Well I brewed the Flanders Red on Tuesday. Here is what I did:
Recipe (this is the Gilda PM Recipe from the Recipe Library)
2 lb Belgian 2 row Pale Malt
10 oz. German Vienna Malt
8 oz. Belgian Cara Vienna Malt
4 oz. Acid Malt
3 oz. Chocolate Malt
3 lbs Light DME
1 lb. Clear Candi Sugar
2 oz. Lactose
.05 oz. Styrian Goldings (60 min.)
.05 oz. Brewer's Gold (15 min.)
.05 oz. Kent Goldings (3 min.)
2 oz. Stavin Med. Toast French Oak Cubes
Yeast: Wyeast Lambic Blend
I mashed all of the grain in 2 gallons of water for 60 min. at 155 degrees then sparged with 2 gallons of water at 170 degrees for 12 minutes (I used the methodology outlined by DeathBrewer
here).
Then I combined the mash water and the sparge water (which was about 3.5 gallons) and brought it to a boil. Just before it boiled I added the DME, candi sugar, and lactose (I probably shouldn't have added this until the end of the boil, but next time I will).
I added the hops on schedule. I had placed the oak chips in water in the fridge for about 4 hours and then during the boil, I brought the oak chips to a boil and then strained off the water.
At the end of the boil I took the whole thing outside and put the kettle in the snow to cool then brought it inside and topped off the kettle, to bring the total volume to 5 gallons, with ice cold water to help with the cooling.
I added the oak chips to a 6.5 gallon carboy, then poured the wort through a strainer into the carboy. Half way through I added the Wyeast Lambic Blend yeast and then finished straining in the rest of the wort. Plugged it and put it in the airlock.
It's now fermenting nicely, lots of activity but a small kreusen. The temperature is about 65 degrees (there's no consistently warm place in my house because I don't like paying an arm and a leg for heat so we turn the furnace down during the day).
Any thoughts on this or things I could do differently next time or do you see anything that will totally screw this batch for me? Thanks.