Flanders Red or Brown - leave on yeast?

Hey All,

Never brewed one before but I am curious if I should leave the beer on the yeast cake the entire time I have it in a carboy or do I rack to secondary? If so, how long do you usually wait to rack (2 weeks, 4 weeks, etc)?

Cheers,
Scot

Are you doing a sacc fermentation before and or with the bacterial culture?
If so I believe the consensus is to allow primary fermentation to finish then rack to secondary. The bacteria and some yeast will carry over to the secondary and take care of everything.
If you are only pitching bacteria then you can pitch the vial and forget it.
I am no expert but I felt I could offer a few helpful hints.
You do not need to make a starter with the bacterial mix, if you are fermenting with yeast and bugs the yeast only should have a starter.
Again this is my interpretation of info from lurking here.
Good luck

In the Flanders beer I just pitching the roeselare yeast and that is it. I believe that yeast is a combination of sacc, brett, and bugs? Assume, based on what you wrote, I should put it into secondary.

If its just Roselare dump it in primary and then let it go about 1 month then rack to secondary and let it ride. You don't have a definite timeline, you can let it go without racking. If your worried about yeast dying and creating unpleasantries you can rack anytime between the time primary fermentation ends and the time the beer clears.
One month is a good idea to try, and all the good stuff you need will carry over with the beer and the yeast will stay behind. Hope that helps

Also the Roselare does have a sacc strain

you can leave it on the yeast with no problems, i do this routinely for a yr or more. sometimes i don't and it works fine too.

I like to rack them as active fermentation is finishing. That way I leave a lot of the trub behind, but still carry over a lot of yeast to act as food for the Brett over the long haul.

Not racking seems to be acceptable too, but I have never done that.

eastoak said:

you can leave it on the yeast with no problems, i do this routinely for a yr or more. sometimes i don't and it works fine too.

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+1, first Flanders Red spent a little over a year on Roeselare and no issues.

I just did my first Flanders last weekend. Pitched some Us-05 along with my roesalare. Going to rack after 7 days and then let it sit for as long as I can stand to wait. I've read others had good results doing it this way.

Also read that you have to be careful with oxygen exposure, as oxygen + bugs produces acetic acid flavors in sour beers. If you primary in a bucket, they say to rack into a better bottle or glass carboy for the long secondary because they breathe less than buckets. Then you can control the oxygen exposure to your taste.

Then again... some people age in wood barrels which breathe a lot more than a bucket. So who knows.

Did you do a Flander red or brown? Do you mind sharing your recipe along with mash temps, etc?

So this thread got me thinking and here is what I found when I referenced "Wild Brews"

I think it was page 181 and 182
Lambics are traditionally left on the cake and everything that entered in the coolship.

Flanders red and brown are fermented with saccro and transfered to barrels (red) where the resident bacteria take over (brown goes in stainless vats not wooden barrels)

So to answer your question after some actual research, you should dose with Roselare and rack to secondary after primary fermentation has subsided.

oach said:

Did you do a Flander red or brown? Do you mind sharing your recipe along with mash temps, etc?

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Sorry for the delayed response. Here’s the recipe I used. This is a Flanders Red recipe, adapted from a guy in my local brew club. His volumes were much more specific. I rounded mine up/down to the nearest half pound (cause I’m lazy).

Where his recipe called for pale wheat, I subbed in some Red Wheat
Where his reciple called for EK Goldings, I used Saaz
And I threw in the .75lb of amber DME because I had it laying around

5 lb 2-row
5 lb Vienna
1 lb Munich
.5 lb Belgian Aromatic
.5 lb Caramunich
.5 lb Special B
.5 lb Red Wheat Malt
.75lb Amber DME
0.75 oz Saaz

I started out my mash way too high (170) but managed to drop it down with some ice over the first 5+ minutes of the mash. Mashed for 60 minutes and boiled for 90 minutes. If I recall correctly, my OG was something like 1.064.
I pitched the Rosealare and some US-05 in primary. Racked to secondary after 7 days, and there she sits for the next several months.

I have 2oz of oak cubes to add. Can’t decide how much to use, and what (if anything) to soak them in before I put them in. We’ll see.

I just brewed a Flanders Red first time this past weekend as well. Will likely rack to secondary in a month or so but also have questions about how much French oak cube to add, boil first, how long to leave in secondary, etc.