Biergarden
Well-Known Member
100 lb | Pilsner (2 Row) Bel Mash (42.7%) - 2.0 SRM | Grain | 1 | 42.7% | 29.57 l |
50 lb | Munich Malt - 10L Mash (21.4%) - 10.0 SRM | Grain | 2 | 21.4% | 14.79 l |
10 lb | Wheat Malt, Bel Mash (4.3%) - 2.0 SRM | Grain | 3 | 4.3% | 2.96 l |
9 lb | Aromatic Malt Mash (3.8%) - 26.0 SRM | Grain | 4 | 3.8% | 2.66 l |
9 lb | Caramunich Malt Mash (3.8%) - 56.0 SRM | Grain | 5 | 3.8% | 2.66 l |
6 lb | Special B Malt Mash (2.6%) - 180.0 SRM | Grain | 6 | 2.6% | 1.77 l |
50 lb | Vienna Malt Mash (21.4%) - 3.5 SRM | Grain | 7 | 21.4% | 14.79 l |
20 oz | Saaz | Hop | 8 | 16.4 IBUs | - |
1.5 liters | WLP665 Flemish Ale Blend | Ale yeast | 9 | - | - |
| 3 pounds | American Oak Chips |
Greetings collective. I wanted to share an experience with people regarding this Flanders Red I just brewed.
To be sure I've turned from a private home brewer to a professional brewer, maybe like so many people have dreamed of.
This beer was something of an experiment that so far is doing rather well post consultation with Nick Impellitteri, microbiologist at www.theyeastbay.com. I consulted with him to run two concepts past him that you may or may not want to consider for yourselves when making a sour beer. To be sure I've never used WLP665 prior to this, always favoring Wyeast's Roeselare blend. But coming in a $1200 a dose, I had to rule it out. Wyeast is in trouble from what I understand.
My question for him was directly pitching the 1.5 liter dose as a primary fermentation. Much to my happiness he stated that this was formulated to be either a direct pitch or as a secondary fermentation. Which was welcome news.
Secondly, with the use of American oak chips, which for me is superior to French oak in brewing, we talked about the concept of adding the oak to the boil kettle during the end of the boil, flame off, and whirpooling to sanitize the oak. Then to transfer the oak into the fermenter itself to sit there throughout the complete fermentation process. The chips are contained in a mess bag designed for this task.
The beer is still fermenting now, but I couldn't help but to steal a snoop off the sample port. The acetaldehyde is still front and center and it's as turbid as can be, but I can pick up the oak character and maybe a bit of the sour, or it my imagination after 1 week.
In any case I just wanted to share my thoughts and experiences so far with this. If you're interested we can keep this thread updated as time moves forward.
As an aside, I'll package this and start selling in in April since I don't have the storage space to keep this one sitting around for a year or more.
