Flanders Red for a first sour

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s3n8

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I have a pack of Roeselare blend burning a hole in my pocket... I am planning on following the recipe for a Flanders Red from Brewing Classic Styles. I would like to make a true sour, so I am not planning on primary fermentation with regular yeast. I am also going to do a 6 gallon primary, so I can split the batch and add raspberries to half (maybe next year).

My questions have to do with the roeselare blend. Does it need a lot of headspace like normal yeast, or does it form a pellicle? Should I do the primary in a bucket (7 gallons) or the 6.5G carboy. In BCS, he recommends a 1 week primary, and 1+ year secondary. Do I really need to rack after 1 week? What do you sour pros recommend? What about temps? Basement varies, 65 in the winter, 75 in the summer. Is that 10 degree swing kosher for a whole year in secondary? Thanks in advance for any advice you guys have.
 
I have my first sour in secondary, so I'm no expert, but I'll take a swing. I fermented with Notty, then pitched the bugs in mine. If you're going to pitch the Roeselare in primary, I would say that you probably don't want to rack after a week. If you are going to rack it, you'll want to wait until the yeast drops out I would imagine. If headspace is worrying you, I would just set up a blowoff tube. As far as the temperature swings, I would really only worry about it at the beginning of fermentation, it's probably not that critical for aging.
 
I will take a stab.

I am not sure about the need for headspace, I used a ale strain first. If I had to guess, I would say you should expect some krausen for the initial fermentation then once you rack you need little to not headspace as the brett will form a pelicle.

I think it is good to rack at 7 days so that you leave most of the primary saccharomyces behind. You want some for the long haul but not all of it, there will be plenty of yeast and bugs left in suspension.

You can priamry in plastic, but I would only use that plastic again for beers with bugs. No telling if the bugs are hiding in the micro scratches.

Hope this helps.
 
It will krausen like a normal beer and then form the pellicle later on.

75 is a bit warm but should still work. You don't have to rack after a week. Hell, from what I can tell, you don't have to rack at all, just like with a lambic. There are a handful of people at least that have had success with Flanders Red staying on the primary yeast.

The consensus also seems to be that it is a very good idea to supplement the Roselare bugs with commercial dregs for additional biological diversity.
 
Thanks guys. Do you get much funk or sour when doing primary with normal ale yeast?

Good call on the plastic... Hadn't thought about that.

Basement is 69 or 70 right now... Hoping to get a few batches brewed before it gets too warm.

I have a bottle of Orval and a bottle of Floris in the fridge. I will add something if its not funky in 6 months. I know my Avery Fifteen isnt going to last that long.

Thanks for the advice! Certainly appreciated.
 
I am at somewhere near 10-11 months. I did the primary with US-05. It is sour. The funk is not quite there but I think it will catch up.

If I had it to do again (or next time) I will not use US-05 it is too attenuative. I will just pitch the pack and rack after a week or so.
 
I babysat 60 gallons of Flanders for my club and we followed BCS (Jamil's) process exactly. It produced something in the range of a regular Rodenbach. If you want something like a grand cru, make sure you mash hot enough to leave the residual gravity at about 1.020. Most of the brewers the club project seemed to be lax so their batches dropped to 1.010 just on the WLP001.

We followed up with a Kriek in the same barrel, and thus same lambic blend, but we added a LOT of completely unfermented wort to it. In only a few months, it showed quite a bit of sourness.
 
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