4 ways brett/ lacto experiment

[Kharnynb]

Got a bunch of small 1 gallonish glass jar fermenters, so decided to try my hand at sour brewing.

base 20 liter beer:
Grains
5 kg pilsner malt
Hops
25 grams hallertau mittelfrueh @ 20 minutes

Mashed @ 68 degrees celcius for 90 minutes and boiled for 90 minutes.
fermented with trois vrai wplp 648.

OG 1.060
FG 1.010

Split up the batch in 4 secondaries.
Secondary beer 1
5 liters beer.
Oak chips
Wlp655 belgian sour mix 1

Secondary beer 2
5 liters beer.
Oak chips
500g cherries
Wlp655 belgian sour mix 1

Secondary beer 3
5 liters beer
Oak chips
500g rhubarb
Wlp655 belgian sour mix 1

Secondary beer 4
5 liters beer
500g rhubarb.

now comes the hard part, waiting

 

[madscientist451]

Nice experiment, thanks for posting. I've heard the 655 takes about a year.

 

[Kharnynb]

the one in the back, right is only brett fermented, will do that one another month or so and bottle it then.

The other 3 have a nice white sheen already from the lacto and will be another 6-8 months before bottling.

 

[tagz]

For future reference, many people advise adding fruit after the yeast/bacteria have done most of their work and aging is almost complete. The bright fruit flavors will fade after a few months.

 

[Kharnynb]

thanks, didn't know that, next time ;D

 

[Kharnynb]

funnily enough, the ones with fruit additions are clearing nicely, whereas the one without isn't at all yet.

 

[Kharnynb]

experiment 4 is bottled, got 12 33 cl bottles out of it, sample tasted very nicely sour and hopefully it will be a good beer in a month or 2.

(this is the one that had no lacto, just brett fermented and secondary with rhubarb)

 

[Kharnynb]

so I got impatient and tried a bottle of the brett/rhubarb beer today.

It's almost cider like flavour, nice and fresh, tart with some sour backnotes and very very pale.
nice tasting, experiment 1 is a success.

 

[Kharnynb]

white stuff everywhere

 

[Kharnynb]

Resurrection for some tasting notes.

The plain, just woodchips and 655 beer is a very decent, somewhat tart sour, nothing amazing but not bad for a first try.

The Cherry one is all kinds of whacky, sweetish, with tart and only very mild sour notes, interesting but maybe not a proper lambic.

The rhubarb is amazing and will most definately be the one that will graduate to full 5 gallon batches, all the good notes of both the fruit and the sour shine through and I love it.

 

[foltster]

Where do you get your Rhubarb? Perhaps a farmers market? I thought I'd try to grow some but it looks difficult here in eastern NC.

 

[Kharnynb]

I grow it in my back yard.... Rhubarb is very forgiving as long as it gets water.