The Sour “Tropic Tonic” recipe
- Color: Hazy and bright blonde
- Alcohol: 5.3%
- Quantity: 20L
- Bitterness: None
- Acidity: Moderate
- Difficulty: High
- Brewing time: 6h + Sour Kettle for 24 to 48h
Ingredients :
- 2.2 kg Pilsen malt
- 1.8 kg light wheat malt
- 200 g uncrushed Pils malt
- 8 g Cascade hops
- 2 kg passion fruit purée
- 500 g yuzu purée (Ponthier brand, not available at Rolling Beers)
- 3 vanilla pods (+ a splash of vodka)
- 2 packets of Safale US-05 yeast
- Total water volume: 31L (Preferably Sulfate < Chloride in a 1:2 ratio)
Brew the “Tropic Tonic” sour recipe step by step :
Step 1 :
Heat 14 liters of water to 72°C and add the crushed malt.
Stir thoroughly to avoid grain clumps and continue until the temperature drops to 67°C.
Maintain this temperature for one hour.
Meanwhile, heat 17 liters of sparge water to 77°C.
Once saccharification is complete, raise the temperature to 75°C for a 10-minute mash-out.
Step 2 :
Once the mash-out is complete, proceed with lautering and sparging.
Step 3 :
Once you’ve reached your full liquid volume, it’s time to move on to the Sour Kettle. Here’s how :
- Use lactic or phosphoric acid to lower the wort’s pH to 4.5.
- (Optional) To eliminate any risk of prior infection, perform a short boil for 10–15 minutes.
- Cool the wort down to 40°C.
- Place the 200g of uncrushed Pils malt into a hop spider.
- (Optional) If you have the equipment, purge the surface of your wort with CO₂.
- Cover your kettle as tightly as possible using plastic wrap or a lid to minimize contact with oxygen and any unwanted organisms around your brew.
- Maintain a temperature of 40°C for 24 to 48 hours.
- Take pH readings every 2 to 4 hours. Once you reach 3.5, you can proceed to the next step.
Step 4 :
Remove the malt from your hop spider and heat the wort to begin a 60-minute boil.
Add 8g of Cascade hops at the start of the timer.
If you’re using an immersion chiller, don’t forget to sterilize it in the wort 15 minutes before the end of the boil.
Step 5 :
Cool the wort down to 19°C and transfer it into the fermenter, making sure to add the yeast.
Your original gravity should be around 1.043.
Note: For this type of beer, we strongly recommend using a pressurizable fermenter and installing the floating dip tube and serving filter kit from the start.
Ferment at 20°C for 2 weeks. The final gravity should be around 1.010.
Once this time has passed, add the Passion/Yuzu purées. Let them sit undisturbed for at least 2 more weeks.
Step 6 :
During fermentation, prepare the vanilla tincture. It will be used at bottling, or just before carbonation if you’re serving from a keg.
Split the 3 vanilla pods and scrape out the seeds with a knife.
Place the seeds and emptied pods into a clean jar.
Cover everything with vodka (about 10 to 20cl) and seal tightly.
Let it macerate until bottling — at least 3 weeks.
Step 7 :
After 4 weeks of fermentation, raise the temperature to 22°C for an additional 3 to 4 days.
Once this period is over, perform a cold crash for 4 to 5 days at 3°C. This step is essential to help the purées settle at the bottom of the fermenter.
Step 8 :
Once the cold crash is complete, it’s time to transfer into a Sodakeg or Oxebar.
Whichever you choose, now filter the vanilla tincture through a coffee filter or fine mesh strainer and pour the aromatic liquid into the empty keg.
For the transfer, we recommend doing it under counter pressure. This way, you’ll draw the beer from the top and ensure the purée sediment stays at the bottom of the fermenter.
If you’re not equipped for that, you can use an auto-siphon.
Step 9 :
Carbonate your Sodakeg/Oxebar to around 2.4 volumes of CO₂. You can serve the beer directly or bottle it using counter pressure.
For the atmo team:
If you’re not working under pressure, you can simply transfer your beer—separated from the purée after fermentation—into a priming bucket (where you’ve already added the filtered vanilla tincture).
Prepare a syrup with 5g/L of sugar and proceed with standard bottling.
A word about Tropic Tonic and Hoppy Antidot :
This sour recipe was the grand winner of our 2025 homebrewing competition. The beer stood out among 150 entries in a highly competitive field.
It earned a final score of 86/100 from a judging panel composed of Joan Ribera (Big Boss at Rolling Beers), Antoine Blain (Instructor at IFCO and founder of Brewing Bears), and myself (regular judge at the Concours internationnal de Lyon and Millésime Bio).
A word from Julien Foncier Cornacchia, AKA Hoppy Antidot :
“I discovered brewing a little before COVID, but it was during the lockdowns that I truly had time to dive into it—reading, researching, experimenting… my interest in the craft of brewing just kept growing.
My wife, who was encouraging me to change careers, gifted me an advanced brewing course at Drapeau Rouge with Thomas Barbera. That experience confirmed my love for the art.
The next two internships—at Brasserie Pardell and Brasserie du Lez—convinced me to turn the page on my career in healthcare and answer the call of beer, applying for a position as bartender, brewer, and instructor at Drapeau Rouge.
Since May 2023, I’ve been working there with passion, while still brewing at home using amateur gear (cooler mash tun, sterilizer boil kettle… hard to get more old-school 😅).
Gradually, the idea of launching myself as a Gipsy Brewer began to take shape. Under the name Hoppy Antidot (a nod to the bridge between my old profession and the new one), the project is coming to life and should be ready by the end of the year. 🍻”
Brewer’s tip :
“When it comes to my Sour ‘Tropic Tonic’ recipe, if there’s one thing to remember: do a Sour Kettle! It makes a huge difference in flavor. I find it far superior to co-fermenting with Sour Pitch.
For acidification, I like to aim for a pH of 3.5. The acidity isn’t harsh, and the lactic character feels really well balanced that way.”