Discover the “Sour Tagada” recipe from our friends at Brasserie du Lez. At 6%, this thirst-quenching sour beer will surprise you with its frank aroma of the famous strawberry candy.
The recipe for sour tagada by Brasserie du Lez
- Color : Blonde (and yes, the colorants are natural, they disappear during fermentation)
- Alcohol : 6%
- Quantity : 20L
- Bitterness : Nonexistent
- Acidity : Moderate
- Brewing time : Normal + sour kettle 17H
- Difficulty : Moderate to high
Ingredients :
- 1.8kg Light Wheat Malt
- 1.3kg Extra pale Pils Malt
- 0.5kg Pale Ale malt
- 5g Columbus hops
- 1 bag sour pitch
- 2 bags Lallemand Bry 97
- 1kg Tagada Strawberries
- Total water volume: 31L (Chloride>Sulfate – 2 to 3:1)
Brew the Brasserie du Lez sour tagada recipe step by step :
Step 1
Heat 13.5 liters of water to 70°C and pour in the crushed grains.
Stir well to avoid lumps. Continue to heat to 66°C.
Maintain temperature for one hour.
At the same time, heat 20 liters of rinse water to 77°C.
Step 2
Mash out for 10 minutes at 75°C.
Then rinse and filter.
Step 3
Once you have your full volume of liquid, it’s time to move on to the Sour Kettle. To do this :
- Use lactic or phosphoric acid to lower the must’s pH to 4.5.
- (Optional) To eliminate any risk of pre-infection, carry out a mini-boil for 10/15 minutes.
- Cool the wort to 40°C.
- (Optional) If equipped, purge the surface of your wort with CO2.
- Integrate the sour pitch bag or the handful of lager malt.
- Using plastic film or another cover, close your tank as tightly as possible to limit contact with oxygen and any organisms that may be around your brew.
- Maintain a temperature of 40°C for about 17 hours.
- Take a pH reading every 2 to 4 hours once you’ve reached 3.6/3.7, so you can move on to the next step.
Step 4
Heat your wort for a 60-minute boil.
Start brewing with 5g of Columbus hops.
If you’re using a cooling coil, don’t forget to sterilize it in the wort 15 minutes before the end of the boil.
Step 5
Then cool the wort to 19°C° and transfer to the fermenter, not forgetting the yeast.
Your initial specific gravity should be around 1.039.
Add your tagada strawberries, like a dry hop, 24 hours after inoculation.
There’s no need to repeat the density, but with the addition of candy, it should rise to 1.056.
Ferment at 19°C for 2 to 3 weeks, raising the temperature to 22°C for the last 4 days.
Final density should be 1.011.
If you are equipped, we recommend a cold crash at 3°C for 3/4 days.
Add 6g/L sugar at bottling. Or make a forced carbo at 2.3 vol.
Advice from Sylvain and André, founders of the Brasserie du Lez
To get Tagada strawberries at the lowest price, get the 500g bag. Bigger and smaller ones are more expensive per kilo 🤯.
We’re not looking for too much acidity here, which is why we recommend a relatively short sour kettle and stopping it at around pH 3.6/3.7.
We recommend using Tagada strawberries in primary fermentation. The candy will melt and integrate much better with the beer. This will facilitate filtration/bottling, and the taste will be more balanced.
Conclusion
Sour Tagada from Brasserie du Lez is a resolutely fun, easy-drinking beer. While the candy gives it a relatively high alcohol percentage, its deliberately moderate acidity and fairly straightforward bubbles will give it a nice tintability.
A Word about the Brasserie du Lez
La Brasserie du Lez is first and foremost the story of Sylvain and André. Two passionate buddies they met on building sites. Like a good old Rock Band, the beginnings of the brewery took root in a garage.
In moderation, of course, the two buddies developed their passion for beer.
They bought their first home brewing equipment from Rolling Beers* and began developing their own recipes.
*This part of the story has not been confirmed by the principals involved, but there’s a good chance it happened that way.
As the years went by, lagers, stouts and IPAs came out of the kettles and their friends asked for more.
That’s why Brasserie du Lez officially saw the light of day in 2017 in St Clément de Rivière. The desire to create beers with a unique character is still very much alive today, and the brewery has amply demonstrated that it is one of the major players in the Montpellier brewing scene.