As featured in CAMRA’s – The Modern Homebrewer – Andy Parker & Jamil Zainasheff and sponsored by ourselves The Malt Miller.

We would highly recommend purchasing and reading this book as it feature not only a wide selection of recipes but some great knowledge and techniques from Andy and Jamil on how to brew the best beer possible at home.

This recipe was provided for the book from a professional brewer, all of the recipes were scaled by the writers to a 20ltr batch size using 75% efficiency.

Where ever possible we have matched the exact ingredients, however in some recipes slight changes may be required and volume adjustments based on ingredient available to homebrewers. Be sure to fully read the below details before purchasing so you are fully confident in the process and aware of any ingredients which are not included with this kit that you will need to add.

Weights are removed on this page due to publishing agreements but will be provided on the bags when the recipe is purchased or are present in the book for those who purchase it.

 

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Ingredients Included

Simpsons Malt – Wheat Malt
Simpsons Malt – Extra Pale Malt

Total Grain Bill 7000g

Mandarina Bavaria T90 Pellets (30 grams)
Maltodextrin 1kg (1 pack)

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Method

Beer Style (main): Hybrid/Mixed
Beer Style (sub): Specialty Beer
Batch Size: 20
Original Gravity: 1.096
Final Gravity: 1.033
ABV %: 8.5
IBU: 10
Mash efficiency: 75
Brewing equipment:

THE MASH
Temperature °C (Step 1): 68
Length (mins) (Step 1): 60

Mash notes: Water: Vault City targets a high chloride, low sulphate profile to accentuate softness and full body.

THE BOIL
Boil time (mins): 60

Hop / kettle additions and timing:

Maltodextrin 520g/1.14lb @ 15 mins
Hibiscus (dry) 40g/1.4oz @ 0 mins – Not Included

 

Yeast: Not Included – see notes
Fermentation temperature/steps: Fermentation Vault City uses a mixed culture, which contains various strains of lactobacillus bacteria and saccharomyces yeast. They recommend choosing a high temperature fermenting saccharomyces strain, such as a kveik variant, and then a clean-souring Lactobacillus strain, such as Lactobacillus Plantarum. Co-pitch one pack of each yeast. Ferment and sour simultaneously in the fermentor, at a temperature suitable for both the clean yeast & the lactobacillus (around 34°C/93°F – 38°C/100°F). Once the beer has reached the desired acidity, add in the fruit puree and dry hops.

Secondary additions:

Dry hop & fruit (at terminal gravity):

Strawberry Puree 5.0kg/11lb – Not Included
Mandarina Bavaria 30g/1oz

Allow temperature to naturally drop and secondary fermentation of the fruit puree to take place. Once gravity has stabilised again, crash chill and remove any yeast trub where possible. To finish, add a high quality vanilla extract at 1ml/L (or to taste). A tincture made of split vanilla pods in vodka can also be used here.

Comments:

VAULT CITY – Strawberry Skies – Fruited Sour

Based in the Portobello area of Edinburgh, Scotland, Vault City is Scotland’s largest sour beer producer and a real success story of the UK scene, having started from co-founder Steven Smith-Hay’s kitchen. They make heavily fruited, modern sour beers with the occasional stout thrown into the mix. Their recipes are always playful and fun, with a focus on packing in lots of, often unusual, flavours and colours into their beers. Candy bars? Yep. Fruit cocktails? Sure. Childhood sweets? Absolutely. If you can imagine it, chances are Vault City have had a stab at brewing it!

Strawberry Skies is a returning favourite, and at commercial scale it is packed with over a tonne of locally sourced, sweet and juicy Scottish strawberries. This smooth and full-bodied sour has mouth-watering flavours of strawberries and cream from the hefty amount of strawberry puree, hibiscus flowers and smooth Madagascan vanilla beans added throughout the brewing process.

Note that 5kg of fruit puree is being added to the fermenter, so to account for this, this recipe is for only 15L of wort. The total volume in the fermenter after adding the fruit should be 20L.

Be sure to check out our YouTube channel where you will be able to find lots of great content featuring other breweries.

Don’t forget we also have an amazing range of beer to buy in our online beer shop Indie Beer Fridge for your enjoyment at home