Bottle Day - "Quick" Sours Aged in Oak Barrels

Exciting times.  I bottled my "Quick" Sours that were aged on my new-ish oak barrel.  The oak barrel held Cab Sauv wine prior to this first batch of beer being put on it.  I then split the 5 gallon batch 3 ways.  This week I bottled 2 of those variations.

Batch one was mixed with Tart Cherries from Michigan.  I got these frozen and just dumped them into my small 2 gallon bucket. Once they defrosted, I added the beer.  I had 2.5 lbs of cherries for 2 gallons.  If you go back to this post, you will see how this beer had the nastiest pellicle of the group.  It was smelling pretty harsh, but the flavor was really good prior to go into the bottle.


Batch two was a one gallon of straight Flanders Red.  This batch had the dusty pellicle but in my notes on that previous post, I mentioned it was a bit tame.  Not much sour flavor and it just had some oak notes along with a bit of funk from the bugs but what a difference 2 weeks makes.  This beer really turned the corner and it was a lot more acidic and had way more depth.  The oak flavor even started to subside.  I am really shocked and how quick this one turned.

Both beers were still at 1.009 or 1.010.  Again it looks like it was probably 1.0095.  This dint move from two weeks earlier so I went ahead with the bottling.  I aimed for 2.0 volumes of carbonation as well. This is on the lower end for the category but last batch of quick sours really ramped up a second fermantation in the bottle and created gushers.  Hoping that the reduced sugar at bottling will help reduce that while still giving it enough carbonation to create a brighter flavor to carry the sourness.

Since I used less sugar I am going to let these sit for at least 3 weeks - probably more like a month.  Once I open them in a month it will have been close to 7 months total for the sours.  Some of the delay was due to the fact that I bought a house and essentially the past 2 months have been just too crazy.  The goal was six months so I am only one month off.  Here's hoping the tasting day tastes as promising as the bottle day.

See you in a month on this one!

Brew Day - Lambic-ish

They say Lambic can only be crafted in Belgium. Proper wild yeast, temperature or even the spider webs in the attic of the brewery etc. etc. etc.

OK then. So I just brewed a "Labic-ish"beer.  You may have seen this called pLambic on home brew blogs before. Mine was a simple 60-40 mix of pilsner and wheat malts with a tiny dose of East Kent Goldings.  I did not do a authentic turbid mash.  This was my first brew day in my new house and, to be honest, I was out of sorts.  I did not want to try this new type of mash.  Besides, we already cleared up that we can not create a true Lambic here in the states so a single infusion mash was what I did.

Since my brew day did not go as well as I hoped this will be on the lower end of what a Lambic should be.  They are typically 1.044-1.056 in OG.  This is mostly due to the fact that I forgot to collect more wort because it seems when you brew in the cold you lose a lot more from the boil off.  So I only ended up with about 4.5 gallons of wort that was coming in at 1.052.  I then had to make a gallon of wort from malt extract.  I only had a small portion so this was pretty weak.  I didn't even bother to measure the final OG after I mixed everything together. Ugh...

I also didn't strain my wort as it was coming of the grain enough.  I thought it was pretty clear but when I started to strain from the boil kettle I noticed a lot of grain particles.  I then put it back into the boil kettle and then strained the wort through a cheese-cloth-like material to get out as much as I could.

My thought process was this - a Lambic ages for at least a year.  During the time this is aging it will get nice and funky and sour and should clear up in appearance.  Who knows how I will batch this group but my initial thought is to have some straight, some with raspberries and some on white grapes or golden raisins.

This post will get revisited in about year.  In the meantime I plan to take another attempt at a sour-mashed Lambic inspired beer while this one ages. More on that as it happens.


1-19-14 - Brew Day.  Yeast pitched around 12am.
1-20-14 - No signs of fermentation yet at 24 hrs. moved to a warmer location
1-21-14 - 7hrs after last check, airlock activity.
1-25-14 - Airlock activity has come to a crawl - very little activity
11-30-14 Moved to wooden barrel

Wood Barrel Sours - Updates

The wood barrel sours have been aging on fruit - or not - for the past month and I wanted to take a hydrometer reading to see where we are.  Of course it was time to taste a few to see how they were coming along as well.

Straight:

This is the smallest of the group with just under a gallon.  As you can see in the photo there is a nice dusty pellicle.  When I cracked it open it smelled more like "funk" than sour.  It had a lot of oak coming off of it too.  It was reading 1.010 or maybe 1.009.  When I tasted the sample from the hydrometer there was a big oak presence.  A little bit of Brett funk was hiding back there.  It was a very clean/light sour flavor.  Would not describe it as tart. Since this beer was made with the soured wort method the straight version will probably be a bit one-dimensional like previous tests.



Cherry:

This is a 2 gallon batch.  As you can see in the photo.  A big bubble like pellicle with the cherries floating in there. This measured in at 1.010 or maybe even 1.009. This one had very little oak flavor and smell.  This one has a nice tart taste to it.  The biggest sour flavor of the group.  It has a nice fruitiness to it as well.  The cherries are definitly doing there job in this one.  The extra sugar might of kicked up more production out of the Brett and other bacteria.  Only concern on this one is that it smells very strong.  Next week I will determine if I need to mix in some straight before bottling.



Currants:

Again, this is a two gallon batch and again this measured in at 1.010 or 1.009.  Its probably somewhere in between. Strange thing about this one is that the currant version has zero pellicle.  This has a medium tartness or sour flavor profile.  This batch also exhibited the most "wine" flavor from the barrel.  Very little to no oak flavor as well.  This is probably the most balanced.  The currants are not as in your face as the cherries are either.  They are more in the background.  You can tell there is something going on but not quit sure.




Next Steps:
I will measure again next week and more importantly check up on the cherry version.  I am concerned ascetic acid may be working a bit too hard in this one. Overall I am pretty excited.  Keep in mind these are still "quick sours".  They only aged for 4 months after a week of primary fermentation.  Most of these beers take 12-18 months.  Anything rated 6 or above on a scale of 1-10 would be pretty impressive in just 6 months (by the time they are ready to drink after bottling).

New Year - New Brews

I've spent most of the last year on Belgian recipes like a Traditional Saison, Flanders Red Sour Ale, Belgian Dark Strong Ales, Holiday Belgians and Golden Ales.

Overall most have been pretty good. The Saison and the Dark Strong Ales were the best of the year with the Holiday Belgian (Angry Dwarf) was a close third.  

This year I plan to continue sour path.  A Riesling oak barrel will hold my Lambic inspired beer that I plan to start by the end of January.  The Flanders Red Sour Ale aging in the Cab Sauv barrels will be ready for their first tastings.  Also in the plans for this year will be a Belgian Funky IPA brewed with 100% Brett yeast. I'm sure more will be brewed and more inspiration will come as I try more beers and read more blogs.  

Here's to the 2014 brewing experience.