This recipe comes to Chop & Brew by way of our friend and MVP Chop & Brew Homebrew Club member Brooks Edman. Brooks is a boss when it comes to wild, sour, and funky beers and this refreshingly tart and fruity beer is no exception. Below Brooks explains the inspiration for the beer and shares his homebrew recipe and process notes. Brooks won The Mighty Pint homebrew competition with this beer, and the prize was to brew a pro-scale batch at Nepenthe Brewing Company in Baltimore. He was kind enough to send us a four-pack; see our thoughts on the beer in the Three-Minute Beer Review video below. Shout-out to Brooks and Nepenthe Brewing! Follow Brooks on Instagram.
Blue Harvest Dry-Hopped Blueberry Sour Ale Homebrew Recipe
For five gallons, all-grain
OG: 1.042
FG: 1.010
ABV: 4.2%
Malt
- 3 lbs 2-Row Malt
- 3 lbs White Wheat Malt
- 1 lb Flaked Oats
- 1 lb Flaked Barley
- 1/2 lb Rice Hulls (to prevent stuck mash)
Hops
- 5 oz Galaxy [13% aa] (in fermentation)
Yeast & Souring
- Lactobacillus of your choice (see notes below); I used 32 oz Goodbelly Mango Probiotic Drink
- American ale yeast such as Imperial Yeast Flagship, US-05, etc.
Process
Mash malt and rice hulls at 156 F for 60 minutes.
Collect wort and bring to 190 F for a few minutes to pasteurize.
Kill and knock-out/chill to 95 F and pitch Lactobacillus of your choosing. I use 32 oz Goodbelly mango probiotic drink for the homebrew version; we used Omega Lacto Blend for the pro brew at Nepenthe Brewing.
Depending on if you keep it hot or let it free fall it should do it’s thing in 18-48 hours. I like a refreshing tart beer, not really sour, but I do let this one get a little more acidic because the dry hop raises the pH a bit. Once you get the sourness level you want…
Heat up wort and let it boil for 30 minutes or however long you like.
Add yeast nutrient and whirlfloc at 10 minutes left in boil.
Chill and pitch clean ale yeast (Us-05 or Cali Ale for me).
As fermentation slows add 64 oz of blueberry juice and 5 oz of Galaxy hops. We used blueberry purée for the pro brew version. I don’t remember how much but probably around 1lb per gal.
Once fermentation is complete, carb it up, and enjoy!
Behind the Brew
The inspiration for this beer was another local brewery that was doing dry hopped kettle sours with different wine grape varieties. I had previously done a straight blueberry sour and thought it came out very wine-like once the blueberry was all fermented out. So, I decided to give it a try with blueberry juice and Galaxy. It was a hit and has won a few awards over the years. It’s very refreshing, and a great hot weather drink.
This is actually the second recipe I have had brewed commercially. The first time, a lot of shortcuts were taken, mostly for financial reasons, and the beer turned out good, but not quite as good as the homebrew version. This one, however, turned out pretty darn close to the homebrewed version.
The folks at Nepenthe were totally game to try to keep it as true to the original as possible. There are obviously some small things you have to change because making 310 gallons of beer is a lot different than five gallons, but everything else stayed true to the recipe.
Brewing with them was extra fun because they are also my local homebrew shop. Being a regular it was cool to see them grow from just a Homebrew store, to a full restaurant/brewery, and now a package brewery. I didn’t know until brew day that they were actually going to can a portion of the batch, and I didn’t know it was going into distro until it started showing up in all my favorite local bottle shops. It was a really great experience and they really treated me like a king the whole time. Shout out to Brian, Jill, Ciaran, Dan, Brendan, and shop dog Benny!