruited sour
NorthernBrewerTV would I be able to use my Gigawort to maintain temp after pitching lacto?
Mmmmm.... My mouth is watering just thinking about all the sours I'm gonna brew now. This process really isn't as complicated as I thought it was!
well did you do any sours?
I use a fish tank heater (large) to keep at 95 degrees. Works fantastic for a 5 gallon batch. I also think 3.2 pH is tasty for a mango sour.
Awesome video! I currently am in the kettle souring stage of my first homebrew!
How did it go for you? What lacto strain and temp were you able to hold?
Great video, I have been wanting to make a sour beer and this was very helpful and informative! I have the Hanna pH meter also and would love to see a video on the calibration process FOR IT.
We'll ask Brad to make it so.
Great video! Will be attempting my first sour soon
More recipes please!!
We're on it! Are there any styles in particular you are looking for that perhaps we don't have in our recipe portfolio already? What's on your To-Brew Wish List?
@@NorthernBrewerTV cheers! It's winter now so maybe a nice spiced ale!!! I tried before, but made it too overwhelming. Good to see pros take it on!!
I'm gonna use German acidulated to head start my wort for Lactobacillus
That sounds like a great plan. Follow up here and let us know how it works for you.
I would like to see a video using Sour Patch. "Wild Philly sour" sour bear. Thanks
First of all, amazing video! ❤ I have a question: is there a reason why you put salt right into the keg, rather than at the same time as coriander? Salt might affect yiest?
After bottling the Duck Duck Gose, how long should the bottles sit to condition (for this particular Gose or Gose beers in general)? The instructions say the Gose can be refrigerated after 2 weeks after bottling. Is that all the time needed for the conditioning process to finish?
It should be enough time. If you have the bottles resting somewhere a bit warmer they might carbonate faster than ones in a cooler spot. It's good to crack one bottle after about a week to see if it has the proper or preferred level of carbonation. If not, let it sit another week. If it does, place the rest of the bottles somewhere cooler or even a fridge to make sure they don't over-carbonate.
Awesome video. After watching this video I have ordered two sour kits from you. One of your kits I entered it into a craft brew competition and won first place in the open and grand champion. I want to upgrade my mash tun to one like you used in the video, please send info on the one you use in the video.
I'd love to her more about the brew you entered and about the prizes it won. If you email me more info to and put "Please FWD to Chip Walton" in subject line I can also tell you more about the mash tun to help you out. Cheers!
Newbie question: You added lactic acid to the wort to give the bacteria a head start, but the bacteria creates lactic acid... Why not just add enough lactic acid to bring the ph down to the right value, and skip the extra three days?
You could do that, and it's not an awfully uncommon practice. In fact, you can actually brew and ferment your beer clean and then add lactic acid to finished beer to sour. But please note, lactic acid alone is very sour, and simply adding lactic acid can be rather one dimensional. Since the lactobacillus is a living microbe, it also produces other by-products that add an extra depth of flavor to the soured wort.
@@NorthernBrewerTV OK, that is kind of what I thought. It's the little extra that the bacteria add that makes the difference.
I had 2 sour recipe kits laying around that I haven't wanted to touch because of thinking about possibly contaminating my set up. I had no idea you could sour before the boil! Could I do all my sours this way? Or do some need to be done after the boil? I know I have a berliner weisse and one other one
You can do a lot of sours with the kettle souring method. Some more traditional and classic sour styles might not be able to be mimicked this way but you can get a nice level of tartness through kettle souring especially when you get into exploring different strains or sources of lacto. As for cross-contaminating, we'd argue that by and large that is sort of a brewing myth and a really strict cleaning and sanitizing regimen should keep any cross-contamination from happening, especially on glass and stainless steel items. Not a bad idea to have a dedicated siphon, beer thief, etc. (plastic items) for sour beers, but fear of cross-contamination shouldn't hold you back. That being said, kettle souring is a fun new world to experiment with. Go for it!
salud!!!
Back at you. Cheers!
Love watching this, can we get fruited sours ala 450 style. I live to far from any decent one
Not sure if this goes deep enough into fruited sour territory to be considered "405 style", but we have a fruited kettle sour kit called Funktional Fruit that might be something you want to check out. Hopefully we can do a video sooner than later on the topic as well. Cheers!
www.northernbrewer.com/products/funktional-fruit-sour-extract-beer-recipe-kit
450 north like slushee smoothie consistency
Am I correct that you are taking the OG reading just before adding the yeast? If so, how does the lactic acid and the fact that the lactobacillus used some of the sugar affect the OG reading and the computation of the ABV?
Lacto did eat some sugars, and left alcohol. You can use hydrometer (for best result), or corrected (considering some alc already inside)refractometer reading.
Brad says that the amount of fermentation done during souring is the noticeable, but does suggest taking the OG before ale yeast fermentation and FG for a closer read on what the beer's ABV will actually be.
Awesome. I’d love to see a run down of ph meter best practices
I'll add that to our list of video ideas for 2022 and try to get it scheduled. Thanks!
Another thing, nice PH meter! Expect me to order one soon!
Awesome. Here's the link if it helps:
bit.ly/2UnxpHu
Great video!. One Question I have. I was hoping use a Fresh Wort Kit (ie wort with Hop Boil already complete). Would it be OK to do the lactoferment with hops already added and secondly, is it necessary to boil the work post lactofement - or is it ok to alcohol ferment with live lactobacillus in the wort?
First off just want to do a shout out to Chip Walton! Secondly, Brad. I cannot decide if you look like Buffalo Bill Cody or General George Armstrong Custer with the long hair and goatee
Brad the Wild West Lacto Wrangler!
Is it necessary to stir before checking ph (while souring)?
It probably couldn't hurt to give a gentle stir with a sanitized spoon to make sure the sample is uniform.
Does kettle souring, or fermenting a sour ale make my kettle or fermenter unusable for non-sours in the future?
Absolutely not. Contrary to long-standing homebrewing myths, as long as you practice proper cleaning and sanitation practices there is little to no concern for any sort of cross-contamination. with kettle souring because those souring agents are "locked in" during the kettle sour process and subsequent boiling... and then you actually ferment with a cleaner ale yeast. So kettle sour takes away most if not all the concern here. With true post brew day sour (wild, with bacteria, etc.),j it's not a horrible idea to keep two sets of certain gear juuuuust in case (like I have separate bucket, beer thief, stoppers, etc), but kettle sour much less of a concern.
I just ordered the extract kit. Am I going to be able to do this without blowing CO2 into the souring kettle?
Sorry for the delay. Wondering if you already made the kit and how it turned out. It really does help to provide a blanket of CO2, but I'm eager to hear your experience w/o using it if you did in fact brew it already.
@@NorthernBrewerTV I tasted it last night and it is good. I added two quarts of pure pasteurized pomegranate juice to the secondary. I did get a film, perhaps a pellicle on the secondary but on advice just went with it. Beer tastes good after a week in the bottle. Looking forward to it next week.
Great Video, never thought of using my heat wrap for that. i will give that a whirl. i have 1 question though. how do you figure out the abv on this beer? also similar situation to adding fruit to beer, after initial fermentaion?
Re: ABV. It's the same you would do for any other beer as far as using original gravity and final gravity to determine ABV. The acidity doesn't affect that at. Lactos doesn't ferment sugars to alcohol, only to lactic acid. Take a gravity reading after main "brew day" boil and again after fermentation to determine ABV.
Re: Adding fruit. Many people add the fruit in a secondary setting. However, there has been a lot of interest recently in fermenting fruit in primary. We don't have a lot of A/B experience with that to speak to the differences, but in general you'd put the fruit puree (or frozen then thawed whole fruit) into secondary fermenter and rack beer on top of it.
More from Brewmaster Brad: The beer will go through a little bit of fermentation during souring, so that amount of sugar will be unavailable to the yeast. After the main boil when the lacto is killed off, that is the remaining sugars available to the yeast, so take an OG then and an FG as normal to get ABV.
cant u just add lactic acid to your beer and call it a day?
Do I see Chip's fingerprints all over this video? 😆
You know it! What gave it away?
@@NorthernBrewerTV Your characteristic videography & editing style 😉. Or maybe it's my bias, after a good decade with BTV and C&B 👍
How exactly will boiling and killing an added supplement of lactobacillus bacteria prevent microbial infestation in a brewhouse??? Do not microbes dwell on all surfaces to some extent?
How about something on putting a new recipe together
It's on our list. Thanks for seconding it! What points in particular would you like to see or learn more about when it comes to recipe development?
I'm trying to figure out how to customize my own style of beer but I don't know how to begin
@@justinsapp1604 Okay. Random question - but if you could explain this dream beer in three or four words (just to start), what would they be?
@@NorthernBrewerTV unique fresh exciting revamped
Very complicated instructions..
To be fair, kettle sour beers aren't the simplest beer to brew, so the details are a bit more layered than most brews. We hope we made the process at least a bit less daunting than it really needs to be. Can we help in some other way?