Monthly Archives: January 2014

Attempting a Lambic-style brew

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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.

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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

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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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Needs more Brett

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Huge 3L starter for 12 gallon Saison batch

I could brew Saison every brew session and not get tired of the results. Especially if I’m fermenting with yeasts like Wyeast 3711, 3724 or bottle dregs. For this experiment, I’m looking to dial in a recipe for a slightly tart, but not fully sour saison. Something that has a slight lactic, tart bite, but not so sour that I need to age the beer for months or close to a year before it can be drunk.

I also want to use this showcase to test out different effects of Brett yeast in the secondary. I chose 3711 because this strain produces a high amount of glycerol, which lends to increased mouthfeel. This is one of the main reasons why beers fermented with 3711 can hit terminal gravity in the single digits, 1.004 for example, but not feel thin at all.

Brett is a huge consumer of glycerol, and uses it to transform flavors produced by sacchromyces.

I’ll be brewing 12 gallons of wort, chill to around 90F and then pitch lactobacillus for 48 hours to get an initial level of sour, and then rack the beer into 3 carboys, pitching a different brett (Lambicus, Bruxellensus, Clausenii) into each. After 6 weeks in the carboy, they’ll be bottled and sampled. I’ll also pull .33 gallons from each and combine into a single 1G jug to see what a combined brett secondary will produce.

Can’t want to find out how each of these come out.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
12 gal 90 min 23.9 IBUs 4.3 SRM 1.052 SG 1.009 SG 5.6 %

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 %
Pilsner (2 Row) Bel 14.5 lbs 61.7
Wheat Malt, Ger 5.5 lbs 23.4
Munich Malt 2.5 lbs 10.64
Acidulated (Weyermann) 1 lbs 4.26

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Styrian Goldings 1.76 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 3
Styrian Goldings 1 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 3.2
Saaz 2.4 oz 10 min Boil Pellet 7.6

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Calcium Chloride 3.00 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 3.00 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4) 0.80 g 60 min Mash Water Agent

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
French Saison (3711) Wyeast Labs 80% 65°F - 77°F
Brettanomyces Bruxellensis (WLP650) White Labs 70% 65°F - 72°F
Brettanomyces Claussenii (WLP645) White Labs 70% 65°F - 72°F
Brettanomyces Lambicus (WLP653) White Labs 70% 65°F - 72°F
Lactobacillus Bacteria (WLP677) White Labs 70% 65°F - 72°F

Notes

Chill to 100F, pitch lacto, hold for 48-36 hours. Chill to 65F.
Pitch 3711 into 12 gallons. Ferment to 1.010 S.G then transfer into three 4-gallon batches and pitch the different Brett strains into the carboys. Age for 6 weeks and then bottle.

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