First Sour "beer" (Flanders). Some questions

[MarshmallowBlue]

Sour Beer Questions. Can I get any advice on this? I've only made sour mead.

Recipe formulation
1. Should I mash higher than normal to allow for more bug food,
1.2 Or even add some Maltodextrin in the boil?

My recipe at the moment is for a 3 Gallon Flanders Red (called Radioactive Red Alert)
5.75Lbs of 2 Row or Pale Malt
.5Lbs of Carapils
.6Lbs of C120
.6Lbs Special B

17 IBUs of
.5oz Cascade 25 Min
.5oz Cascade 3 Min

Yeast US05

Inoculation Station
So instead of buying more bugs, I was planning on pitching Some cake and inoculated oak chips from my second generation lambic mead;

1. How much cake should I pitch? Just the whole thing?
2. How long will it take oak soaking in the mead to have a good colony of bugs to add in addition to the cake?
P.S. My sour mead culture has Lacto, Peddio, A Belgian Ale yeast, A wine yeast, and at least 2 types of brett (Brett from WYeast Lambic Blend and Boulevard Saison Brett Dregs).

 

[dcp27]

I would just go with the sour cake to start and skip the clean ferment. you can mash higher or add malto if you want, I've never found it necessary, there should be plenty of leftover food for the bugs, especially with all that crystal and being 2nd use bugs.

why the late cascade add? not opposed to it as i've done some hoppy sours, but a normal flanders shouldnt have any hop character

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

for Hops, Basically just 15-20 ibus of additions, I'm not really settled on it. Should I just do 1 oz of something lower AA for 25?

 

[dcp27]

I wouldnt bring the IBUs any higher, if anything I'd go lower. If the hops are only for bitterness, just 0.25oz or so of the cascade @60 should be plenty.

FYI, that's going to be more brown than red (~25 SRM)

 

[EpicCuriousity]

You want as little hop character as possible. Stylistically, they use aged lower AA hops.

in my experience, I've had better results mashing at a higher temp and skipping a clean fermentation to go right to the bugs.