Lambic Barrel Project

Hello all,

I started this thread under the photo section and now realize this is the better venue to talk about the project as it continues and matures.

This is the gist of the project copied from the photo forum.

Grain for one barrel:
82 Pale
30 Pils
16 Vienna
8 C-77
19 White Wheat
2.5 Spec B
.75 Choc
1 Roast

24.2 oz aged hops (saaz and EKG)

Second barrel:
91 pils
20 flaked wheat

14 oz aged hops (saaz and EKG)

The second barrel might need 5 gallons of a Saison to top off. I will see tomorrow.

All that beer took me about 5 days of brewing to complete.

The first barrel was filled with 30 gallons to ferment (WLP530). Then I added some 25 worth of fermented beer. Some of the beer was seconded with dregs of lambics, some with pedio and lacto and Al B's bugfarm II.

The second barrel was brewed used a high gravity method. The grain bill of 36 pounds would produce 15 gallons of about 1.066 to 1.070. When I added 5 gallons of H2O to that it came down to about 1.050-1.052. It was filled with 40 gallons once to ferment (Flanders Golden, WLP 530 and AL B's bugfarm III). Then when terminal was reached it was followed by 15 gallons and left to ferment. I will top with fermented beer soon.


Update:

Barrel one, is very sour and progressing nicely. Thinking about bottling around December. That will be a year in barrel. This barrel had tons of bugs added to it. One 5 gallon carboy each of finished beer with the following bugs added in secondary: pedio, lacto, many lambic dregs and Al's bug farm. So a total of 4 bugged carboys added at filling time.

Barrel two is tart, but not very sour. The only bugs added to this one was a 3 gallon batch of one of Al's bugfarm. I am planning on making this beer the base for some fruit experiments. One each of the following: Wild Black berry, whole fresh cherries, peach/apricot and a red wine grape like Syrah. If this one doesn't sour up over the summer when the fruit is added I will add some pedio and lacto for the first 2 weeks followed by some brett to finish it off.

I just added 3 more barrels to the family. Two 20 gallon and one 10 gallon; all French oak. They have some brett so the wine maker didn't want them and was going to burn them in a trash pile!! A few bug holes to patch, but they look great other wise!

The small 10 gallon smells really nice. A little toasted wood, but mainly red wine. That one will get a 1.068 Belgian made with Vienna and D2 syrup infused with lacto. To finish I am dreaming of fresh/frozen cranberries, dry cranberries and a small amount of frozen raspberries.

The other two 20 gallon barrels will house a Vienna, Munich and white wheat in one and the other will be pale malt base with dark crystal malts. Both barrels will have lacto, pedio and various bretts.

Brew on my friends.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f85/new-barrel-photos-plambic-underway-160398/

That is a lot of brewing, but sounds and looks like you got loads of good beer moving through the pipeline.

my hats off too you.
I started a much smaller 15.5 gallon project.
having only 5 gallon set up with a 15 gallon HLT makes brewing more than about 10 gallon and 6 with boil off a bigger project than i thought.

At this point there is no turning back. After the 3 new ones are full my friend has his name on a Port barrel at his winery with his name on it. I guess one more barrel will fit. But that is it. I told him to call me before they empty the Port and I will refill it the same day with something.

The worst part is admitting I have no idea what I am going to do with all this beer. Looks like Lambic on tap to drink now and bottles for aging.

Thanks to my wife who loves the stuff!

B-Dub said:

I am planning on making this beer the base for some fruit experiments. One each of the following: Wild Black berry, whole fresh cherries, peach/apricot and a red wine grape like Syrah.....

The other two 20 gallon barrels will house a Vienna, Munich and white wheat in one and the other will be pale malt base with dark crystal malts. Both barrels will have lacto, pedio and various bretts.

Click to expand...

why don't you take the new barrels and keep rolling with that base beer and add the different fruit as in the above quote from the OP. it sounds like you'll be aging all types of sours for years and years to come. you can blend all types of combinations since you have so many different batches going! i dream of the day i am outta my apartment and can start a cellar such as yours barrels are probably my favorite part of brewing, they just add a different layer to every beer

why don't you take the new barrels and keep rolling with that base beer and add the different fruit as in the above quote from the OP.

Click to expand...

For now the plan is to use the 60 gallon barrel with the pils/flaked wheat for base of the fruit experiments. All fruit will be added in glass or SS.

The little (10 and 20 gallon) barrels seem like a good place to make the higher ABV beers.

BW