Cranberry lambic

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Biergarden

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I'm going to give it a go with:
Ten Gallon batch
10# pale malt
3# pilsner malt
3# Special B
3# Belgian white wheat
1 oz Saaz in the boil
Wyeast lambic blend 1.35l
5# cranberries into the secondary fermenter with one oz of oak chips.

The OG should be about 1.052 or so.

Has anyone ever gone down this road before? I'm in some uncharted water with the cranberries. This, I'm sure, will be very tart and sour and very red.
 
The cranberries aren't uncharted territory, but almost 16% Special B probably is. I can't imagine the burnt raisin flavor melding with cranberry. I would exchange that out for a blend of crystal malts if you were going for a Flanders red inspired result; perhaps 1 lb each of C40-50, C70-80, and then a half pound of special B. I would also recommend flaked or torrified wheat rather than wheat malt for more complex food for the brett and bacteria. I would double that amount and adjust down the pale malt to get to the OG you want.

I would also cut back on the hops to ensure the lactic acid bacteria aren't hindered and you get the sourness you want. You could even remove them completely. I put my hops in the mash with my sour beers to limit their effectiveness, and I only boil 15 minutes (which definitely isn't the traditional route, but I figure it won't make a difference after the long, complex fermentation).

You're many months away from secondary, but I suspect you will want to 1st do the fruit for a few months, then taste and decide if you want the oak. I tend to think of cranberries as astringent, so you might not be lacking in tannins at that point. But you probably have over a year to make that decision.

I have 6 gallons chomping on 2 lbs of dried cranberries in the basement right now. That one's more of a fast-souring Berliner offshoot though for a quicker turnaround. I love New Glarus' Cranbic which I'm hoping gets released again this fall.
 
Thanks for the reply. You have valuable ideas to share. You might be right about the #3 pounds of Special B. I'll dial that back down to #1.5 or #2 and increase the pale malt to #12.

It's a little odd that I can't really find much documentation on the use of cranberries in a lambic style beer, at least using whole berries and not juice. I'm a little concerned that the tartness might be off the charts and I'll end up blending it with a percentage of young beer, which is typical for the style anyways, but all beer is good beer I think.

I'm not sure how you feel about the appearence of the beer For me I aim to make it as bright and shiny as I can so that it looks polished. Special B does a nice job of adding a brilliant red glow to a bright beer. In my experience anyway, even with a bit of wheat malt in the mash. So I'm interested in how that and the cranberry with make the beer appear in the glass. But even still, I won't know for at least a year. :(

I haven't ever experienced a problem using saaz hops in a sour. It's such a small dose of 2.5% AA that I doubt it will even be perceptable. I don't even think it's going to help with foam rentention.

I'll brew this on Saturday. I'm excited :)
 
I've used fresh cranberries in a mead. Very tart, almost undrinkable. Its aging now and I'm not sure it will mellow out. Not sure what it would be like in a lambic.
 
5# of cranberries might be a bit overkill. I have never used them in a beer but I feel like it would be overpowering on top of the tartness from the beer itself. You can always go back and add more cranberries in, fresh or dried, if there's not enough flavor imparted. In Mike Tonsmeire's book he has a chart of recommended fruiting levels for sour beers and it states to use .25-.5# per gallon for cranberries. So I would start with 2.5# tops and see where that takes you.

I also agree with Quaker that 3# of Special B is too much. If you still want the darker color you can add a small amount of Carafa II. Even 2# might be too strong and cover up the subtle flavors from the cranberries.
 
5# of cranberries might be a bit overkill. I have never used them in a beer but I feel like it would be overpowering on top of the tartness from the beer itself. You can always go back and add more cranberries in, fresh or dried, if there's not enough flavor imparted. In Mike Tonsmeire's book he has a chart of recommended fruiting levels for sour beers and it states to use .25-.5# per gallon for cranberries. So I would start with 2.5# tops and see where that takes you.

I also agree with Quaker that 3# of Special B is too much. If you still want the darker color you can add a small amount of Carafa II. Even 2# might be too strong and cover up the subtle flavors from the cranberries.

I agree with you #5 might be too much for sure. So #2.5 makes better sense to me and so does the Special B now that I think about it more. I'll replace it with more base malt.

Thanks for all the good input everyone.
 
I brewed it last November 2015 and racked it into a secondary by Jan 18 2016. I'll let it keep fermenting until November when I'll rack it to kegs and bottles. I'm half tempted to add an ounce of American oak to the fermenter. It smells like a hot horse and tastes brilliant.
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All I did was freeze them. I should have ran them through my meat grinder to open them up, but by the looks of things, they're macerating over time any way.
 
I've done two sours with cranberries. Just a word of warning, cranberries have a similar taste to green apples. I got a lot of comments about this on my first one and people were trying to tell me it was a flaw. It gave my first one a nice white wine/apple cider bite that was fantastic!

As for color, they didn't seem to give either of mine much more than a slight hue.
 
Figure I will contribute my Cranberry Lambic experience. This was a beer with 60% pilsner 40% unmalted wheat, aged hops. It was soured and funked by cool ship and adding dregs. The base beer sat in secondary for about 6 months. I then bottled some straight and then put one gallon on dried cranberries for 2 months.

I have to say that the cranberry lambic has turned out very good. Nice tartness, some sweetness, and a nice dry finish. Could not say I taste cranberries but I'm guesssing the sweetness is from the cranberries.

Below are pictures of the cranberry lambic and the base lambic.

IMG_0254.jpg


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I have a few lambics aging. I might need to think about siphoning some off to try out the cranberry. Because cranberry could add so much tartness, I wonder if blending the cranberry with another fruit might be an interesting idea. But what other fruit? Hmmm...
 
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I have a few lambics aging. I might need to think about siphoning some off to try out the cranberry. Because cranberry could add so much tartness, I wonder if blending the cranberry with another fruit might be an interesting idea. But what other fruit? Hmmm...

I'm not sure if any breweries do a cranberry other fruit blend. Maybe check the juice aisle at the grocery store to see what cranberry juice blends are out there.
 
I'm not sure if any breweries do a cranberry other fruit blend. Maybe check the juice aisle at the grocery store to see what cranberry juice blends are out there.

Right, I gave that some thought. I like Cranberry Pomegranate juice, but without sugar to balance the two tart fruits, it might be too much tartness and not enough fruit character. That combo would probably require a gentle touch.

Since I have trouble getting fresh tart cherries in California, I was wondering about a combo of cranberries and sweet cherries. That way you get some cherry fruit character and the cranberry could add the tart element. Just a thought.
 
Figure I will contribute my Cranberry Lambic experience. This was a beer with 60% pilsner 40% unmalted wheat, aged hops. It was soured and funked by cool ship and adding dregs. The base beer sat in secondary for about 6 months. I then bottled some straight and then put one gallon on dried cranberries for 2 months.



I have to say that the cranberry lambic has turned out very good. Nice tartness, some sweetness, and a nice dry finish. Could not say I taste cranberries but I'm guesssing the sweetness is from the cranberries.



Below are pictures of the cranberry lambic and the base lambic.


Those both look excellent, but I wonder, is 8 months really enough to get that oomph you look for in a spontaneous fermentation? Either way, looks incredible.

My only cranberry souring experience was an isovaleric muddled mess that I dumped, so I can't say I have much experience in this foray. I will say that the cranberries definitely provide some tannins which help the mouthfeel, but I can't imagine they bring much sweetness to the table.
 
Hey everyone. I want to thank all of you and at least share with you this cranberry lambic I made last year. Thanks for all your replies and pictures of epic bieres.
This is mine. I brewed it last year and kegged it one month ago and tapped it a few days ago. Just like everyone else's, it's magic.
What I will change is running the cranberries though a meat grinder, because they didn't breakdown at all. Not even after fermenting for a year. They were frozen first, which I thought would have fixed that, but not at all. But still the sour and tart came though in a mostly lovely way.

cranberry%20lambic.jpg
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Figure I will contribute my Cranberry Lambic experience. This was a beer with 60% pilsner 40% unmalted wheat, aged hops. It was soured and funked by cool ship and adding dregs. The base beer sat in secondary for about 6 months. I then bottled some straight and then put one gallon on dried cranberries for 2 months.

I have to say that the cranberry lambic has turned out very good. Nice tartness, some sweetness, and a nice dry finish. Could not say I taste cranberries but I'm guesssing the sweetness is from the cranberries.

Below are pictures of the cranberry lambic and the base lambic.

I like the cork and cage. It adds some class. What kind of corker did you use? Got a link?
 
Did the finished product have the grain bill in your first post?
 
Did the finished product have the grain bill in your first post?



Yes. I've since remade this same batch, only difference this time was I ground up the cranberries. During racking, I found the whole berries are much better deal with.
The whole berries macerated well enough and honestly, I should have saved them to use in a bread.
 
Yes. I've since remade this same batch, only difference this time was I ground up the cranberries. During racking, I found the whole berries are much better deal with.

The whole berries macerated well enough and honestly, I should have saved them to use in a bread.


Using the 3# of special B? Or was that dialed back some in the end. Beer pic is gorgeous color........
 
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