Jolly Rancher Lambic

I came across Chris Colby's 2003 BYO recipe for Jolly Rancher Lambic recently and I'm very intrigued. I've searched the internet and I can't find any reviews of the recipe from people who have actually made it. If anyone has made it, can you give some feedback?

I would guess you couldnt find anyones experience because the recipe is very questionable

3mos for fermentation ?? all that means is bottle bombs in 6mos, you need a much much longer fermentation time to make sure its sour enough and has fully attenuated

Considering you do wait long enough for a stable FG, which could more than 12mos and even aproaching 24, if you wait this long why would you want to add jolly ranchers to your beer? maybe im more traditional, but something i made that took a year or two to make I wouldnt want to artificially flavor and would use real fruit myself

The more recipes that are posted from BYO the more I question what they print in there, there are too many questionable techniques

If you want to use a jolly rancher in a beer and produce something quickly I would brew up a lightish beer, sticking primarily to barley, wheat is ok although in a lambic style the wheat flavor is greatly diminished partially due to the extended aging time, so brew a mostly barley beer with low IBU's, add your jolly rancher syrup and let it ferment out, then add lactic acid to taste, bottle and drink

I know there was a thread over on Northern Brewer a couple years back about the Jolly Rancher Lambic, (I don't remember the results though).

ryane said:

The more recipes that are posted from BYO the more I question what they print in there, there are too many questionable techniques

Click to expand...

Hopefully the article I just sent in about brewing sour beer with fruit passes muster. Not sure when it will be published though, hopefully this summer when fresh fruit is still available.

Oldsock said:

Hopefully the article I just sent in about brewing sour beer with fruit passes muster. Not sure when it will be published though, hopefully this summer when fresh fruit is still available.

Click to expand...

Hmmm.......... I can be a big stickler about advice/procedures, although i bet yours will be sound, but we will have to wait and see.....

I found a brewer on the NB forums who brewed it. Here is my convo for posterity:

Me said:

I came across Chris Colby's Jolly Rancher Lambic recipe in BYO and I'm intrigued. I've searched the internet a bit and came across your post on this forum saying you brewed it. How did it turn out? Compared to a traditional lambic? Compared to Lindemans Pomme? Any other notes?

Click to expand...

Guy who brewed Jolly Rancher Lambic said:

I made it about 2 years ago and it is still in the carboy. The problem with it is the jolly ranchers have a preservative in them I think and it took 18 months for the yeast to eat through it. I tasted it a few weeks ago and its not bad, but I think colby says to drink it somewhat young so you get more of the jolly rancher flavor, most of it is gone in mine at this time. I think it is worth making, fun if nothing else, but if I did it again I think I would drink it when its younger, and not make a full 5 gallons.

Click to expand...

Me said:

Interesting. How similar to Lindemans Pomme does it taste? What FG would you imagine getting if you drank it early, around 4 months like Colby suggests? Do you think the 4 lbs of jolly ranchers is appropriate?

Click to expand...

Guy who brewed Jolly Rancher Lambic said:

I have not had pomme so I couldn't say. I don't have my notes handy, but i think the gravity was at 1.022 after about 3 months after the addition of the jolly ranchers. I think you want a fairly high final gravity. I don't think the addition of the ranchers is additional sugar to ferment, but to give a sweet green apple taste. I think 4# is about right, but you will get some funny looks at the grociery story picking throught the bin for green ranchers, think tweeked out meth addict . Like I said thought I don't think 5 gallons is worth it on the first try. I would probably make a 1-2 gallon batch and do alot of testing to see when it is best.

Click to expand...

I found it several years back. I thought, if I'm going through tge trouble to do a fruit lambic, why not just do a fruit lambic?

Maybe test it out on a hefe first. Add as many lbs JRs as you would add honey in a honey hefe.

Beernik said:

I found it several years back. I thought, if I'm going through tge trouble to do a fruit lambic, why not just do a fruit lambic?

Maybe test it out on a hefe first. Add as many lbs JRs as you would add honey in a honey hefe.

Click to expand...

im with beer on this one.
If it takes that much time just do a fruit lambic.

Yeah, if you are going to wait 1 or more years for a beer, forget the candy and go with real fruit. I don't think any Lambic coming out of Belgium would be brewed with candy.

avidhomebrewer said:

I don't think any Lambic coming out of Belgium would be brewed with candy.

Click to expand...

Some aren't that far off: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/190/5358