Flanders Red Fermentation

Hey guys,

I was hoping to attempt my first flanders red beer some time soon. I was going to age it on 1 oz of French light oak cubes for 2 years. My question though is: would you guys only do a primary or would it be worth transferring to a secondary to get the beer off of any dead yeast since it will sit for so long?

Thanks

Greetings Oddball - I certainly would not leave the beer on the yeast that long.  It has been said by many brewers on this forum that 2-3 months is really pushing it. Personally, I would not go much longer than fermentation, then rack to the secondary and add your sanitized oak.

I just read your post again - 2 years!  That's a very long time.  I'm not sure that extended time period is really necessary to get the flavor out of the oak.  During that extended time period, many unfavorable things will happen to the beer.  It will most likely go stale, especially if the ABV is not in the upper 7's or higher!

Good luck!!

from what I've read, 2 years seems to be the normal time for aging in oak barrels for this style in the Belgian area. I plan on doing a brew each year and blending the older mellowed (hopefully) batches with the younger (probably sharper on the tongue) batches. I was definetly leaning towards doing a secondary for to get the beer off the dead yeast. Would enough lacto, pedio, and brett still transfer if you transfer to secondary right as primary finishes? I plan on pitching all of them right at the beginning in primary, but I want enough that it will continue to develop flavor while still not having a ton of dead yeast sitting at the bottom.

Also, what would you recommend for sanitizing the oak? Star san? Vodka? Or does it need to be sanitized? This style generally depends on the oak to provide the microorganisms for aging

Greetings Oddball - your ambitions are a bit out of my level of expertise.  I can tell you, however, that I used oak in a Blonde Ale a few years back. I soaked the oak chips in bourbon for a week before adding them to the secondary. This was my third all-grain brew and my first time using oak or bourbon. The result, I can honestly say, was not good. Since that awful experience, I have read a lot of material on the subject and I?m still a bit gun shy. So, I think you may get better advise from another brewer.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

I would recommend sanitizing by soaking in vodka, then throwing vodka (now oak infused) and oak chips into the beer. If you soak in StarSan you probably don't want to put the liquid into your beer, and you would be losing some oak flavor as a result. I have made bourbon barrel stout by soaking the cubes in bourbon for a couple of days, then dumping it all in the beer and it gets more positive comments than any other beer I have made.

--GF

GigaFemto said:

I would recommend sanitizing by soaking in vodka, then throwing vodka (now oak infused) and oak chips into the beer. If you soak in StarSan you probably don't want to put the liquid into your beer, and you would be losing some oak flavor as a result. I have made bourbon barrel stout by soaking the cubes in bourbon for a couple of days, then dumping it all in the beer and it gets more positive comments than any other beer I have made.

--GF

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How much oak did you use and what size batch? Did you get much "oak" flavour or was it more of the bourbon that you ended up getting? Thanks for the recomendations

I used 2 oz of oak cubes in a 5 gallon batch. The bourbon flavor dominated, but the oak did come through. Looking at the oak cubes for sale at MoreBeer  (https://www.morebeer.com/search?search=oak+cubes ), they recommend 2 oz for 5 gallons and aging for 1-6 months.

--GF