Lambic solera project update-1st year

[bonsai4tim]

So this started in July 2015--made 5 gallons fermented on Roselare, added 10 gallons of similar wort fermented with a belgian blend and capped off the keg.

. Was pleasantly sour by 12/2015. I bottled about 2 gallons and topped off the keg with 2 gallons of a blond belgian extract ale.

I also started a 2nd keg aging in March 2016--5 gallons with Roselare, and 5 gallons with Brett, and 5 with a belgian blend. (#2)

Last weekend, transfered 5 gallons from #1 onto a pound of dried cherries (#1 had a nice sour complexity), and topped off #1 with 5 gallons from #2 (a lot of "brett" flavor--old socks, wet leather, not sure I liked it but its only 4 months old)

Topped off #2 with 5 gallons of brown ale made specifically for this.

Everything is back in the beer closet for now. Will check the cherry flavor in a week or 2, hopefully bottling in a month.



tim

 

[FoCobrewguy]

can you show your rig for transferring? That looks sweet.

 

[worlddivides]

Very nice. Looks like a nice system. I also would be interesting in learning (and seeing) more.

 

[brewerJase]

Looks awesome. What was the base beer in keg#1?

 

[nadeaunm5]

Do you keep an Air lock on during aging? Or do you keep the same cap with the two ball locks on it?

If so do you allow it to build pressure?

How about some more pics, really digging this setup.

 

[tbred]

I as well would love to hear more about your setup. Its awesome! Do share!

 

[bonsai4tim]

Hey thanks for your interest!

Keg #1 has a total of 15 gallons. 5 of that was originally a porter fermented on roeselare blend. The other 10 was a belgian "Blond" (pale malt, wheat malt, dextrin malt) Its been aging for a year.

Keg #2 was 15 Gallons of a pale belgian similar to #1. Just added 5 gallons of a brown ale this weekend.

I can post recipes for these if there is interest, but I "borrowed" them from HBT with slight modification.


The sanke kegs are capped with a 2 inch tri clover blank drilled with 2 post adaptors silver soldered in. The Ball lock connectors just fit. The dip tube (For liquid out post) doesn't quite reach to the bottom of the sanke, but for what I'm doing that is OK. from a cost standpoint, its not much less than just buying a keg tap and ball lock conversion kit, but I wanted to be able to look into the keg easily, without have to pull the sanke spear every single time.

I have had a short section of tubing in a glass of water connected to the gas out connector for an airlock on Keg #2. Keg #1 I release the pressure on every 3-4 days, its not making much CO2 at this point. 6 months ago Keg #1 had an "air lock" like Keg #2 does too.

Photos

Slightly blurry images:

Transfer set up

the post adaptor is from here
http://www.chicompany.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=376_1_3_260&products_id=3276

tim