MattTimBell
Well-Known Member
Hey all,
I'm preparing to brew with wild elements in a couple weeks for the first time, and wondered if I could get some advice / constructive criticisms on the rough plan I'm forming.
First, as to my goal: I'm not aiming for a particular style, per say, so much as I'm taking bits of qualities my wife and I both like (she's very picky, generally only liking the sweeter / fruitier belgians and fruit lambics with no to low hops; I like malty, hops optional) and melding them. The wife likes lambics and sours and funk, hence the wild element.
My plan, right now, is this:
Yeasts / Bugs: I'm making up at least three separate starters. One is going to be from the dregs of Wild Devil, Two is a sponteneous ferment of a weak wort made on my windowsill along the lines posted in the yeast capturing thread in this forum, Three will be some neutral ale yeast like Coopers. (If there is a fourth, I'll use the dregs from Petrus Oud Bruin.) The sponteneous ferment is already capturing, is five days old, and is bubbling steadily with a significant foam on the surface and a smell like a good sourdough starter.
Wort: I plan on mixing 4 lb munich, 4 lb pale, and 4 lb mixed adjuncts like cornmeal / oatmeal / rice / flaked wheat, and mashing at around 156 deg F, then boiling the wort with a few ounces of hops "rapidly aged" in my oven until I get down to between 5 and 6 gallons.
To ferment, I just plan on adding all three (four) of the starters as soon as the wort comes down to temp.
After things have quited down and it looks like it's ready to go to secondary, I plan on racking it on top of 4 or 5 lbs of frozen fruit from the grocery store, probably apricots if I can find them.
Any thoughts on this? Where should I modify? Or is the entire thing wrong-headed and in need of radical overhaul!
Thanks -- Matt
I'm preparing to brew with wild elements in a couple weeks for the first time, and wondered if I could get some advice / constructive criticisms on the rough plan I'm forming.
First, as to my goal: I'm not aiming for a particular style, per say, so much as I'm taking bits of qualities my wife and I both like (she's very picky, generally only liking the sweeter / fruitier belgians and fruit lambics with no to low hops; I like malty, hops optional) and melding them. The wife likes lambics and sours and funk, hence the wild element.
My plan, right now, is this:
Yeasts / Bugs: I'm making up at least three separate starters. One is going to be from the dregs of Wild Devil, Two is a sponteneous ferment of a weak wort made on my windowsill along the lines posted in the yeast capturing thread in this forum, Three will be some neutral ale yeast like Coopers. (If there is a fourth, I'll use the dregs from Petrus Oud Bruin.) The sponteneous ferment is already capturing, is five days old, and is bubbling steadily with a significant foam on the surface and a smell like a good sourdough starter.
Wort: I plan on mixing 4 lb munich, 4 lb pale, and 4 lb mixed adjuncts like cornmeal / oatmeal / rice / flaked wheat, and mashing at around 156 deg F, then boiling the wort with a few ounces of hops "rapidly aged" in my oven until I get down to between 5 and 6 gallons.
To ferment, I just plan on adding all three (four) of the starters as soon as the wort comes down to temp.
After things have quited down and it looks like it's ready to go to secondary, I plan on racking it on top of 4 or 5 lbs of frozen fruit from the grocery store, probably apricots if I can find them.
Any thoughts on this? Where should I modify? Or is the entire thing wrong-headed and in need of radical overhaul!
Thanks -- Matt