This recipe comes courtesy of Andrew Cherry, who’s Lemon Pie beer caused quite a stir at the Brew Slam 2023 Awards Party. It was so well regarded that some of our club members dedicated themselves to hunting down the brewer and getting the recipe!
Andrew Cherry was kind enough to weigh in with the recipe and some info about the beer.
Here’s my recipe for the Lemon Pie beer (attached). I’m a big fan of sour and wild beers. I always have one sour on tap in my keezer and tend to have one fruited kettle sour in there during the summer and maybe a longer aged sour during the winter months. I don’t have any pics of that particular brew except the lemon slices 🙂 I included one from a previous brew of the wort transfer from the boil kettle to the SS Brewtech mash tun which I use to sour my beers. I built my dream basement brewery just before COVID and it’s been a real pleasure to brew in it over the last few years and host friends in the space.
After mash out, heat wort to 170F and then cool to 100F. Transfer to a souring vessel (I use my SS Brewtech heated mash tun), add lacto and sour to 3.6 pH. I open and empty 3 capsules of Renewlife Ultimate Care Probiotic (100 billion cells) into the wort and hold my temperature at about 100F for 14 hours or so. I make sure to purge the headspace of the souring vessel with CO2 (very important).
2 medium/large lemons zested and then sliced go into the wort at flameout. Whirlpool the lemons and the flameout hops for about 30 minutes.
2 Litres of lemon juice (2 large bottles of the Real Lemon juice you can get at the grocery store) go into the fermenter with your wort. Vanilla can be a) 2 whole beans sliced open into the secondary or b) make your own extract with vodka and beans or c) high quality pure vanilla extract (1-2 tbsp to personal preference).
