Lighter Malt Profile with Roselare.. Would it work?

So I'm in the early stages of planning out my first jump into the wild arena. My thoughts are to go with a lighter white type of beer with a wine backing and a heavy souring element. I'm wondering going with the roselare blend (mainly for it's ease of use) would be right for this application.

Here is what I have been working on:

Type: All Grain
Date: 8/28/2009
Batch Size: 3.00 gal
Boil Size: 3.43 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: My Equipment
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 48.48 %
3.50 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 42.42 %
0.75 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 9.09 %
0.75 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (20 min) Hops 9.6 IBU
1.00 oz Cabernet Sauvignon Oak Chips (Secondary 180.0 days) Misc
1 Pkgs Roselare Belgian Blend (Wyeast Labs #3763) Yeast-Ale


Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.067 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.019 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.25 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %
Bitterness: 9.6 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 7.5 SRM Color: Color


My idea is to soak the oak chips in a good cab for basically the entirety of primary (I was thinking about a month in primary), then dump them into secondary and just leave it for at least 6 months.

A few questions now.

Will the roselare play well with a recipe like this and my other concern is with the wood playing too heavy of a role in the final product. I am hoping for a very woodsey and vinous quality, but I don't want it to completely lose any semblance of balance.

Thoughts and critiques?

I'm not too sure about putting that much wood in it.

In most recipes I have seen, they generally use .75 oz for 5 gallons of beer, so 1 oz for 3 gallons is a huge increase. You said that you are going for a very woody beer, but I don't know if that would be too much.

womencantsail said:

I'm not too sure about putting that much wood in it.

In most recipes I have seen, they generally use .75 oz for 5 gallons of beer, so 1 oz for 3 gallons is a huge increase. You said that you are going for a very woody beer, but I don't know if that would be too much.

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you may be completely right. I haven't wood aged a beer more than a week. My 6 gallon batch of vanilla bourbon porter gets about 5oz of wood. I was somewhat guessing somewhat using reasoning to figure on 1oz for 3 gal. Perhaps .5 oz would be more than ample for a 3 gal batch that will easily see 6+ months. I do want a noticeable wood/cab characteristic on this beer, but won't want it to be the only flavor

Thanks for the feedback

since the Roselare seems to be gone or very old if you actually find it anywhere, does anyone have any suggestion of strains that might add a nice medium tart and sourness to something like this?

SEASONAL YEAST STRAINS @ Williams Brewing
Williams still carries it, and it's on sale. I'd just build up a moderate starter for it, it's not super old.
I made a 100% Brett L beer with red wine (Beaujolais in particular), 1oz French oak cubes, vanilla beans and 3 cups of wine. I wouldn't bother soaking the ships, just add wine to taste. I'd recommend using at least cubes since this thing will be aging for months and chips would be overdone at that point. It'll turn out well too, though you're going to lose some of the fresh wine flavor. Good luck.

dreadnatty08 said:

SEASONAL YEAST STRAINS @ Williams Brewing
Williams still carries it, and it's on sale. I'd just build up a moderate starter for it, it's not super old.
I made a 100% Brett L beer with red wine (Beaujolais in particular), 1oz French oak cubes, vanilla beans and 3 cups of wine. I wouldn't bother soaking the ships, just add wine to taste. I'd recommend using at least cubes since this thing will be aging for months and chips would be overdone at that point. It'll turn out well too, though you're going to lose some of the fresh wine flavor. Good luck.

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that's a great idea going on the cubes. I hadn't even thought of that and was just going to go with the regular chips. Has your beer had enough time to get a decent taste off of it and see if the brett l alone provided enough funk?

Unlike the two other 100% brett beers I did, this one had the longest and had slightly better attenuation (1.070-1.009). It also has the most tartness of the three and I don't know if it was because of the long fermentation (4 months), oak, wine, or second pitch.
I see your in Alexandria. I live in Columbia Heights in DC and am more than happy to share some brews. OldSock is a good friend of mine too and an excellent brewer. PM me if you're ever interested in hooking up for some homebrew.

dreadnatty08 said:

Unlike the two other 100% brett beers I did, this one had the longest and had slightly better attenuation (1.070-1.009). It also has the most tartness of the three and I don't know if it was because of the long fermentation (4 months), oak, wine, or second pitch.
I see your in Alexandria. I live in Columbia Heights in DC and am more than happy to share some brews. OldSock is a good friend of mine too and an excellent brewer. PM me if you're ever interested in hooking up for some homebrew.

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I was planning on a long primary, to really dry it out, then oak and wine for a very long secondary.

I would absolutely get together to share some brews. the more quality feedback I get, the better I will become

I think I'm pretty much sold on going with a mixture of brett b and l. Going to build up a starter once my local shop gets the yeast in. Hopefully I can get this going by next weekend.

feeding my brett starter one last time before wednesday's brew day


It's looking ripe

Yeah! Looking good! Brett B and L?

yep that's both B and L

I am going to just pitch them together and do the entire fermentation process in a single carboy

had a bit of an unfortunate split while aerating, but there is quite the growth on top

ace3's carboy said:

since the Roselare seems to be gone or very old if you actually find it anywhere, does anyone have any suggestion of strains that might add a nice medium tart and sourness to something like this?

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It's going year-round soon.

sonetlumiere85 said:

It's going year-round soon.

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Really? Did you hear that from somewhere reliable? I've heard rumors (listening to podcast archives it sounds like those rumors have actually been around for years), but it just hasn't happened yet so I've become a bit of a skeptic... Trust me, I'd absolutely LOVE it if it's true.

I talked to Brian, a Wyeast rep, at the Northern Brewer grand opening this past weekend. He said the roselare and Denny's favorite 50 are both going year-round fairly soon.

sonetlumiere85 said:

I talked to Brian, a Wyeast rep, at the Northern Brewer grand opening this past weekend. He said the roselare and Denny's favorite 50 are both going year-round fairly soon.

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Well, that sounds like a good source to me! That would truly be awesome.

Few things regarding pale sour ales:

1. I'm planning on brewing a pale beer this weekend with some bottled & refrigerated dregs from my Flanders ale (Roselare). I'm using WLP550 as the primary yeast, but made a starter with the Roselare dregs.

2. There's a Flanders Pale Ale recipe in Wild Brews. Pretty much just pils malt with 25 IBU's of bittering hops. I modified to my liking for the brew noted above.

3. I had a pretty good pale, sour ale (sour flavor/aroma profile very similar to Rodenbach) at the Grumpy Troll in Mt. Horeb, WI last week. Interesting coincidence since I was planning a similar beer.

So, with regards to the OP, I'd definitely think a pale beer with Roselare would be good.