BugAC
Well-Known Member
I've been brewing lambic for 3 years now and over the holidays, i was finally able to bottle my first Geuze. I've been patiently awaiting this date. I keep all of my sour beers in a closet under the stairs that has a vent in the wall that leads to my pantry inside. Temp is relatively stable. Winter time it gets as low as 62-64, summer it gets as high as 76. Typically, temp stays in the 68 degree range. Below is each lambic and my blending procedure. I was brewing another lambic on the same day so i didn't get as detailed in my note taking as i would have liked. The floor corker worked incredibly well. All bottles were corked and capped. Currently stored upright.
I have not wild or spontaneously fermented any of these beers yet. I live in South Louisiana and i don't yet trust the microbes in the air. I wanted to get the first geuze brewed before i attempted wild capture. We have some cold weather coming in the next couple of weeks, i plan to brew up a yeast starter and see what i capture there, as well as use the bootleg biology yeast capture kit.
Beer name - brew date - Volume - Mash method - recipe - Yeast/bacteria profile - FG - ABV
Lambic #1 - 12/29/20 - 5 gal - Turbid Mash - 68/32 Pilsen/Unmalted wheat, 2 oz. aged hops - WY3763 Roselare blend + geuze bottle dregs - 1.000 - 6.9%
Lambic #2 - 6/19/21 - 5 gal - Turbid Mash - 68/32 Pilsen/Unmalted wheat, 2.3 oz. aged hops - WY3763 Roselare blend + geuze bottle dregs - 1.000 - 7.3%
Lambic #3 - 12/4/21 - 3 gal - Infusion Mash - 58/25/17 Pilsen/White Wheat/Unmalted Wheat, 3.3 oz. aged hops - WY3763 Roselare blend + geuze bottle dregs - .994 - 6.8%
Lambic #4 - 2/27/22 - 5 gal - Turbid mash - 67/33 Pilsen/Unmalted Wheat, 2.3 oz aged hops - WY3763 Roselare blend + geuze bottle dregs - 1.002 - 7.6%
Lambic #5 - 2/27/22 - 5 gal - Turbid mash - 67/33 Pilsen/Unmalted Wheat, 2.15 oz aged hops - WY3763 Roselare blend + geuze bottle dregs - 1.004 - 6.4%
My brother came over to help my brew/blend. We grabbed a bottle of water and some saltine crackers for palate cleansing, and each took notes and began the blending session. I began by taking samples of each geuze blend and measuring the gravity. We then smelled and tasted each sample. My notes for each are as follows:
L1 - Low aroma, high brett funk flavor. Very dry. Beer tasted almost bitter due to the dryness. Low fruit flavors, low acidity, but complex. Bitter, Brett, Funk
L2 - Funky/Brett aroma, dry, low to medium acidity. Slightly bitter but not as much as L1. Bitter, Brett, Funk
L3 - Very dry, huge aged hop aroma/flavor. High hops, very dry
L4 - Sweet aroma, medium acidity, low to medium dryness. Almost perfect as is. More aged hop funk would be perfect. Rich, Umami.
L5 - Medium aroma, lower on the aged hops compared to the other beers. Low complexity, higher aged hops. Young, not very complex.
I found it interesting how the tasting session of each sort of mirrored about what i've read when blending lambic. Older beers were more complex, very dry, while the youngest beers had more residual sugar, and the youngest being the "simplest" of the batch. I also found it interesting that the 2 year old lambic was both of our favorite beers and could have been bottled stand alone, by itself.
Once the initial tasting was done we set out in blending. I wanted to incorporate all 5 lambics into this batch.
The first blend was 70/30 L5/L1 - We wanted to use this as the base blend to add to to see what was needed. We both found this first blend a little unexciting and not complex.
Blend 2 was flipped, 30/70 L5/L1 - This blend was much dryer. It wasn't bad and could have been bottled as is, but as i stated, i wanted all 5 lambics in this first bottling. This blend was a little too high on the bitterness for my taste.
Blend 3 incorporated all 5 lambics - 20/10/20/25/25 (L1/L2/L3/L4/L5) - We wanted to make it a point to get more of the younger beers in for recarbonation. I also wanted more of #1, as this was one of my favorites due to the complexity. But i also wanted to get more aged hop funk in this one. It was a good blend but needed more.
Blend 4 - We wanted to try omitting L2 and L4 and go simpler with the mix. 30/20/50 (L1/L3/L5). I found this too plain. Higher amount of youngest beer but didn't have enough going for it, IMO.
Blend 5 - 10/10/20/30/30 - This should have ended up being the final blend. We got the residual sugars we wanted with the younger beers, and the right amount of complexity from the older beers, and some hop funk from Lambic #3. This was the one i wanted in the bottle......
And then blending happened...LOL. I entered the amounts in, incorrectly, on the blending calculator and as i was halfway into racking lambic 2 into the keg, i realized what i did. I'm blaming this on 1 - it was getting late and i was just ready to finish and still had to cold crash the lambic i brewed that day, 2 - my brother left after the initial blending and tasting, so again i was rushing to finish, and 3 - having a few beers during brew day, then the blending session left me not completely sober... So, despite my best efforts to come up with the "perfect blend", i scrambled to adjust the best i could.
Final Blend - 30/10/10/20/30 - Didn't really have time to taste it, but i'm sure it will be fine. I did get a lot of L1 in, which is what i wanted, and i still got the residual sugars i needed from the youngest 2 beers. Per the calculator, i should have about 4 volumes of CO2 in the beer.
I have not wild or spontaneously fermented any of these beers yet. I live in South Louisiana and i don't yet trust the microbes in the air. I wanted to get the first geuze brewed before i attempted wild capture. We have some cold weather coming in the next couple of weeks, i plan to brew up a yeast starter and see what i capture there, as well as use the bootleg biology yeast capture kit.
Beer name - brew date - Volume - Mash method - recipe - Yeast/bacteria profile - FG - ABV
Lambic #1 - 12/29/20 - 5 gal - Turbid Mash - 68/32 Pilsen/Unmalted wheat, 2 oz. aged hops - WY3763 Roselare blend + geuze bottle dregs - 1.000 - 6.9%
Lambic #2 - 6/19/21 - 5 gal - Turbid Mash - 68/32 Pilsen/Unmalted wheat, 2.3 oz. aged hops - WY3763 Roselare blend + geuze bottle dregs - 1.000 - 7.3%
Lambic #3 - 12/4/21 - 3 gal - Infusion Mash - 58/25/17 Pilsen/White Wheat/Unmalted Wheat, 3.3 oz. aged hops - WY3763 Roselare blend + geuze bottle dregs - .994 - 6.8%
Lambic #4 - 2/27/22 - 5 gal - Turbid mash - 67/33 Pilsen/Unmalted Wheat, 2.3 oz aged hops - WY3763 Roselare blend + geuze bottle dregs - 1.002 - 7.6%
Lambic #5 - 2/27/22 - 5 gal - Turbid mash - 67/33 Pilsen/Unmalted Wheat, 2.15 oz aged hops - WY3763 Roselare blend + geuze bottle dregs - 1.004 - 6.4%
My brother came over to help my brew/blend. We grabbed a bottle of water and some saltine crackers for palate cleansing, and each took notes and began the blending session. I began by taking samples of each geuze blend and measuring the gravity. We then smelled and tasted each sample. My notes for each are as follows:
L1 - Low aroma, high brett funk flavor. Very dry. Beer tasted almost bitter due to the dryness. Low fruit flavors, low acidity, but complex. Bitter, Brett, Funk
L2 - Funky/Brett aroma, dry, low to medium acidity. Slightly bitter but not as much as L1. Bitter, Brett, Funk
L3 - Very dry, huge aged hop aroma/flavor. High hops, very dry
L4 - Sweet aroma, medium acidity, low to medium dryness. Almost perfect as is. More aged hop funk would be perfect. Rich, Umami.
L5 - Medium aroma, lower on the aged hops compared to the other beers. Low complexity, higher aged hops. Young, not very complex.
I found it interesting how the tasting session of each sort of mirrored about what i've read when blending lambic. Older beers were more complex, very dry, while the youngest beers had more residual sugar, and the youngest being the "simplest" of the batch. I also found it interesting that the 2 year old lambic was both of our favorite beers and could have been bottled stand alone, by itself.
Once the initial tasting was done we set out in blending. I wanted to incorporate all 5 lambics into this batch.
The first blend was 70/30 L5/L1 - We wanted to use this as the base blend to add to to see what was needed. We both found this first blend a little unexciting and not complex.
Blend 2 was flipped, 30/70 L5/L1 - This blend was much dryer. It wasn't bad and could have been bottled as is, but as i stated, i wanted all 5 lambics in this first bottling. This blend was a little too high on the bitterness for my taste.
Blend 3 incorporated all 5 lambics - 20/10/20/25/25 (L1/L2/L3/L4/L5) - We wanted to make it a point to get more of the younger beers in for recarbonation. I also wanted more of #1, as this was one of my favorites due to the complexity. But i also wanted to get more aged hop funk in this one. It was a good blend but needed more.
Blend 4 - We wanted to try omitting L2 and L4 and go simpler with the mix. 30/20/50 (L1/L3/L5). I found this too plain. Higher amount of youngest beer but didn't have enough going for it, IMO.
Blend 5 - 10/10/20/30/30 - This should have ended up being the final blend. We got the residual sugars we wanted with the younger beers, and the right amount of complexity from the older beers, and some hop funk from Lambic #3. This was the one i wanted in the bottle......
And then blending happened...LOL. I entered the amounts in, incorrectly, on the blending calculator and as i was halfway into racking lambic 2 into the keg, i realized what i did. I'm blaming this on 1 - it was getting late and i was just ready to finish and still had to cold crash the lambic i brewed that day, 2 - my brother left after the initial blending and tasting, so again i was rushing to finish, and 3 - having a few beers during brew day, then the blending session left me not completely sober... So, despite my best efforts to come up with the "perfect blend", i scrambled to adjust the best i could.
Final Blend - 30/10/10/20/30 - Didn't really have time to taste it, but i'm sure it will be fine. I did get a lot of L1 in, which is what i wanted, and i still got the residual sugars i needed from the youngest 2 beers. Per the calculator, i should have about 4 volumes of CO2 in the beer.
