Woxbic: Lambic-style Beer; Second Barrel, Second Year

Posted on February 7, 2015 by funkmetal

ECY20 Bug Country going at it about 12 hours after pitching

About a year ago, I brewed my first lambic-style beer. I didn’t spend the time to do a turbid mash, but I did use the Wyeast guide for temperature infusions to provide a similar mash profile. During the past year, I’ve pulled a few samples, roughly once a quarter to ensure that the beer didn’t turn too acetic. Frankly, I’m impressed at how well it’s held up. This is almost entirely due to applying a layer of paraffin wax to the entire barrel. At this point, the year old beer is exceedingly sour, about 3.0 pH. It tastes full of lemon zest, sour grapefruit, medium oak, with just a hint of vanilla whiskey, due to the use of a whiskey barrel. Clearly not as neutral as the Lambic I’ve tasted from Cantillon, Boon, and Drie Frontain. Nonetheless, it’s entirely acceptable for a year old sour to be tasting this well.

For this year’s attempt, I’ve prepared a Rum Whiskey barrel. It’s had only two beers run through it, but it’s aged beer for nearly a year. It’s likely that there will be more barrel flavor contributed than the previous barrel, but that’ll be fun when blending.

Hot water rinsing. Filled and drained completely three times with 150F water. Soaked both heads as well.

Steam-sanitizing the barrel. I used the guide on Embrace the Funk to construct a barrel steamer from a pressure cooker and a few extras. This hits 212F and stays going for 15 minutes.

Looks really pretty after soaking in wax

After cleaning, I used a heat gun to melt a block of paraffin wax. This took about 20 minutes. Much faster than double-boiler and basting it on.

The recipe for this year will remain the same. The only major difference is the use of aged hops versus a small amount of very low AA hops. Last year I used Crystal @ 3 AA. This year I used two year old whole-leaf hops. Originally they were about 10% AA, but being old and exposed they provide a much lighter hopping and hopefully a bit more musty, cheesy funk one expects from great Lambic beer.

Fermentation Blow OUT, total Woxford-style

I can’t wait to see how this one turns out over the next year.

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
13 gal	90 min	8.7 IBUs	3.6 SRM	1.051	1.012	5.0 %
			Actuals	1.057	1	7.5 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
Straight (Unblended) Lambic	17 D	1.04 - 1.054	1.001 - 1.01	0 - 10	3 - 7	1.8 - 2.6	5 - 6.5 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Pilsen (BestMälz)	17.333 lbs	61.54
Wheat, Torrified	9.75 lbs	34.62
Acidulated (Weyermann)	1.083 lbs	3.85

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Northern Brewer	1.62 oz	60 min	Boil	Leaf	3.2

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Phosphoric Acid	56.60 ml	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4)	3.40 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Calcium Chloride	1.70 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)	1.70 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Wheat Flour	3.25 oz	5 min	Boil	Other

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
Bug Country (20)	East Coast Yeast	70%	63°F - 75°F

Mash

Step	Temperature	Time
Acid Rest	93°F	15 min
Protein Rest	113°F	15 min
Saccharification 1	131°F	15 min
Saccharification 2	149°F	15 min
Mash Out	168°F	10 min

Notes

After mash-out, drain all liquid into boil kettle, raise temp to 190, pump back to mash for second rinse through grain bed.

Pitching ECY20 Bugcountry in 11G barrel.

Brewed 2015-01-30
- Mash pH was at 5.1, a little low
- A little short on the sparge water; had extra but didn't get it into the mash tun. Ended up with 16G pre-boil, about .5 gallon short. Upside, pre-boil gravity was up, 1.048.
- 90 minute boil completed fine, ended up at 13.5G of 1.057 wort.
- Chilled with ground water (about 60F), directly into barrel at 70F
- Extra 5L of wort into EL flask, parked next to barrel for some "spontaneous" action
- Aerated barrel for 60 seconds with O2
- Pitched half ECY20 from Sept, and Half ECY20 from Dec
- 24 hours till active foaming fermentation. Ambient temp in garage about 60 to 70F. Much warmer than last year, no need for heat belt to keep temps above 50.
- 5 days until 5L flask "caught" enough blow-off yeast and outside air; then full active fermentation. Smells very belgium-like.

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Slow and Low

Posted on October 1, 2014 by funkmetal

racking_whiskey_barrel_big_daddy_barleywine-1024x768

Racking 5 gallons of Big Daddy Barleywine from a Balcones Blue Corn Whiskey barrel.

This week at Woxford, we’re bottling 15 gallons of barrel-aged beer. A barleywine which spent nearly 4 months in a Balcones Blue-corn whiskey barrel will fill about 26 750mL bottles. The second barrel, an 11 gallon Rum barrel filled with Makkurokurosuke RIS will be transferred into approximately fifty 750mL bottles. The replacements have been brewed and fermented at this point; now just to swap contents and wait a bit more.

You may have noticed it’s been about a month since the last brew session. That may be more typical as the home schedule is filling up. That got me thinking about what sort of beers and ingredients I wanted to focus on given that the frequency of brewing is going to slow down. Recently we’ve been testing out new yeasts and blends and I want to see about doing a bit more of that, but with a single yeast blend. This blend includes saison Saccharomyces, some brett, and quite a bit of souring bacteria. The fun part is learning how to use both to get the beer to be just right. The tools are fairly simple: hops, temperature and time.

Larger amounts of hops will inhibit the growth of the souring bacteria. Higher temps will favor Saccharomyces, even though lactobacillus can handle and prefers high temp, sacc will out-compete and dominate. Lower temperatures, while not the best for souring bacteria, will favor a more sour beer due to the sluggishness of Saccharomyces at lower temps.

This is the hypothesis, with quite a bit of anecdotal material (in the form of really good beer) to back those assertions. But, the proof, as they say, is in the pudding. $240 worth of pudding.

Drinking Jester King’s Le Petit Prince, 2.8% Farmhouse Table beer. Excellent working beer. Look at all of those 750mL bottles.

This recipe will be the second farmhouse sour recipe. The first resulted in solid, but not sour saison. The Farmhouse Saison Experiement still need a proper review, but the result was a bit one dimensional despite using four different strains of Brett. The effort did help confirm that one cannot kettle sour a beer in an aluminum pot beyond about 3.8 pH. Bizarre!

For this recipe, I’ll split the wort post-boil and run two different fermentation schedules. The first, will be held between 55F and 60F to simulate a brew in the winter time (Texas) where the average temperature is lower. The hypothesis suggests this should produce a more sour final product. The second half will use a more typical saison schedule, starting around 65F, holding for 24 or 48 hours and then ramping up (and/or letting free-rise) until fermentation is complete.

The final products will be compared and contrasted. I may end up blending them in the end as well. In any case, this should be pretty exciting. Note the recipe says Wyeast 3711 for yeast, that’s the closest to Jester King Dregs, but it’s not the same (and certainly doesn’t contain the souring bus).

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
12 gal	90 min	19.7 IBUs	3.5 SRM	1.052 SG	1.007 SG	6.0 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
Saison	16 C	1.048 - 1.065	1.002 - 1.012	20 - 35	5 - 14	2.3 - 2.9	5 - 7 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Pilsen (BestMälz)	14 lbs	59.57
Wheat Malt, Ger	9.5 lbs	40.43

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Magnum	0.18 oz	90 min	Boil	Pellet	12
Goldings, East Kent (2011 Crop - Purchase FHBW 20130220)	1.94 oz	30 min	Boil	Pellet	5.6
Willamette	1.94 oz	5 min	Boil	Pellet	4.3
Crystal	1.94 oz	1 min	Boil	Pellet	3
Citra	2 oz	3 days	Dry Hop	Pellet	14.4
Styrian Goldings	2 oz	3 days	Dry Hop	Pellet	3

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
French Saison (3711)	Wyeast Labs	80%	65°F - 77°F

Notes

Split into two 6G containers

1. Hold at 57F
2. Pitch at 65F, and ramp up to 80F over 7 days

Blend batches later.

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Hoppy Sour

Posted on July 3, 2014 by funkmetal

Bucket Sour — extra wort left in an empty grain bucket. Remarkably tasty.

There aren’t too many examples of hoppy and sour; they tend not to go well together. Besides the flavor clash the bacteria responsible for souring beer (mostly lactobacillus and pediocaucus) don’t do so well in highly hopped wort. Combine this with the general anxiety and fear of introducing bacteria into non-sour/non-brett production breweries and these beers just aren’t that common.

A local favorite, Black Star Coop, hosted a “Summer of Sour” celebrating sour beers and some of the techniques used to make them. My first sour beer adventure started after drinking an amazing tasting Berliner Weiss, called Waterloo, from Black Star. I emailed the head brewer at the time, Jeff Young, about how to make Waterloo. With his information as well as listening to him talk in the Sunday Session show about kettle souring or sour worting I took the plunge. Jeff is now starting up his own brewery, Blue Owl Brewing, which will focus exclusively on this technique for making sour beers.

Black Star coop released Dr. Vainglory, which is, as they call it, a Sour American Pale Ale (SAPA). It was a truly unique and tasty beverage, carefully balancing sour with lots of tropical notes and a firm, but not overpowering bitterness on the finish. Amazing.

After securing some Meridian hops, which were used in this strain, I decided, I’d give it a try. For souring, I’m using a blend of Gigayeast’s Fast Souring Lacto, and Wyeast Lacto. After 5 days at 76F, the starter was tremendously sour, a pH of about 3.4. I’ll be pitching this combination and keeping it at about 115F for about 4 days; which should create an extremely potent sour base. From there I’ll boil, hop, chill and then pitch a large starter of Brett B. Trois to finish off the rest of the gravity.

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
6 gal	60 min	33.9 IBUs	4.8 SRM	1.050	1.013	4.9 %
			Actuals	1.046	1.01	4.7 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
American Pale Ale	10 A	1.045 - 1.06	1.01 - 1.015	30 - 45	5 - 14	2.3 - 2.8	4.5 - 6.2 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Organic Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess)	10 lbs	86.96
Munich 10L Organic (Briess)	1 lbs	8.7
Oats, Golden Naked (Simpsons)	8 oz	4.35

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Warrior	0.18 oz	60 min	Boil	Pellet	15.7
Ahtanum	1 oz	15 min	Boil	Pellet	5.2
Meridian	1 oz	5 min	Boil	Pellet	6.5
Meridian	1 oz	15 min	Aroma	Pellet	6.5
Palisade	1 oz	15 min	Aroma	Pellet	7.8

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Calcium Chloride	3.20 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)	3.20 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4)	0.40 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent

Mash

Step	Temperature	Time
Saccharification	152°F	60 min
Mash Out	168°F	10 min

Notes

DO NOT BOIL

- Mash normally
- Drain to Kettle
- Raise temp to 176 for 15 minutes
- Chill to 120F
- pitch a pure culture of lacto and let ferment for approx. 2 days, no more than 3, retain 120F.
- transfer the sour wort to the boil kettle
- do my boil as per usual
- chill to 70F
- pitch my yeast culture.
- After ferm complete, pitch peach puree

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Attempting a Lambic-style brew

Posted on January 31, 2014 by funkmetal

filling_barrel_with_boiling_water-1024x768

Filled the barrel with boiling water to prepare the barrel for aging

I’ve been working on sour beers for nearly a year and I’ve only now decided to attempt a Lambic-style beer. I always wanted to use a barrel for aging lambic-style beer but the size that’s available to a homebrewer isn’t practical for long term aging due to high oxygen to volume ratio; something that can spoil this multi-year process. Over this past year I’ve read a number of attempts and various processes employed by crafty homebrewers to minimize oxygen permeability. Plus, my largest barrel (11 gallons) has finally given up the whiskey ghost, so it’s time to make it the home of some sour bugs. A few more things forced my hand. In December, I was able to pick up the coveted ECY 20, Bug Country blend of yeast and bacteria. The list of microbes included is simply stunning.

Brettanomyces lambicus

Brettanomyces bruxellensis

Brettanomyces anomulus

Brettanomyces clausenii

Brettanomyces custersianus

Brettanomyces nanus

Brettanomyces naardenensis

Various Lactobacilli and Pediococci

ECY01 BugFarm

ECY02 Flemish Ale

ECY03 Farmhouse Brett

ECY04 Brett Blend #1

ECY05 Brett Blend #9

You can read more about the strains included at East Coast Yeast.
With such a great yeast blend, I needed to brew a beer that would handle such a blend. Empty barrel, great yeast. Lambic-style? Yeah!

Keeping a beer around a long time is challenging. Most of my aged sours are in PET or glass carboys; a few in a stainless corny keg. I agree that lambic-style beers need contact with wood to obtain a good flavor profile, but smaller barrels are going to introduce too much oxygen over a year or more. Over at the Funk Factory, a post about using paraffin wax to seal the barrel caught my eye. In addition to the waxing, a home-made steam wand was also something I needed to make so I could ensure that the bugs in ECY20 take over the barrel, not something else that might be in there.

Hot water cleaning a freshly dumped barrel

I’ll be following up this post with a few more on both barrel steaming and barrel waxing.

For the recipe, I’m following the traditional 60% barley (pils) and 40% wheat. I’m not performing a turbid mash so I’m attempting to come close to emulating the result which is to have a wort with lots of unconverted starch. The unconverted starches become food for the various microbes over the long haul. Sacchromyces yeast won’t eat those starches, but both Brett and the bacteria (Lacto, Pedio) will. I’m using torrified wheat so I don’t have to do a cereal mash to soften them up. And just to ensure we have some starch, I’m also throwing in some wheat flour. Various homebrewers have had success, but no rule of thumb on the amount, so this is just a guess. We’ll see how well it works.

Another important aspect to lambic-style beer is locality of ingredients. I had planned on getting some wheat and pilsner from our new local micro malster, Blackland Malting up in Ceder Park, but their release in December was picked up by the local scene and they’re completely sold out of what they had. Pils and Wheat won’t make it out again till this summer. Look for v2 of Woxbic to include these malts. Normally I use Reverse Osmosis water to pull all of the elements and nasties out of the water and build a new profile with salts. Instead, I’ll use my local water. This has it’s own challenges since the city water is heavily bicarbonate as well as having lots of chloromines. To combat this, I’m employing a whole-house carbon filter, campden tabs, and lots of phosphoric acid so I can have a low residual alkalinity for mashing with light grains. I’ll follow up with a post on the water process used as well.

Here’s the recipe for Woxbic, the first lambic-style beer I’m attempting.

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
12 gal	90 min	8.9 IBUs	3.8 SRM	1.051	1.012	5.0 %
			Actuals	1.046	1.01	4.7 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
Straight (Unblended) Lambic	17 D	1.04 - 1.054	1.001 - 1.01	0 - 10	3 - 7	1.8 - 2.6	5 - 6.5 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Pilsner (2 Row) Bel	16 lbs	61.54
Wheat, Torrified	9 lbs	34.62
Acidulated (Weyermann)	1 lbs	3.85

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Crystal	1.5 oz	60 min	Boil	Pellet	3

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Wheat Flour	3.00 oz	5 min	Boil	Other

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
Bug Country (20)	East Coast Yeast	70%	63°F - 75°F

Mash

Step	Temperature	Time
Acid Rest	93°F	15 min
Protein Rest	113°F	15 min
Saccharification 1	131°F	15 min
Saccharification 2	149°F	15 min
Mash Out	168°F	10 min

Notes

After mash-out, drain all liquid into boil kettle, raise temp to 190, pump back to mash for second rinse through grain bed.

Pitching ECY20 Bugcountry in 11G barrel.

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Sour Wit, take 2

Posted on January 17, 2014 by funkmetal

Farmhouse Saison fermenting with lactobacillus

I attempted a sour-worted wit a while back. The process had a few hiccups and created a tasty beer, but it wasn’t nearly sour enough. There isn’t any magical formula since we’re at the mercy of the bacteria. However, I have learned that since I can’t rush it I shouldn’t try to make it fit my schedule.

In the past, I started the souring during the week and then on brewnight, usually Friday night, I would do the boil and then ferment. This put the bacteria under a timeline: get sour by friday or that’s it! This time, however, I’ll just be preparing the wort for innoculation and then letting it ride until it smells and tastes right.

Recipe-wise, I’ve been scouring the web for details and discussions of Crooked Stave’s St. Bretta farmhouse wit. This was my first Crooked Stave beer that I got to try out in San Francisco at the excellent Monk’s Kettle. It is a really nice beer. Sour enough in the finish, but not overly aggressive that non-sour beer drinkers would run away. There are a couple of new items for me, namely using Golden Naked Oats. Supposedly they have a nice rich and fruity flavor but can contribute enough proteins to enhance mouth feel.

For the yeast, I wasn’t sure what Brett to use. Various boards have some details of what is used in St. Bretta. I was tempted to try two Bretts, but I think this time I’ll pitch Brett C. A number of threads on Homebrewtalk forums mentioned getting a tart, almost sour flavor in beers fermented with Brett C. This is unique since it is generally accepted that Brett by itself does not produce souring acids, besides Acetic (think vinegar) in the presence of oxygen. Several homebrewers asserted that their Brett C. beers did have a significant tart, sour note without being acetic. That’s good enough for me to try.

Here is St. Woxford, version 1.

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
5.3 gal	60 min	9.0 IBUs	4.7 SRM	1.052	1.010	5.5 %
			Actuals	1.046	1.01	4.7 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
Witbier	16 A	1.044 - 1.052	1.008 - 1.012	10 - 20	2 - 4	2.4 - 2.9	4.5 - 5.5 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Brewer's Malt, 2-Row, Premium (Great Western)	6.5 lbs	59.63
Wheat Malt, Ger	1.5 lbs	13.76
Acidulated (Weyermann)	1 lbs	9.17
Munich Malt	1 lbs	9.17
Oats, Golden Naked (Simpsons)	8 oz	4.59
Barley, Flaked	6.4 oz	3.67

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Mt. Hood (20120604)	0.28 oz	60 min	First Wort	Pellet	6.1
Styrian Goldings	0.35 oz	10 min	Boil	Pellet	3
Ahtanum	0.35 oz	7 days	Dry Hop	Pellet	5.2

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Calcium Chloride	3.70 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)	3.70 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4)	0.90 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Coriander Seed	0.17 oz	5 min	Boil	Spice
Orange Peel, Bitter	0.17 oz	5 min	Boil	Spice

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
Brettanomyces Bruxellensis (WLP650)	White Labs	70%	65°F - 72°F
Brettanomyces Claussenii (WLP645)	White Labs	70%	65°F - 72°F
Lactobacillus Bacteria (WLP677)	White Labs	70%	65°F - 72°F

Mash

Step	Temperature	Time
Saccharification	147.9°F	90 min
Mash Out	168°F	10 min

Notes

Pitch lacto for up to 5 days to get level of sour needed.

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