Lambic/Flanders Red

Hello everyone, I just sampled my first Flanders Red Ale (Vichtenaar) and have to try my hand at brewing something similar.  Problem is, I've never done a lambic before and haven't been able to dig up much about the them.  Has anyone here brewed the style?  I'm thinking of using the Wyeast 3763 Roeselare blend after pitching US-05, but welcome any and all suggestions otherwise (recipes, too).  Also, any pointers towards books dealing with the style would be great.

Best,

Northwood

Ah yes, another one gets hooked. It's an incredible beer style, and somewhat difficult to do well. I think the yeast line up you've got listed there would be perfect. You will have to be very patient though, as the brettanomyces takes a minimum of one year to fully ferment and develop. I've got a beer that was originally fermented with Chimay yeast, then aged in a syrah barrel with lactobacillus, pediococcus, and brettanomyces lambicus for 18 months. It's now been sitting in a 5 gallon cornelius keg for 2 years, and is starting to get very good. It's very similar to the Rodenbach Flanders. I say go for it with your plan. Just be patient and let it age well.

Darin

Darin, thanks for the input, it sounds like you've got this style down.  Now my only problem is finding a good Flanders Red recipe--I called the local brewshop, but nobody there had a clue how to brew it :-\  Also, I don't have a syrah barrel laying around (wish I did...), so do you think that oak chips in the secondary would be an acceptable stand in?

Cheers,
Michael

Michael -
 
  I was lucky enough to have a connection in the San Luis Obispo wine country (Justin Winery) to get that barrel. It did cost me about 6 cases of beer, but for someone who was bottling 100-150 cases a week, that was just a pittance. I would say that oak chips in the secondary would not give the same effect. For two reasons: 1. The wine has "seasoned" the oak and imparts great flavors to the beer, 2. The brett tends to latch on to the wood and kind of hang out there. Just not the same with chips. As far as a flanders red recipe goes. Do you have an amber ale recipe that you like? Go with that one, boost up the maltiness a bit and do a step infusion at 150F for 45 minutes and 154F for 20 minutes. That should give you a nice medium mody profile, and believe me the brett WILL ferment some of those "unfermentable" sugars that leave body, giving you a more complex profile when the brett fermentation is complete.

Darin

dhaenerbrewer said:

You will have to be very patient though, as the brettanomyces takes a minimum of one year to fully ferment and develop. 

....brettanomyces lambicus for 18 months. It's now been sitting in a 5 gallon cornelius keg for 2 years, and is starting to get very good.

Click to expand...

Holy Crap - and I was anxious about my kolsch sitting for five weeks.  Clearly I am not ready for this.

Darin,

Now I've really fallen down the rabbit hole--digging around on Craigslist I found a local place selling off used french oak pinot barrels for $50, which I think is probably pretty hard to beat.  The only thing is that these are full-sized barrels, rather than half or quarter, so lots of headspace with 6-12gal batches (12gal is my limit).  Did you have lots of empty space in your batch?  Or do something like a CO2 purge?

Thanks,
Michael

Michael -

Well now I'm really going to make you dive deeper into the rabbit hole. I originally made this beer when I was a professional brewer. It all started with us brewing our annual Grand Cru (30 barrels, or approximately 1,000 gallons) with a Chimay/DeKonick/Chouffe yeast blend that we got from the Brewing Science Institute (an INCREDIBLE source for yeast, but you have to buy a minimum 1 bbl pitchable quantity). I know I originally stated that we brewed it with Chimay, but I dumbed it down a bit. Now you're getting the full story. So anyhow. My assistant at the the time had a friend that he went to high school with who's family owns Justin Winery. He went up to San Luis and got this barrel. We acquired this barrel about 1 year prior to making this beer, and had already made a Kriek (for this one we took 50 gallons of our Jeremiah Red that had already fermented out and merely innoculated the barrel with it) that won a gold medal at the LA County Fair (funny story on that one, we beat out Samuel Adams for their "Cherry Lambic"). When we were done with this beer, we merely gave the barrel a hot water rinse (150F) and sulfur stick then bunged it and let it sit. When we were ready to put the Grand Cru in it, we just gave it another hot water rinse (160F this time) and put the beer in it. Since the barrel had already been innoculated the brett and lacto and pedio took right off. Twelve months later I was no longer working for BJ's and making grape juice concentrate instead. When I went back to visit 6 months later my former assistan, now head brewer, presented me with a 5 gallon keg of it that he had racked off. So now this keg has been sitting and aging for the last two years. After we started blogging about this, I went and tasted it. It is absolutely ready, and currently being carbonated so I can have it ready for my birthday party in a week. Thanks for that by the way. Anyhow, I'm done being long winded.

Long story short, I wouldn't put it in a barrel with that much headspace. http://morebeer.com/search?search=oak+barrel ; Check that out for smaller oak barrels. That's going to be your best bet. But beware that once you inncoulate it, it's brett forever, unless you have it broken down, scraped and refurbished. I would also reccomend that if you do buy one, to put it through it's paces with a few big beers (Imperial Stout, Barleywine) first to remove some of the oak flavor. The oak is VERY strong in new and refurbished barrels. I've also found that beer only needs 3-7 days the first time you use an oak barrel. Good Luck!

Darin