Flanders Red Recipe Feedback

[zandrsn]

Hi all, at the end of the month I will be brewing my first sour, a Flanders Red. Please check out the recipe that I have put together (with thanks due to ryane and oldsock for their great blogs). Let me know what you think. Cheers!

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.057 SG
Estimated Color: 15.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 17.1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes
Yeast: Roselare Belgian Blend (Wyeast Labs #3763)

Ingredients:
------------
29.5% Vienna Malt
26.1 % Pilsner
23.1 % Munich
5% Corn, Flaked
4.1 % Aromatic Malt
4.1% Caramunich Malt
4.1% Special B Malt
4% Wheat, Flaked
0.75 oz East Kent Goldings[6.50 %] @60mins

1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient
3.30 oz Malto-Dextrine

4.00 oz Oak Chips (Secondary)


Mash Schedule
Total Grain Weight: 11 lbs 8.8 oz
----------------------------
Protein Rest @145 F for 30 min
Saccharification @156 F for 45 min
Mash Out @168 F for 10 min

Fly sparge with 1.00 gal water at 168.0 F

 

[zandrsn]

bump?

 

[ryane]

Looks fine to me, personally I dont like using corn in these beers eventhough they say it is common place (in wildbrews)

I would hesitate to do the protein rest on this beer. Skip it, do a very thick mash (~0.9qt/lb) this will speed up conversion, leave longer chain sugars for the bugs, and help with protein breakdown

 

[zandrsn]

Looks fine to me, personally I dont like using corn in these beers eventhough they say it is common place (in wildbrews)

I would hesitate to do the protein rest on this beer. Skip it, do a very thick mash (~0.9qt/lb) this will speed up conversion, leave longer chain sugars for the bugs, and help with protein breakdown

Thanks a lot, for the advice! Just wondering, but what is it about using corn that you don't like? I've never used it before, and only added it because from my research it seemed to be quite common, and in some of the Red's that I like such as the Duchesse...

 

[Guess42]

I believe they add it to thin out the beer since they back sweeten. The bugs will probably do that for you.

 

[zandrsn]

I believe they add it to thin out the beer since they back sweeten. The bugs will probably do that for you.

Interesting... Thanks for the insight. I guess that is why they do a protein rest as well, and why I shouldn't since I'm not blending.

 

[zandrsn]

Alright so based on ya'lls suggestions I am thinking something like this:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.059 SG
Estimated Color: 16.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 17.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes
Yeast: Roselare Belgian Blend (Wyeast Labs #3763)

Ingredients:
------------
29.8% Vienna Malt
26.3 % Pilsner
23.4 % Munich
8.1% Wheat, Flaked
4.1 % Aromatic Malt
4.1% Caramunich Malt
4.1% Special B Malt

0.75 oz East Kent Goldings[6.50 %] @60mins

1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient
3.30 oz Malto-Dextrine

4.00 oz Oak Chips (Secondary)


Mash Schedule
Total Grain Weight: 12 lbs 2.5 oz
----------------------------
Mash in @156 F for 60 min
Mash Out @168 F for 10 min

Fly sparge with 3.73 gal water at 168.0 F


Thoughts?

 

[zandrsn]

Do you all use the oak chair leg method or just a normal airlock + oak chips?

 

[smokinghole]

I once asked about the corn too. Its my understanding it's used for the starch contribution. I don't know whether it's true or not though. I think that starch contribution is mentioned in Wild Brews. I used corn in my last two flanders that are still in fermentors but I used Peruvian purple corn. It at least contributed a unique color to the beer and the corn had flavor compared to plain yellow dent.

As for oak I don't even have oak in either of my beers. The classic examples aren't aged in oak so much for the oak flavor it's because of the porosity of the wood allowing microoxygenation for the microbes. I figure enough microoxygenation is occuring in my better bottle and don't necessarily want the oak contribution. My personal feeling on the oak chair leg is that it's silly and not worth the effort.

 

[Calder]

Eeveything I have read is that using an oak chair leg doesn't give you any benefit, and can potentially break the fermenter. There seems to be sufficient oxygen in the headspace, and infusion thru the stopper that extra steps to get a minute amount of oxygen in doesn't seem to make a difference.

I have a Lambic going at the moment, with some in gallon glass carboys and some in a 2.5 gallon HDPE container. I tasted them at 7 months, and could not tell any difference between them.

 

[ICWiener]

I'm not trying to threadjack here, but I really like your recipe and I've been building something very similar. The only difference is that I'm limited to partial mash (up to about 6 lbs of grain or so.)

Would anyone here have any suggestions as to recipe conversion? Would you keep the grain percentages the same and just adjust down to 6 lbs total grain, then throw a can of LME on top? Or would you adjust to include the LME into the total base grain and then build around that?

Again, I don't want to hijack the thread or anything, but your recipe looks almost exactly like the one I've been building. I thought it would be better to post in here than to create a new thread.

 

[zandrsn]

I'm not trying to threadjack here, but I really like your recipe and I've been building something very similar. The only difference is that I'm limited to partial mash (up to about 6 lbs of grain or so.)

Would anyone here have any suggestions as to recipe conversion? Would you keep the grain percentages the same and just adjust down to 6 lbs total grain, then throw a can of LME on top? Or would you adjust to include the LME into the total base grain and then build around that?

Again, I don't want to hijack the thread or anything, but your recipe looks almost exactly like the one I've been building. I thought it would be better to post in here than to create a new thread.

I would keep all the adjuncts the same, and just use a liquid or dry extract to replace part of the pilsner, vienna and munich.

There is also this: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f72/pm-gilda-21224/

Which may be helpful as a reference.

Good luck, I'd be interested to hear what you make.

 

[grainbelt]

thats a ton of oak, dont use chips use cubes and go down to an ounce and add more later if needed