MIXED CULTURE EPHEMERAL
After making our mixed culture fruit beers, there is plenty of life still left in the fruit! This Petite Saison underwent maceration on second use Morello sour cherries for 10 weeks.
Beer Style: Mixed Culture Ale with Second Use Morello Sour Cherries
ABV: 4.4%
pH: 3.53 pH
Final Gravity: 0.11° Plato
IBU: 27
Packaged On: 19/7/21
Detailed Tasting Notes:
Appearance: vibrant red
Aroma: sweet cherry, cherry cola, almond
Palate: light acidity, cherry skin followed by sweet flesh
Mouthfeel: some drying tannin from the pits
Deeds Mixed Culture Program Overview:
It’s nearly been three years since we began producing beer at our home in Glen Iris, and while we may have become best known for our IPAs, barrel ageing has always been in the picture. Mixed culture fermentation, whether it be with fruit or without, is a part of that picture that we all desire to make bigger. We’ve drawn inspiration from around the globe, from Lambic and Gueuze producers in and around Brussels, to more modern interpretations by American sour beer brewers.
The program kicked off in the last quarter of 2019 when we welcomed our first delivery of wine barrels. We began by building up our mixed culture, preparing it to embark on the grand task that lay ahead. Ned had been brewing with this culture at home for a couple of years preceding it’s new adventure at Deeds, and he was filled with a mix of excitement and trepidation to take it from 50 to 1500 litre batches!
Two base recipes were initially used to drive different fermentation profiles of our mixed culture. The first was designed to create similar characteristics to a traditional turbid mash used in Lambic brewing, utilising the same technique of boiling part of the mash, creating a dextrinous wort full of complex sugars for a long slow fermentation, as well as a hot sparge to layer some tannin into the beer. The second recipe also utilises a step mash, but is aimed at creating a highly fermentable wort, favouring a Saccharomyces yeast-driven fermentation, with less acidity in the final product.
We conduct our primary fermentations in an open top fermenter called “The Albatross”, which we converted out of an old stainless steel grist case. From there, we transfer the beer into French oak for extended ageing.
And then we wait. We continue to watch as barrels develop their individual characters, each slightly different from the next. When the beer is ready, we select them for either blending or macerating on fruit that we felt would match the character of the base beer. At this point, the production team will sit down to a final sensory session, selecting barrels and composing blends for every beer.
In August 2020 we received a shipment of new tanks for our first expansion of the cellar. Along with three 100hL fermenters and two yeast propagation tanks, we got 6 stackable fruiting tanks for the mixed culture program. These tanks are primarily used for fruiting mixed culture beer, but also allow us to undertake other projects simultaneously. Let’s just say these tanks came just in time.
Once the ageing on fruit and blending is complete, the various beers are ready to be packaged. We add a small amount of sugar and fresh culture to allow for refermentation in the bottle. Then we package the beer with our 6 head gravity filler, giving us the flexibility to fill a wide variety of bottle sizes - 375mL, 750mL, and even a few 1.5L Magnums. The bottles are then stored away and allowed to carbonate and settle. Scheduled sensory sessions allow the brewers to track the beer's progress and ultimately determine when they are ready for sale. At which point they are shipped off to specialty bottle shops all over Australia for your consumption!
Beer Style: Mixed Culture Ale with Second Use Morello Sour Cherries
ABV: 4.4%
pH: 3.53 pH
Final Gravity: 0.11° Plato
IBU: 27
Packaged On: 19/7/21
Detailed Tasting Notes:
Appearance: vibrant red
Aroma: sweet cherry, cherry cola, almond
Palate: light acidity, cherry skin followed by sweet flesh
Mouthfeel: some drying tannin from the pits
Deeds Mixed Culture Program Overview:
It’s nearly been three years since we began producing beer at our home in Glen Iris, and while we may have become best known for our IPAs, barrel ageing has always been in the picture. Mixed culture fermentation, whether it be with fruit or without, is a part of that picture that we all desire to make bigger. We’ve drawn inspiration from around the globe, from Lambic and Gueuze producers in and around Brussels, to more modern interpretations by American sour beer brewers.
The program kicked off in the last quarter of 2019 when we welcomed our first delivery of wine barrels. We began by building up our mixed culture, preparing it to embark on the grand task that lay ahead. Ned had been brewing with this culture at home for a couple of years preceding it’s new adventure at Deeds, and he was filled with a mix of excitement and trepidation to take it from 50 to 1500 litre batches!
Two base recipes were initially used to drive different fermentation profiles of our mixed culture. The first was designed to create similar characteristics to a traditional turbid mash used in Lambic brewing, utilising the same technique of boiling part of the mash, creating a dextrinous wort full of complex sugars for a long slow fermentation, as well as a hot sparge to layer some tannin into the beer. The second recipe also utilises a step mash, but is aimed at creating a highly fermentable wort, favouring a Saccharomyces yeast-driven fermentation, with less acidity in the final product.
We conduct our primary fermentations in an open top fermenter called “The Albatross”, which we converted out of an old stainless steel grist case. From there, we transfer the beer into French oak for extended ageing.
And then we wait. We continue to watch as barrels develop their individual characters, each slightly different from the next. When the beer is ready, we select them for either blending or macerating on fruit that we felt would match the character of the base beer. At this point, the production team will sit down to a final sensory session, selecting barrels and composing blends for every beer.
In August 2020 we received a shipment of new tanks for our first expansion of the cellar. Along with three 100hL fermenters and two yeast propagation tanks, we got 6 stackable fruiting tanks for the mixed culture program. These tanks are primarily used for fruiting mixed culture beer, but also allow us to undertake other projects simultaneously. Let’s just say these tanks came just in time.
Once the ageing on fruit and blending is complete, the various beers are ready to be packaged. We add a small amount of sugar and fresh culture to allow for refermentation in the bottle. Then we package the beer with our 6 head gravity filler, giving us the flexibility to fill a wide variety of bottle sizes - 375mL, 750mL, and even a few 1.5L Magnums. The bottles are then stored away and allowed to carbonate and settle. Scheduled sensory sessions allow the brewers to track the beer's progress and ultimately determine when they are ready for sale. At which point they are shipped off to specialty bottle shops all over Australia for your consumption!
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