1 Gallon Lambic

[sacandagabrewing]

So I was just curious to see if this is a smart idea or not. I took a 5-gallon golden lambic recipe and scaled it down. All I have the capacity for is 1 gallon. Now I can take the wort and add extracts to it to make it a 5-gallon batch. What do you guys think the best option would be? Much appreciated

 

[Funky Frank]

I’m a little confused about what you are asking.

Are you saying you can only long age 1 gallon for space or equipment reasons but you want 5 gallons of lambic-style to bottle? Then I think you could age your 1 gallon, make a 4 gallon fresh beer with a final gravity of about 1.006, blend them together and bottle. The math...1 gal of 1.000 plus 4 gal of 1.006 makes 5 gal of 1.005 which makes a potential (.001 makes .5 vol CO2) 2.5 vol CO2. This would allow you to dial in your 1 gallon batch to make sure it’s something that you would want to scale up. Your bottles will start off mostly being a glorified saison but age into something else.

If equipment or space is the issue and you’re just getting into sours, check out the modern fast sour thread.

 

[sacandagabrewing]

I apologize for the confusion! I can do 1 gallon all grain but 5 gallon extract based on the equipment I have. I have heard mixed reviews about extract lambics so I was looking to see if it would be better to perfect the all grain route or try to make a bigger batch of extract. There have been one or two threads that said a 1 gallon lambic isnt worth the effort so I just wanted to see what you guys had to say

 

[goodolarchie]

If you can do a 5 gallon extract, why not do a 3 or 4 gallon brew in the bag? The Brew Bag-Designed for Brew In A Bag-This is your LAST brew bag!

 

[Funky Frank]

Ok! So you are basically looking to do a partial mash 5 gallon batch. Go for it! You can make a really good wild ale with nothing but extract. If you go the steeping/partial mash route, some grains that I’d recommend looking into are flaked wheat/oats/rye, honey malt, and/or caramunich. Someone is bound to wig out about the cara but I don’t cara...lol. You’d basically be looking for malts that can give your bugs more to chew on and that give you some kind of perceived body at the end if your culture goes bone dry. You could easily split your 5 gallon extract batch into (5) 1 gallon batches and experiment with different steeping grains to see what they contribute and then you have the added fun of making a blend at the end.