Crabapple Lambicky Ale recipe from Radical Brewing

Has anyone brewed this recipe from Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing book? Crabapple Lambicky Ale

It is on page 169 as part of the 12 beers of Christmas. he suggests brewing a pale wheat ale mashed really low and primaried with a clean yeast strain then racking to a secondary on top of 3-4 Lbs of Crabapples or cranberries (frozen then thawed) and pitching a lambic blend. He suggests aging for only 2 (TWO) months, then racking to a tertiary and allowing it to clear for a few weeks then bottling.

It seems like this might create bottle bombs as the mixed lambic culture continues to chews through any remaining food. it also seems like this would not be very sour. any thoughts? anyone brewed this and can comment on the results? ...or any experienced sour brewers comment on the approach/expected results?

I haven't made it, but it sure sounds delicious.

jpoder said:

Has anyone brewed this recipe from Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing book? Crabapple Lambicky Ale

It is on page 169 as part of the 12 beers of Christmas. he suggests brewing a pale wheat ale mashed really low and primaried with a clean yeast strain then racking to a secondary on top of 3-4 Lbs of Crabapples or cranberries (frozen then thawed) and pitching a lambic blend. He suggests aging for only 2 (TWO) months, then racking to a tertiary and allowing it to clear for a few weeks then bottling.

It seems like this might create bottle bombs as the mixed lambic culture continues to chews through any remaining food. it also seems like this would not be very sour. any thoughts? anyone brewed this and can comment on the results? ...or any experienced sour brewers comment on the approach/expected results?

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Mashing low AND starting with an ale yeast are gonna make a bland beer, you need a good amount of food for the brett/pedio to grow and add their own touch to the beer

2mos is also extremely fast for a sour beer, it doesnt take much to overcarb a bottle if it wasnt done fermenting

A lot of the advice in very popular brewing books about sour beers is very suspect at best, they suggest fermenting out with ale yeast, quick turn arounds and fruiting very quickly, IMHO this is going to produce a very subpar beer, that isnt very sour or complex and that may very likely lead to bottle grenades after a bit of time

I think you could make a decent beer by following everything up to adding the lambic culture, cranberries are very tart and they should add a decent amount of tannin to the beer as well, you might try that by itself and see what it gets you, if its not sour enough add some acid, or if you dont mind waiting go for the long haul, mash high, start with lambic blend and add fruit in a min 6mos 12mos prefered

Thanks ryane. I was thinking the recipe didn't sound like it would have desired results...I really like the recipies from Radical Brewing, and this one sounded too good to be true I may try doing this just as a clean beer, but didn't see anything good coming from a bug blend in the secondary in that sort of timeframe.

Funny, I was JUST reading this recipe and thought "I wonder if anyone has made this". I am sitting on 200 lbs of Crab apples is this is perfect. I think I might try it, I have everything I need for the wheat beer, the only thing I would be out is the lacto culture.

grab a bottle of jp calabaza blanca, that will quickly sour up your beer for you

also, with 200# of crab apples I think its time to make some cider!