← All brews

28C Wild Specialty Beer

Philly Funk III

Brewed 2026-09-12 Batch · 23 L Matt Paterson
In fermenter OG1.059 IBU25

Grain bill

Gladfield Pilsner Malt 4.2 kg 77.8%
Dextrose 0.5 kg 9.3%
Gladfield Toffee Malt 0.35 kg 6.5%
Flaked Barley 0.35 kg 6.5%

Adjuncts

Yeast Vit 5 g @ 10 min
Whirlfloc 1 tablet @ 10 min
Zinc 1 tablet

Hop schedule

Hop 60 minWP 70°CDH#1
Luminosa 9g28g63g
Citra Cryo ··80g
Superdelic Cryo ··50g
Cascade Cryo ·25g·

Yeast

WildBrew Philly Sour18 g, dry pitched

Water additions

Calcium Chloride (CaCl2·2H2O) 5 g
Calcium Sulfate (CaSO4·2H2O) 2 g

About This Beer

Third Philly Funk, after the original in 2024 and the second last October. Sour IPA fermented with Lachancea thermotolerans, which makes lactic acid and ethanol in one fermentation, no bacteria and no kettle sour.

Dextrose in the boil is there for the acid rather than the gravity. Lachancea builds lactic acid from glucose and not from maltose, so an all-malt wort caps how far the pH will fall whatever the fermentation temperature.

Lower Hutt, Saturday 12 September 2026.

First brew on the new MaltMuncher. Finest index ran floury and was rejected. The middle one gave broken husks over broken but unpowdered endosperm.

Hops

Bitterness kept low and kept out of the kettle. Whirlpool at 70°C rather than the usual 80, which roughly halves isomerisation, and the weight that would have gone there went into the dry hop instead.

Luminosa across all three additions. Out of the same Oregon State programme as Strata, with no farnesene and no resinous character, which is what suits it over an acidic base. Citra and Superdelic cryo over the top in the dry hop, for aroma load without the polyphenol of the equivalent pellet charge.

Chloride-forward water, inverted from the second version. Acid sharpens bitterness, so the sulfate comes down.

Fermentation

Pitched dry and held warm through the first 72 hours, which is the window the lactic acid is made in. The strain’s published finish is pH 3.2 to 3.5.

Dry hop once primary has gone quiet and the krausen has fallen, yeast still in suspension, at 22°C rather than cold. Warm enough for hop creep to run in the fermenter with live yeast on it rather than in the keg.

Super F into the purged keg ahead of the beer at transfer, first use of the product. The hop bed stays behind in the fermenter, which is the condition it wants.

Wednesday 16 September, 7 pm, four days in. Gravity 1.007 on the pill and the velocity over its peak. Sample off the top read pH 3.4, sour on the palate and the yeast still on the nose. Hops in, lid back on, headspace purged.

Holding 22°C on the dry hop. Final gravity, kegging and tasting to come.