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Recipe: Radiant Baby Flamingo
Passion fruit, dragon fruit, and hibiscus come together with clean, quenching lactic acidity for this punchy, vibrant, tiki-inspired fruit beer from California’s Radiant Beer.
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For our December-January 2022 issue, our blind-review panel scored this tart, vibrantly colored, passion fruit–forward beer an exemplary 96/100. Andrew Bell, director of brewing at Radiant Beer in Anaheim, California, generously shared a homebrew-scale recipe.
“The clean lactic acidity in the base beer is brightened even further by the acidity of the passion fruit and hibiscus,” Bell says. “A somewhat high final gravity helps balance the acidity. The dragon fruit and hibiscus provide a shockingly bright pink-red hue.”
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.063
FG: 1.024
IBUs: 5
ABV: 5.2%
For our December-January 2022 issue, our blind-review panel scored this tart, vibrantly colored, passion fruit–forward beer an exemplary 96/100. Andrew Bell, director of brewing at Radiant Beer in Anaheim, California, generously shared a homebrew-scale recipe.
“The clean lactic acidity in the base beer is brightened even further by the acidity of the passion fruit and hibiscus,” Bell says. “A somewhat high final gravity helps balance the acidity. The dragon fruit and hibiscus provide a shockingly bright pink-red hue.”
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.063
FG: 1.024
IBUs: 5
ABV: 5.2%
[PAYWALL]
MALT/GRAIN BILL
9.1 lb (4.1 kg) pale two-row
10 oz (283 g) white wheat malt
8.6 oz (244 g) acidulated malt
7.2 oz (204 g) rolled oats
HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE
0.1 oz (3 g) Warrior at 60 minutes [5 IBUs]
1.4 tsp (7 ml) yeast nutrient and 1 tablet Whirlfloc at 15 minutes
4.3 oz (122 g) dried hibiscus at flameout/whirlpool
4 lb (1.8 kg) passion-fruit puree at primary (67% attenuation)
1.1 lb (500 g) red dragon-fruit puree at primary (67% attenuation)
YEAST
Omega OYL-605 Lactobacillus Blend and Imperial G03 Dieter (or other clean-fermenting Kölsch or Chico strain)
DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash at 156°F (69°C) for 20 minutes. Recirculate until the runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle. Sparge and top up as necessary to get about 6 gallons (23 liters) of wort, depending on your evaporation rate. Boil for 5 minutes to sanitize the wort. Adjust the pH to 4.5 (for example, with phosphoric acid) and cool to 100°F (38°C), keeping the kettle purged with CO2 if possible. Then pitch the Lacto, purge again with CO2, and cover tightly. Target pH is 3.25–3.35; this may take 24 hours or more.
Once you reach the target pH, boil for 60 minutes, adding hops, nutrient, Whirlfloc, and hibiscus according to the schedule. After the boil, chill to about 67°F (19°C), aerate thoroughly, and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 67°F (19°C), raising to 72°F (22°C) at the midpoint of fermentation (about SG 1.043). For the final third of fermentation (at about 1.037), add the fruit purees and allow to ferment until the gravity has stabilized. Test for diacetyl (see “Hunting for Diacetyl,” beerandbrewing.com); once clear, crash to 32°F (0°C), optionally fine or filter, then package and carbonate to about 2.8 volumes of CO2.
BREWER’S NOTES
Water profile: We target 50 ppm chloride and 25 ppm sulfate. Our sodium, magnesium, and bicarbonate levels are minimal.
Pre-acidification: After the 5-minute boil, we transfer to whirlpool and adjust the pH with phosphoric acid. Once we get pH to 4.50, we transfer back to the kettle via the heat exchanger, targeting 100°F (38°C), while bubbling CO2 in via the aeration stone. The goal of this method is to hit target pH, separate from hot break, and quickly get the wort down to temp for pitching Lacto while minimizing oxygen.
Pitching yeast: For aeration, we target 16–18 ppm oxygen, then aim to pitch about 15.5 million cells/ml.
