Solera Question

I currently have a lambic in my 10gal barrel that is almost a year old (6 months in primary, 2 months in barrel). I just brewed up another 10gals of my lambic because I noticed the liquid level in the barrel was string to drop. The new batch is currently fermenting away (currently on it's 3rd day).

My question is, is it better to let my new lambic batch to ferment for 2 weeks and then remove 5gals from the barrel and place 5gals of the new lambic on top, or should I let the new lambic batch ferment for 30 days, and then do the replacement.

I thought I read somewhere that since your barrel should already be funked up by the original batch, you can just let your new batches ferment for 2 weeks and top off your barrel with the new batches, and then it well get a jump start from all the bugs in the barrel.

Am I way off?

Thanks.

I think you're fine either way. I think the only real difference is the amount of bugs that you allow to drop out of your new beer before adding it to the solera.

Either is fine. Are you adding more bugs in the new fermentation or just using a clean strain? If the latter, Id probably try to rack in clear beer w no sediment to minimize solids in the bbl not a big deal really either way.

505-Brewer said:

Either is fine. Are you adding more bugs in the new fermentation or just using a clean strain? If the latter, Id probably try to rack in clear beer w no sediment to minimize solids in the bbl not a big deal really either way.

Click to expand...

Clean strain (Wyeast 3278), with some different dregs. So far I've just added Forces Unseen from Rare Barrel.

Are you trying to change the flavor profile of the solera by growing up a significant population of bugs outside the barrel? I mean, there's nothing wrong with doing that, but to me it kinda feels... not solera-ish.

To answer your original question, I'd let it ferment and rack off the trub, no reason to add gunk to the aging vessel.