Style / Category debate: Probably should be ‘Hoppy Sour’ rather than Sour IPA – it wasn’t quite ‘IPA’ enough from feedback from brew comp judge form – which is fair, it’s not got the IPA body or bitterness. Possibly American Pale Ale fermented with Philly Sour (sour pale ale) fits best as a 28B.

First attempt of a Sour IPA using philly sour yeast. Mosaic and Citra hops, american ale, munich and pilsner grain.

This Sour IPA combines the fruity tropical flavors of Mosaic and Citra hops with a crisp, light body achieved through Gladfield’s malts. Philly Sour yeast adds a clean, refreshing tartness for a balanced and highly drinkable brew.

Fermentation Schedule

Day 1–2: Ferment at 20°C.

Day 3: Raise to 21°C.

Day 4: Raise to 22°C.

Day 7-8: Add dry hops (50g Citra + 50g Mosaic) and raise to 23°C.
Close spunding valve for CO2 capture

Day 8-11: Hold at 23°C to allow biotransformation and dry hop extraction.

Day 12-14: Cold crash to 3-4°C for 2 days.

Final pH: 3.7 (using digital pH meter)

Days 1 – 5

Brew went well. Pitched 1.5 packets (weighed the first packet until it was half gone) and set the fermenter to 20C.

Some movement over the first few days, approx 7 pts drop (showing around 1%) during the lactic acid phase so I’ll look to subtract this off the total percentage ABV estimate at the end.

SG at 1.048 until day 6…

I raised the temp as per the schedule to 22C, but didn’t raise to 23C as I wanted this to be the final change after fermentation was finished and I dry hopped.

Day 6

Finally started to see activity (foam on the top formed, and the galactic movement in the wort increased to a full activity level). Issues with the connection of the temp controller meant i haven’t logged gravity with the pill, but it was at 1.048 until day 6. then it moved quickly down and is rounding off on day 7 at approx 1.016 showing 5% abv, therefore around 4% abv at this stage – hopefully it drops further to dry the beer up a bit.

Day 7

Dry hop added end of day 7, closed spunding valve. SG moved down to 1.012 with the dry hop addition, but settled back to 1.015 (on track with existing trajectory) by the next morning.

Day 8

Raised temperature to final 23C for rest phase. Pressure already up to 14psi. SG 1.015 and dropping slowly (approx. a point a day)

Days 9-14

Pressure increased and held up around 29psi, gravity dropped approx 1.4pts per day to a final of 1.009. SG change shows 6% ABV – however sour phase shows nearly 1% of gravity change on the pill graph, I’ve estimated final of 5% to take this into account.

Pulled a 1.25L riga off for tasting – very clean nice sour taste, not too strong. Good hop aroma and IPA flavour. Overall very happy with the brew.

Remotely cooling from 23C, approx 2C per 12 hours until I get to 4C. Pill battery very low so it might switch over to the probe – shouldn’t matter as it’s simply keeping it cool now until I’m back from holiday.