CloneBrews Recipe flaw?

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gnoonan

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Hi Folks!
I have the rodenbach grand cru in secondary right now, I used the clonebrews book for the step by step. I noticed something in the recipe that bothers me, and here it is:
There is NO aging specified in the recipe, but the yeast pitched is wyeasts lambic blend. It says 7 days in primary, and 7 days on oak chips in secondary. Won't this quick turnaround produce a chance of bottle bombs if the wild yeast haven't had time to do their work? Also, I seriously doubt that the bugs have had a chance to sour anything (produce the tart taste of the grand cru) in that short of time.
Any thoughts or suggestions from you brewing gods?
 
Something like Grand Cru takes no less than 12-18 months. Some argue that it takes 3 years (with blending) to make an outstanding lambic.
 
My copy says to secondary until fermentation complete. No time line.
 
Something like Grand Cru takes no less than 12-18 months. Some argue that it takes 3 years (with blending) to make an outstanding lambic.

Rodenbach Grand Cru is a Flanders Red, not a lambic. Same timeline, though.

The regular Rodenbach is younger (1 year aged) and not nearly as sour.

The Grand Cru is a blend of the young version and the 3-year aged version--I think it's about 1/3 young, 2/3 old, I'll double-check tonight.
 
My copy says to secondary until fermentation complete. No time line.

Funny thing is that they all say, except the Lindimans frambosien which say to age for 6 months. I was just a little confused that's all. To be quite honest, this is my first wild ale so I had no idea what I was getting into timewise. Looks like its time to buy some more buckets!
 
Rodenbach Grand Cru is a Flanders Red, not a lambic. Same timeline, though.

The regular Rodenbach is younger (1 year aged) and not nearly as sour.

The Grand Cru is a blend of the young version and the 3-year aged version--I think it's about 1/3 young, 2/3 old, I'll double-check tonight.

I believe you've got that backwards, sort of. The Grand Cru is just straight old beer, ~20 months. The Classic is a blend of the same old beer (30%) and a longer lower gravity ale (70%) that provides some sweetness.

I've heard nothing but bad things about the clone brews books (pear extract in Duvel etc...). Pick up a copy of Wild Brews if you want to brew more sours.

here is a great write up of Rodenbach's actual methods: http://brewery.org/library/Rodnbch.html
 
I believe you've got that backwards, sort of. The Grand Cru is just straight old beer, ~20 months. The Classic is a blend of the same old beer (30%) and a longer lower gravity ale (70%) that provides some sweetness.

I've heard nothing but bad things about the clone brews books (pear extract in Duvel etc...). Pick up a copy of Wild Brews if you want to brew more sours.

here is a great write up of Rodenbach's actual methods: http://brewery.org/library/Rodnbch.html

Yep, you're right. Wild Brews also says that the proportion of old beer in the Classic has been lowered to 25% in recent years.
 
Oldsock said:
I've heard nothing but bad things about the clone brews books (pear extract in Duvel etc...). Pick up a copy of Wild Brews if you want to brew more sours.

I want to second this. I received Clone Brews for Christmas and promptly returned it after looking through the recipes. Orval had no mention of Brett B, among other interesting omissions. I bought Wild Brews instead.
:mug:
 
Well its settled, no more clone brew. Thanks for all of your advice, and I'll let you know how the pgrand cru turned out in another year or so.
 
I believe you've got that backwards, sort of. The Grand Cru is just straight old beer, ~20 months. The Classic is a blend of the same old beer (30%) and a longer lower gravity ale (70%) that provides some sweetness.

actually the grand cru is now a blend of old and young beer, it says on the bottle its 67% old beer(yrs) and 33% new beer, for a while they didnt have any labeling saying this but you could definitely tell the difference in flavor
 
That is ridiculous. I don't know why that makes me so mad, but it does.

I think they changed it in the second addition, cus I don't see any pear extract in the listing. However, I don't see any Brett in the Orval recipe, which is a mistake. I don't want to trash talk Clone Brews too much, as my Hatichino Nest Wit clone turned out to be one of the best I have done.
Plus, I gave my BB a little squeeze to smell the airlock, and the pgrand cru is smelling pretty good and sour. I have read on this forum that smells can be deceiving in comparison to taste though.
 
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