Lambic in a 1 barrel solera

[Koffie]

Hi,

I'm wondering if someone has experience with a 'traditional' lambic in a 1 barrel solera ?
I have a 100 liter chestnut barrel (bought unused and new). After cleaning and soaking with water, this barrel was filled in February 2013 with wort that was left in the open air for at least a entire night.
It stayed in the barrel for 1 year, after that I pulled off roughly 60 liters and topped it off with fresh brewed Lambic (again, wild infected) until the barrel was full.
This first year Lambic is now 2 years old (1 year in the barrel, 1 year in the bottle).
Within a couple of weeks it is time to brew a new Lambic for this year. Again I will be pulling off 60 liter. According to the solera calculations this Lambic should have an average age of 1.4 year. After aging in the bottle (Feb 2016) it will be a Lambic (blended with 2 Lambics) of at least 2.4 years old.
After this pull off, the barrel will be topped again with fresh wort. The blend is now created with 3 versions Lambic : 1 year, 2 year and a fresh one.
Again, this will be in the barrel for a year. When pulling off in feb 2016 the blend has an average age of 1.56 year.

Now my question : how long should I sustain this solera system? When doing the pull in 2016, the blend is made of 3 generations. Should I do a full pull, clean the barrel and start over again ? Or just continue keeping the solera alive?

 

[Weezy]

Ii think you're referring to a Gueuze? A Gueuze is a blend of distinct lambics typically a young (<1 yr), and a couple older beers (2 yr, 3 yr.....) that are all in separate aging vessels. The solera you're describing is already a blend and would not traditionally be considered a Gueuze. The process of choosing which barrels to blend and at what ratios are the things that make all the difference between a good and great Gueuze. Not that what your doing can't or won't be a great beer, but I don't think you need to worry about chasing some certain age number. Taste test and bottle and drink when it tastes good to you.

As far as your process, I would be concerned with trub build up in the barrel since the primary fermentation is happening in there as well. What should you do? There's probably ten ways to deal with this. Keep going as you ate and eventually empty and clean the barrel. Although, you're beer in thereand the barrel are also the keepers of your yeast and bacteria blend. A nice benefit of the solera method is keeping having some of the beer and the barrel present for fresh beer. To inoculate that beer. When you clean the barrel and drain it, you may lose some of the cultures. Personally, i'd primary in a different container with saccromyces added then transfer to the keg for secondary. I'd keep an eye on it for over oaking and be willing to transfer it to kegs for additional aging off the oak. For you, since you're mid stream in a process that seems to be working, i'd consider draining it, cleaning the barrel, and putting dome of the drained beer back in to be sure the vulture you've built up is there for the fresh beer....

 

[TNGabe]

I don't think anyone can give you more than a guess at how long you can wait before cleaning out the barrel. Can you tell by probing the bottom how much trub is built up? I don't think I've ever read anything about what sort of yield actual lambic has.

 

[Koffie]

Thanks for the answers. Of course I'm familiar with gueuze (I'm from the Netherlands)
Allthough my Lambic is not a gueuze, I'm considering it as q gueuze at some point in time. I'm not sure if there is a written guideline that a oude gueuze has to be made out of 1,2 and 3 years.

Trub build up is a good valid point. When the next pull is done, I will try to measure the level of trub and decide how much trub is in the barrel. If it is to much, I can decide to take out as much beer as possible and then do a quick clean with water. After that, put back the beer and top off with fresh brewed wort.

Totally forgot I allready had a topic with pics about this one: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/my-first-lambic-385234/

 

[suprchunk]

Thanks for the answers. Of course I'm familiar with gueuze (I'm from the Netherlands)
Allthough my Lambic is not a gueuze, I'm considering it as q gueuze at some point in time. I'm not sure if there is a written guideline that a oude gueuze has to be made out of 1,2 and 3 years.

Trub build up is a good valid point. When the next pull is done, I will try to measure the level of trub and decide how much trub is in the barrel. If it is to much, I can decide to take out as much beer as possible and then do a quick clean with water. After that, put back the beer and top off with fresh brewed wort.

Totally forgot I allready had a topic with pics about this one: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/my-first-lambic-385234/

You should be calling it Geuze than

I would only clean the barrel if you empty it for any significant amount of time. Of course, after a few years you may end up with a considerable amount of trub and will want to empty/clean it at that point. You might want to put the beer in stainless or plastic during the cleaning process.

I also think you might not want the beer in that barrel for as long as you've had it as it was new. Unless you stripped it of any flavor.