This past November, Misha and I were lucky enough to host a party for our friends and family at the 3 Stars brewery. It was a wonderful evening complete with great food, music, friends and beer. 3 Stars was gracious enough to work with me and come up with a beer recipe for the event, which we modeled after my favorite cocktail.
For the last few summers, all I want to drink are Palomas, which feature tequila, grapefruit soda and lime juice. There are many cocktails that lend themselves well to beer crossovers. However, I’ve always been surprised at how few breweries have tried a Paloma-style sour beer. In fact, I’ve only heard of two breweries that have done them, and neither of them have been made in large enough quantities for me to have seen them out in retail stores in the DC or Boston markets. That’s not to say more don’t exist, but it is interesting that a relatively simple recipe that packs a ton of flavor isn’t more common.
When I got together with Adam, the brewer who leads the pilot/experimental brewing schedule at 3 Stars, I laid out what I wanted in this sour. I didn’t want it overly acidic. Although I may like that personally, I wanted more of my guests to be able to enjoy it than just the crazies who crave sour. I also wanted a big grapefruit punch, but some sweetness to back that up. As for the tequila flavor, it would be a nice addition but wasn’t totally necessary. I really enjoyed a previous sour 3 Stars had made, a Mai Tai-style sour, so we used that as our model for the malt bill.
Pilsner and wheat malt in the bucket on the left, flaked oats and wheat on the right. 
Fruit peeled and bagged for conditioning once fermentation begins. Note: we used oranges and not the lemons that are pictured.
The recipe called for wheat and pilsner malt to keep it light, flaked oats and wheat to provide a softness for the mouthfeel, and no hops. During fermentation we added grapefruit, lime and orange peels. We used three times as much grapefruit as we did lime, and the orange was somewhere in the middle. Although orange is not an ingredient in a Paloma, it provided the sweetness we were looking for without taking away from the flavor of the other citrus fruits. A few days before carbonating the beer, we also added tequila-soaked wood chips. This didn’t have much of an effect, so if we were going to brew the recipe again I might want to give the chips more time to soak.
Filling it up! 
Rinsing grain and recycling water. 
Grains after draining. 
In the kettle and drained of all grains. Once the temperature came down to around 112F we were able to add lactobacillus, the key ingredient in kettle sours.
The end result was excellent. There were a few times during the process where I was a little nervous about the end result, but Adam did a fantastic job tinkering with the beer. The final product came out just the way I wanted and has been a big hit with the staff. Who knows, maybe one day it’ll be a staple of the 3 Stars lineup!
Beer and Diplomacy 
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