Aprinaut is this year’s Great American Beer Festival ProAm entry, a sour wheat beer brewed with loads of Apricot puree.

This recipe is the creation of homebrewer Michael Soo, who won the Extreme Homebrew Challenge during Philly Beer Week with his Apricot lambic. While traditional lambics take years to create with a slow mixed-culture fermentation, we had to speed things up with modern techniques to create this uniquely refreshing ale.  

Utilizing the new De Bom blend from Wyeast Labs, we were able to turn out this brew in several months as opposed to years. 60% Pilsner malt and 40% raw wheat made up the traditional lambic grist with a small amount of aged hops added in the kettle, once primary fermentation was complete we added over two pounds of Apricot puree per gallon.  

Screaming with apricot flavor backed by a gentle acidity, this ale is naturally cloudy from the use of such a high percentage of raw wheat and the overabundance of apricot.