Today, in a very special episode of Blossom/BGW we’re delving into despair with Chungus.
That’s right, Shake Down our ridiculous 8.5% Lime Milkshake DIPA has started to seperate. Flavourless protein chunks are precipitating and settling to the bottom of cans. It doesn’t affect the taste, your health or enjoyment of the beer. It just looks a little … “Coopers adjacent”. All the lime lactose goodness is still there and is pretty delicious.
A big part of experimenting and trying new stuff all the time is that, on occasion, you get it wrong. And I’ll put my hand up and say this wasn’t exactly what we wanted. We have noticed this before in a fruit addition in a hazy. And while we have added fruit to loads of beers so far, this is only the second hazy we have added it to. The pH did drop down to 3.9, but I thought I had accounted for it with a slightly higher mash pH and a couple dry hops, which brings up the pH as well. Unfortunately I got this one wrong. And while it has looks pretty bang on when it went into cans, we had to wait about a month to organise these Cheat Day packs. Over time, exacerbated by temperature fluctuation, the proteins and polyphenols polymerise, in a spontaneous reactions that see more and more proteins and polyphenols binding together over time.
How do we fix it? Well we tried a higher pH on this one and that didn’t work. The next step is to see about some kettle finings that specifically pull out high molecular weight proteins. You see it’s the medium proteins you want to for haze. When the heavier proteins start dropping out of solution, they can bring those guys with it and it all end up in a hot, curdled mess.
We all know Luke loves to give me a bit of stick. Pretty great that the one beer concept I have been pushing hard for a solid 12 months is now starting to precipitate and look a little surprising. I’m sure he will have very little to say about it and take it all in good humour.
Enjoy your protein shake.
That’s right, Shake Down our ridiculous 8.5% Lime Milkshake DIPA has started to seperate. Flavourless protein chunks are precipitating and settling to the bottom of cans. It doesn’t affect the taste, your health or enjoyment of the beer. It just looks a little … “Coopers adjacent”. All the lime lactose goodness is still there and is pretty delicious.
A big part of experimenting and trying new stuff all the time is that, on occasion, you get it wrong. And I’ll put my hand up and say this wasn’t exactly what we wanted. We have noticed this before in a fruit addition in a hazy. And while we have added fruit to loads of beers so far, this is only the second hazy we have added it to. The pH did drop down to 3.9, but I thought I had accounted for it with a slightly higher mash pH and a couple dry hops, which brings up the pH as well. Unfortunately I got this one wrong. And while it has looks pretty bang on when it went into cans, we had to wait about a month to organise these Cheat Day packs. Over time, exacerbated by temperature fluctuation, the proteins and polyphenols polymerise, in a spontaneous reactions that see more and more proteins and polyphenols binding together over time.
How do we fix it? Well we tried a higher pH on this one and that didn’t work. The next step is to see about some kettle finings that specifically pull out high molecular weight proteins. You see it’s the medium proteins you want to for haze. When the heavier proteins start dropping out of solution, they can bring those guys with it and it all end up in a hot, curdled mess.
We all know Luke loves to give me a bit of stick. Pretty great that the one beer concept I have been pushing hard for a solid 12 months is now starting to precipitate and look a little surprising. I’m sure he will have very little to say about it and take it all in good humour.
Enjoy your protein shake.
