Visual Guide to a Turbid Mash & Brew a Lambic v3

[ChugachBrewing]

Here we go! Turbid mashing sounds difficult, and... it can be. But you can do it and get amazing results! For those of you who follow any of the junk I post, you know I've done 2 other lambics... and I just emptied the 1 year old one and put it in stainless, as well as 8 gallons on 18lb of raspberries! Tasting notes in 3-4 mo. Currently the unblended is amazing.

A complete description of turbid mashing can be found here:
http://morebeer.com/articles/Brewing_Lambic_at_Home

Thought I'd post this for those visual learners. Disclaimer: I am not a professional, nor is this the only way to turbid mash. It is the more traditional way, but brewers like Boon use an alternative mash and still get great results. I'm sure others will disagree, or state that this isn't "Lambic" and frankly, I don't care. It is brewed exactly the same traditional method, aged in wood, and I use the traditional yeast blends. I call it Lambic. We can argue about titles on another thread. Now, onward!

Grist: 66% Pils, 33% Raw wheat.

First, make sure you have a REALLY nice false bottom, or use a LOT of rice hulls.

You're first addition of water will be hardly anything. It will be lumpy and important to integrate the water and grain together. My sink water comes out at 150, so I spray it directly on to attain 113 deg F. Rest. It's a pain to stir.

 

[ChugachBrewing]

Its critical to have a large supply of boiling water for all of this, and additional pots (read article listed above). Next, add more boiling water, and stir. Go for 136. At the end of this rest, you're going to remove some wort and heat it in a "side kettle". It goes to 176 and halts conversion.
Below photos of adding more boiling water from the HLT (outside) to the mash tun (inside).
Also a photo of the HLT, boil kettle, and "side kettle". Side kettle just got it's first addition.

 

[ChugachBrewing]

After that rest, more water is added to hit 150 where we hang out for 30 minutes. Then, we fill the "side kettle" with another addition of partially converted wort (food for the bugs!)
After that rest, more water is added to the mash tun, then we rest at 162.
Lots and lots of stirring. Kayak paddle does great. Side kettle hangs out at 167.

 

[ChugachBrewing]

Now, the fun happens. Mash tun gets drained to boil kettle, "side kettle" goes into mash tun to raise it to 167 and rests for 20 min.
Vorlauf, and sparge at 190. Things get full around this time...

 

[ChugachBrewing]

Time to find some aged hops. If you don't have any, you can bake them for 3-4 hours below 200. You don't want flavor or bitterness.
I had some from the 2001 harvest, and then some other old ones I baked to make sure nothing was present I didn't want. Hell of a hop bag. Looking at 3-4 oz per 5 gallons. I used less than that, around 2lbs for my 75 gallons. Oh well, it worked last time...

 

[ChugachBrewing]

Boil for 2.5 hours+
During this time it chose to snow, rain, then was glorious sunshine. A four season beer! Chill to 75, toss in the barrel, and wait. Cheers! (Final photo is lambic from last year. A little cloudly, it was the last 2 gallons of the barrel, and hasn't settled since I carbed it...)

 

[TychoBrahe]

Chugachbrewing you are awesome. Thank you for taking the time to do this

 

[ChugachBrewing]

Final thought... this is how i keep track of what I'm doing. Its important to visualize where everything is going and how its all going to flow.
Hope this helps.

Also, just to throw it out there, I am NOT affiliated in ANY way with the Chugach Brewing opening up in Alaska soon. I was going to do just that when I move back there in a year (Alaska is home for me) but sadly, the name got picked up this last year and TM'd. When I find a new name, I'll change it.

Here are the links to lambics 1 and 2:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/50-gallon-cantillon-turbid-mash-pizza-mostly-photos-406097/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/50-gallon-lambic-mash-v2-new-barrel-holder-pizza-bread-418234/

 

[badlee]

I hope it was as good for you as it was for me

Sent from my GT-I8552B using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Dirty25]

I always love to see your post thanks keep up all the good work. I would love to try your beer one day.

 

[dantheman13]

Awesome stuff! Thanks!

 

[ChugachBrewing]

Thanks! It was a lot of work. I left everything set up and today did a "group brew" with our local club for a traditional Oktoberfest brew. It made that brew seem veerrrryyy easy. Perhaps this will mark the end of the brewing season for me, however it's not getting warm here just yet.
Dirty25 - anytime. If its legal to ship, I'll send you some. Not sure about international regs.

 

[Coff]

Great post and photos. Some very useful info in here.

Ive turbid mashed, Im still not sold that its completely necessary though. I have used wort only decoctions with the same rests you did and its working out well for me.

The cat is skinned in many ways.

I love how you run your hoses through the windows into your kitchen. My wife wouldnt love that...

 

[ChugachBrewing]

My wife was out of town the WHOLE weekend.

 

[ChugachBrewing]

Took a while, but this is finally starting to ferment. Slow bubbling. Its in the basement at 50 deg, so I'm impressed it took off. Would have liked to have it upstairs but my wife disagreed. Something about a "baby needs a place to sleep" or other nonsensical jibberish.

 

[TheZymurgist]

Oi. Just started looking into trubid mashing, and stumbled upon this. I think I'll be giving it a go some time in the next couple months. Seems really complicated, and I'll probably eff it up, but that's how we learn, right?

 

[ChugachBrewing]

It's not as bad as you think. Promise. Just read the directions for whatever you're going to do, then imagine all the steps in your head. And have your HLT full.