The Mixed Fermentation Thread

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My flanders red is only a few weeks off a year old so I took a sample to check progress. Gravity is surprisingly high at 1.012, but I remember when I brewed this I noticed after the mash that the temperature probe wasn't properly seated in the thermowell, so I suspect it was mashed quite a bit hotter than intended.

I'm guessing the gravity will drop a bit more because I still have to release the pressure from the sealed carboy every few days with an audible hiss, so there's still some activity.

Flavour wise it's OK, nothing special. Not much sourness yet, just a little tang, and some fruity brett flavour. Hopefully this will improve with some more ageing, I'm not in a hurry to bottle this so I'll give it another try in a few months.

s2Rztbz.jpg
 
strange-steve said:
My flanders red is only a few weeks off a year old so I took a sample to check progress. Gravity is surprisingly high at 1.012, but I remember when I brewed this I noticed after the mash that the temperature probe wasn't properly seated in the thermowell, so I suspect it was mashed quite a bit hotter than intended.

I'm guessing the gravity will drop a bit more because I still have to release the pressure from the sealed carboy every few days with an audible hiss, so there's still some activity.

Flavour wise it's OK, nothing special. Not much sourness yet, just a little tang, and some fruity brett flavour. Hopefully this will improve with some more ageing, I'm not in a hurry to bottle this so I'll give it another try in a few months.

s2Rztbz.jpg
Click to expand...
What yeast? Doesn't the description of the flanders blend say it takes two years to sour?
 
Sadfield said:
What yeast? Doesn't the description of the flanders blend say it takes two years to sour?
Click to expand...
It's Wyeast 3763 Roeselare Blend. It says on their site "up to 18 months is required for a full flavour profile and acidity to develop". As I say I'm not in any hurry, just curious how it was coming along.
 
What IBU was yours Steve? Mine soured fast without hops but it was very one dimensional. One one of the sour sites they suggest if its not souring after 6 months pitch more bugs/yeast and a little fresh wort. I racked mine after and month a pitched part of a brett starter and its gone nuts. Already tasted very fruity.
 
According to my notes it was about 13 IBUs. There is some sourness and actually a nice little acetic touch, but it's definitely not a face melting sourness. There's still some activity so I'll leave it alone for a while before taking another sample.
 
I emailed BrewDog and they told me the only beer they pasteurise are alcohol free. i think most must be filtered but the funk punk seemed to have some sediment. I wonder if anyone has tried to propagate this yeast? I am fairly sure one of my beers started fermenting again when i added some but cant be sure. Its quite a nice beer.
 
I did some racking of my 2020 “lambic” today so took the opportunity of checking in on all three instalments.

2020 (50/50 pils and flaked wheat, single infusion mash, US05 and a starter of Cantillon dregs): this had a really fluffy white pellicle. It is incredibly sour, the Cantillon Gueze that provided the bugs was the sourest beer I’ve ever tasted so I’m not that surprised. This tastes clean and bright and after only 3 months it shows promise

2019 (50/50 Pilsner and flaked wheat, turbid mash, white labs lambic blend): this one is a little underwhelming. It’s earthy but not very sour. Because I wanted to do this one “properly” I did a very long boil and maybe even with the aged hops that has inhibited the lacto. Surprised pedio hasn’t produced any acid yet, but anyway the Brett character is interesting at least, earthy and a bit haybarn

2018 (extract and maltodextrin, white labs lambic blend): this beer is absolutely phenomenal. It actually tastes like lambic! Such a different colour too. Super excited about this one.

Overall it’s fascinating how these beers are developing and have really interesting and distinctive characters. I’m planning to taste them all, and blend to my taste next year before bottling. If things stay broadly as they are, I could see the 2019 and 2020 blending nicely as they have very different characters and together should be better than the sum of their parts. 2018 could stand up well on it’s own, but would also be a really nice base to blend into just to drive some added extra notes.

God I hope nothing goes wrong with these in the next year!
 

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Funny story while I was doing the racking today, the extra 5 litres of this year’s went onto gooseberries which we’d got earlier in the year and froze. My son asked why I had beer in three bottles and what type of beer it was (he’s 5, and he knows IPA has lots of hops and stout is black!). I told him it was a special type of beer called gueze. Response: “oh yeh, because it has gooseberries in it”. Kids eh?!

I forgot to say in my previous post, I normally make around 18-20 litres of these and give them 3-6 months in a bucket. Then I rack 11 litres into a Better Bottle, which is supposed to have very minimal oxygen permeability. I’ve found the results of this pretty good, there’s some oxygen risk early from the bucket but nothing has gone acetic on me. And lambic has non-zero oxygen exposure as it’s fermented in wooden barrels.

I always do a fruit beer with the remaining beer. This year it’s gooseberries, last year was a gallon of apricot and a gallon of blackcurrants, which are both really nice. The first year I did a blend with apple juice and that was really interesting.
 
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I brewed this a few weeks ago with Laerdal kveik (containing bacteria) and a starter made from 4 different bottles of gueuze. Not sure where the colour comes from as there is little crystal in it but its already started to clear. Its been racked and its still fermenting. I made a hop tea from 60g of aged hops but this is already sour. Tasted pretty nice, going to try it again in 3 months. Impressed with the starter i made, i took 3 or 4 days to get going.and fermented out in 3 weeks.
 
Brewed an AG Flanders Red today. The long boil is still going. The recipe is:

1kg Pilsner malt
1kg Munich I
1kg Munich II
300g Flaked Wheat
150g Special B
150g Melaoniden malt

Mashed at 66C for 90 minutes.

2 hour boil with aged hops

Depending on boil off and trub loss, I’m looking at around 14 litres at 1.050

I’ve got a White Labs Belgian Sour Mix 1 from a lucky dip. That’s the lambic blend rather than the Flanders, but I’m cheap so wanted to use it anyway. To add a bit of extra complexity I’m going to use a pack of CML red wine yeast that I had in the fridge alongside it. I’ve seen Mike Tonesmeire use red wine yeast alongside bugs for a Flanders so should be fine I hope!
 
Ajhutch said:
I’ve seen Mike Tonesmeire use red wine yeast alongside bugs for a Flanders so should be fine I hope!
Click to expand...
Off the top of my head I seem to recall that the Flanders blend contains a red wine strain so not a bad idea thumb.
 
I have a dark winter SAISON coming up on 12 weeks brewed with wlp670. If i check the gravity over the next few weeks and it's stable, is it safe to bottle. I would then let it to continue to age until Christmas.
 

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