Official Brew Day on the new Spike Solo System from Spike Brewing

Official Brew Day on the new Spike Solo System from Spike Brewing

Cherry Smoked Kettle Soured Blueberry Jalapeno Gose!

The New Spike Solo System was a pleasure to brew on, and everything went very smoothly, with some exceptions to my personal OCD, as I worry about everything.

I'll have a Taste test coming up very soon!

LINKS: (non-affiliate)
Spike Brewing Spike Solo Systems - https://spikebrewing.com/products/spi...
Great Video on the Spike Solo Brew Panel -    • Spike Solo Brew Panel  - Engineering Q&A  
Great Video on the Spike Flow Pump -    • Best Brew Pump? Spike Flow vs Competi...  

Affiliate Links:
Activewear and Cool T-Shirts from Into the AM - https://intotheam.com/BRB10AM - 10% Off Discount Code: BRB10AM
Cherry wood smoked sea salt - https://amzn.to/41shVnj
FLOTit 2.0 with hook - https://amzn.to/3tcr4E1
FLOTit 2.0 without hook - https://amzn.to/48mKi8E

Cherry Smoked BlueBerry Sour Gose with Jalapeno - Recipe for 5.15 gallons:
(Personally, I'd make this just a sour next time without the Cherry Smoked grain and the salt. Plus, I'd increase the Blueberries to 5 lbs in total. Still love this beer as it was brewed.)
Step Mash:
Mash Temp 138 F for 30 Minutes
Mash Temp 149 F for 50 Minutes
Mash out at 168 F for 10 Minutes
(Maybe excessive, but it was my first time brewing on this system. I was working hard to avoid a stuck mash while maximizing my sugars.)

Grain Bill and other:
3 lbs Pilsner 2 Row - Muntons or Rahr
3 lbs White Wheat Malt - Proximity
2 lbs Pale Ale Malt Cherry Wood - Sugar Creek
1 lb Flaked Wheat
6 oz Cara Pils/Dextrine Malt
4 oz Acid Malt
(Recommend a good helping of Rice Hulls like 6 to 8 oz)
(3.5 oz of Corn Sugar - this is not added but acts as a placeholder to account for the sugars contributed by the frozen 3 lbs of blueberries.)
Once you mash out, boil for 5 solid minutes to kill everything.
Cool to 90 F and add 2 cups of Good Belly (Mixed Berry recommended) and seal up. I used saran wrap and the kettle lid.
Cover and let it sit at 85 to 95 F until you get close to 3.20 to 3.40 pH (I ended up at 3.17 pH)
(Great pH Meter with an extra discount linked above)
The next day, once you are happy with the pH it is time to kick it up to a boil and continue with your brew.
10 Minute additions (the following day, after kettle souring)
10 grams of Cherry Smoked Sea Salt - Link in the link section above.
Crushed Whrilfloc Tablet (1/2 will work, I'm lazy and usually drop a whole tablet.)
Yeast Nutrient - Optional.
5 Minute additions:
4 Very Large Jalapenos sliced up. (You could use smaller or larger ones to optimize the aromas and flavors.) (The Jalapeno aroma and flavors were intense but had ZERO heat. You could reduce it to 3 minutes of boil time to make it very nice but not as intense, but I love jalapenos. To kill the heat, deseed, and cut out all the whitish rind inside, and soak in ice water overnight. Move them to fresh ice water in the morning, and rinse them really good before adding them to the boil.
1.55 oz of Motueka Hops @6% - Any fruity hop should work. I was going for 15 IBU for the style and felt Motueka would compliment the flavors.
Blueberries - Before adding to the fermenter, I pulled 1/2 gallon mixed it with 3 lbs of blueberries. You could microwave them if you are worried about an infection in your beer. I simply blended them up in small batches with some of the pulled wort in a Ninja Drink Blender before adding them to the cooled wort in the fermenter.
Cool wort and pitch your preferred Yeast
Yeast: I felt the Cellar Science Saison was perfect, but any high-attenuation yeast will work. I would recommend a Chico or a Belgian style with high attenuation to help dry things out nicely.
Tip - Use a pressure fermenter and a FLOTit 2.0 floating dip tube to maximize how much-finished beer actually ends up in your keg or bottles. Beer is hard to filter out of berry pulp, but the FLOTit 2.0 does an amazing job of getting the majority of the your finished beer out of it.

Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:28 - Brewing Salts
2:21 - Spike Pump Configuration
3:15 - Grain Bill
6:26 - Step Mash Schedule
7:18 - Mashing In
9:06 - Stuck Mash Check
11:25 - Mashing Out
12:26 - Boil Time
16:42 - Lacto Pitch Time
20:02 - Kettle Sour Completed
20:31 - Boil Over
21:45 - 5 Minute Additions
25:27 - Fermenter