New to brewing...lambics?

[SeppukuCoconuts]

I've made a bunch of mead (10+), and a lot of ciders. Never a beer. At least not yet. Not even an extract beer.

With that being said...would a lambic style of beer be more than I should start with? I've done a bit of research, and it seems to be a dicey proposition. I guess I'm asking if this is something a new to beer home brewer could, or rather should(not?) attempt.

I'm not worried about the really long aging times. I've got a corner in a basement in the mid to low 60s for temp that had never been used.

It seems that only really experienced brewers attempt sours/lambics. So I guess, burst my bubble.

 

[zmanzorro]

I would get quite a few brews under your belt before attempting a lambic. To even get the mash right, you need to be at least an intermediate level brewer (some all grain experience) to even understand what is truly going on during the process. I would be afraid that you would waste a year waiting for it to finish and if something went wrong, it would be difficult to identify why it did.

Start off brewing some clean beers with a cheap extract kit. You'll find that there's a lot more variety with beer than other fermented beverages. If you still like it, send a little more money and move to all grain, and then from there you can jump into lambics. I wouldn't want one bad experience on a complicated brew to scare you away from the entire hobby.

FWIW, I started my first spontaneous brew/lambic about a month ago, and I've been homebrewing 7 years, 5 of those years all-grain.

 

[burninator]

I'll offer a counterpoint to the post above...

Jump into it. If you're not set up for all-grain brewing, use wheat liquid extract, dilute to a gravity of about 1.050-1.060, add minimal hops (less than 10 ibu), and toss it in a carboy with a pack of Wyeast Lambic Blend and dregs from a bottle of your favorite sour beer. Check on it in 6 months, then 9 months, then a year, and with luck, it'll be ready to bottle and enjoy.

Now, having said that, if you don't currently have a favorite sour beer, I'd recommend doing some tasting to make sure you like the flavors, and to get an idea of what you're after.

 

[Enemygod]

I would make a counter-counterpoint to the post above...

A year is a long time to wait to find out that you did a bunch of things not quite right (because of inexperience). I know that my first beer certainly did not go as planned and if you look at the many posts on this forum I am not the only person.

I am not trying to dissuade you, just offering some food for thought.

 

[Sadu]

I just brewed a Berliner weisse which took a week to ferment. Even uncarbonated it tastes excellent. The key when new is a quick turnaround time so you can recognise your mistakes and adjust.

 

[drgonzo2k2]

Just echoing what other folks have said here, but I would strongly encourage you to revisit this topic a year from now after you've got several brews under your belt and have a more firm understanding of the process and what could go wrong.

Also, one other thing to mention, while I don't particularly care much, you should know that "Lambic" is a protected term in Belgium, and some people hold pretty dearly on to that. Unless you live in Belgium, are doing a turbid mash, 100% spontaneous fermentation, and so on, what you wind up with is not by definition a Lambic. It's kind of like you can only make Champagne in certain regions and still call it Champagne.

Again, doesn't bother me, but just a heads-up as some people really bash on that.