The Flanders Project 09'

*Updated with Pics!*

Myself and 9 of my fellow HBC members will be using the JZ's recipe with the exception of the yeast. We are not fermenting first with 001, rather we are going with an intial pitch of Roselare. The beer has all been brewed over the past 3 weeks by all of us and myself and the other point man on this project are picking up the barrel today from a local vineyard.

Recipe and pics to follow once I get home.

This is going to freakin epic!

Stay Tuned.

I'll be waiting with anticipation. I have a Flanders going, but alas, no barrel. Mine already has one real funky looking pellicle after 2 months in the primary. I loosely used Jeff Sparrow's recipe. I can't help but mess with 'em a little bit.

I just pitched the Rosealare too...

We recieved input from sparrow via email on this bad boy. I am excited.

Care to share? It might be good general knowledge for the wild brewing community.

I have 15 gallons in a barrel right now, I fermented 5 with roeselare and 10 with euro ale yeast. When I added the clean fermented ones to the barrel I tossed in another pack of roeselare to help the souring process. It blew off like crazy and made a nice seal around the bung on the barrel.

Can't wait to be me in like a year.

The info from Sparrow on this particular beer was about using the cal ale yeast first. He could not for the life of him understand why we would do that when the Roselare blend has a specific amount of yeast and bugs so one can arrive at a delicious Flanders Red. I suppose this needs to be kept in perspective. I like the Rodenbach Grand Cru way more than a regular flanders red. It has more funk, more sourness, a better all around beer in my opinion and as such he suggested we forget the cal ale yeast all together.

Reverend JC said:

The info from Sparrow on this particular beer was about using the cal ale yeast first. He could not for the life of him understand why we would do that when the Roselare blend has a specific amount of yeast and bugs so one can arrive at a delicious Flanders Red. I suppose this needs to be kept in perspective. I like the Rodenbach Grand Cru way more than a regular flanders red. It has more funk, more sourness, a better all around beer in my opinion and as such he suggested we forget the cal ale yeast all together.

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I have heard the Roeselare blend has cal ale in it...but that's just what I heard.

Tonedef131 said:

I have heard the Roeselare blend has cal ale in it...but that's just what I heard.

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For some reason I remember hearing that the sacchromyces in the roeselare and lambic blends was the belgian wheat yeast. Could be wrong though

We followed JZ's method to a T and it came out wonderful. One benefit there is that you can rack off most of the trub before it hits the barrel. The sourness is inline with Rodenbach Red and you'll probably end up with something more like Grand Cru.

Bobby_M said:

you'll probably end up with something more like Grand Cru.

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YYEEESSSSSSSSSS FOR THE WIN!

good. that is what we wanted. I was to busy to get pics last night but the barrel is almost new. One batch of red wine thru it. The winery rinsed it and burnt a sulphur stick in it and said that should be good. I need to rinse with near boiling water a day before we use it and let it air dry. Should I hit it with star san or anything?

To be safe I would fill it completely with water to make sure it seals/swells properly. Nothing worse then to start dumping in all the batches and have a small leak show.

Good call and with a barrel off of the intrawebz I would but this was just emptied of wine yesterday. So it has been soaking for over 3 years with wine in it. I am pretty sure it is leak proof for the next few days. We are putting the beer in it Sunday or Monday night as it is still up for a vote on the night.

We rolled it around with 10 gallons of boiling water until it stopped leaking, but we put the beer in immediately after. No air drying.

Odd. The vinter made a point to tell us to let it air dry. I wonder why? No star san bobby M?

From what I understand, the best you can hope for in a barrel is to sanitize the surface of the oak. I figure boiling water is enough for that. However, even more, think about the kind of beer you're trying to make. In winemaking, perhaps they're worried about the wet wood not taking the wine into the pores.

I started a 5 gal Flanders Red back in 04/09.. used only Roselare blend.. got some French oak cubes, boiled them, and soaked them for 2 days in some wort I saved from a previous batch to leach some of the non-water soluble tannins out, and put em in the carboy... no huge pellicle, but I have hardly any headspace in the carboy and its mostly filled with oak cubes... if Im headed toward Rodenbach Grand Cru, I cant wait til 10/10!!

Reverend JC said:

No star san bobby M?

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Starsan would be useless. Its only good for non-porous surfaces.

From where is the Rosalare blend available?

Roeselare blend is wyeast product (#3763)... lots of places to get it online.

We have a Flander's working on a VA wine barrel as well. Recipes and notes here: The Mad Fermentationist: The Plan: Wine Barrel Flanders Red
It's been going since late November I believe. I don't know if anyone in the group has sampled it lately, but you can PM OldSock if you'd like. When I last tried it in February it was in a super ropey stage, just thick and viscous. Completely gross mouthfeel, but excellent flavor. Good luck!

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Ok. This comes a few days after the fact but the day I took the pics was a day full of cleaning the brewery after the kitchen had moved into it while they remodeled. The did everything short of crapping on the floor. Then kegging 7 bbls and then having to make a barrel rack 1.5 hours before people showed up. I look a bit rough in the pics, but it was a fun night for sure.

I give you......the barrel.


Here it is getting filled


The group of guys sands one who was in Dallas for a soccer game and me, but you can see my cup in the bottom of the pic.


Me.


And the line up of beers we drank and then dumped the dregs into the barrel.



Here are two pics of a fallen soldier on his way to my house.



needless to say we are 5 gallons short for the time being, but that will soon be added to the barrel. No worries.

Mmmm Flanders. So sad that this 18 month old beauty of a beer is almost gone.

Well, the last 5 gallons made it into the barrel. Those would be the 5 gallons that were spilled in the back of a truck on their way to my house. That barrel is chugging away.

When we pulled out the bung to add the fresh 5 it smelled soooo goood already. only 11 months and 1 week to go!

my homebrew club recently acquired a 60 gal red wine barrel. I was wondering if it was ok to let the flanders age in it for the majority of its lifespan? Do I have to worry about it picking up too much oak or wine flavor before the bugs are done?