boralyl
Well-Known Member
I'm looking to brew my first Lambic in about a month. I've been doing lots of reading and research and seem to run into a lot of conflicting information. I was looking to brew the Lambic recipe in the "Brewing Classic Styles" book. My main questions are about the fermentation process.
1) The recipe calls for fermenting primary with a neutral yeast (White Labs WLP001) and then adding the bugs from the White Labs Belgian Sour Mix 1 (WLP655). It seems a lot of people say to skip the neutral yeast and just add the sour mix and let it ferment. So should I follow the instructions in the book, add both at the same time, or just add the sour mix?
2) I plan on using a 6.5 gallon glass carboy for fermentation. Do I need to transfer to secondary, or is it okay to just let it sit on the yeast cake? From what I read it seems it would be beneficial to just let it sit in the primary as the bugs have more things to eat from the yeast cake.
3) To add a bit more variety of bugs, I plan on using dregs from some bottled sours. I've read the article here(http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/06/harvesting-sour-beer-bottle-dregs.html), but am still uncertain of the process. With the last 10% of beer in the bottle, do I just put some sanitized foil over it and then stick it in the fridge until I'm ready to pitch it? Or do I make a starter just like a normal one and add the dregs? Again where do I store this(room temp, fridge) and how long is it good for?
4) The recipe calls for aged hops. Obviously I won't have time to age hops before brewing, especially not for a few years. What should I do in this situation? It doesn't specify a variety of hops, so which should I purchase?
Thanks in advance for any help.
1) The recipe calls for fermenting primary with a neutral yeast (White Labs WLP001) and then adding the bugs from the White Labs Belgian Sour Mix 1 (WLP655). It seems a lot of people say to skip the neutral yeast and just add the sour mix and let it ferment. So should I follow the instructions in the book, add both at the same time, or just add the sour mix?
2) I plan on using a 6.5 gallon glass carboy for fermentation. Do I need to transfer to secondary, or is it okay to just let it sit on the yeast cake? From what I read it seems it would be beneficial to just let it sit in the primary as the bugs have more things to eat from the yeast cake.
3) To add a bit more variety of bugs, I plan on using dregs from some bottled sours. I've read the article here(http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/06/harvesting-sour-beer-bottle-dregs.html), but am still uncertain of the process. With the last 10% of beer in the bottle, do I just put some sanitized foil over it and then stick it in the fridge until I'm ready to pitch it? Or do I make a starter just like a normal one and add the dregs? Again where do I store this(room temp, fridge) and how long is it good for?
4) The recipe calls for aged hops. Obviously I won't have time to age hops before brewing, especially not for a few years. What should I do in this situation? It doesn't specify a variety of hops, so which should I purchase?
Thanks in advance for any help.