Lambic was brewed

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Yesterday. I’ve been wanting to try this for some time. Never having brewed a sour before I researching the topic, I couldn’t resist.

Did a 6 gallon batch.

1.052 OG estimate

50% Raw Flaked Rye from our local Co-op

40% Weyermann Boho Pils

10% Weyermann Vienna

.5oz of 2 or 3 year old Tettnangers that I calc’d to 7 IBU

Full dose of wyeast nutrient blend

Mashed in at around 152 and pulled a decoction to raise to 158

Sparged with boiling water.

Ran hot wort to a 7 gallon turkey fryer kettle, covered with cheese cloth, and set by a cracked door inside the barn. This was not a barn for horses just a barn out in the countryside. There it still sits while I type this. It was 40 last night and this morning it had dropped down to 65 so I left it. When I get off work I’m going to rack it to a glass carboy and see what happens.



Just something fun to try. Thoughts?

Very cool. I like the high percentage of the raw rye. Hopefully it turns out good! Did you boil at all? If so, how long?

Yeah I forgot that part. I did boil for 90 minutes. The hops weren’t all that cheesey smelling so I didn’t think a longer boil would make much difference.

Hope it turns out well as I think this type of thing is pretty cool. OldSock did a cool experiment much like this where he made a bunch of starters and set them out it different places around his house to see if the microflora that he captured was conducive to fermenting wort into a palatable beer. That way you don’t waste an entire 6 gallons of beer if you get some evil bugs. FWIW, a couple of the starters that he made did not turn out very well. Good luck!

Linkage:http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2011/04/ambient-spontaneous-yeast-starters.html

I’m wary of doing a full spontaneous fermentation if you aren’t aging in barrels. Lambic brewers have loads of microbes in the wood that ensure an active primary fermentation. I’d probably toss the dregs from a couple lambics in there to make sure things get going. That said, your location/temperatures sound pretty ideal. My starters took a few days to get going and had some mold before I stepped them up. The beer I brewed with them turned out pretty well too. My last lambic was left open to cool, but then I pitched a starter I made from six bottles of 3 Fonteinen Gueuze.

This project REALLY interests me. Might have to put a couple containers out in the yard with some extra runnings from my next beer and see what happens. I figure that the weather in early March won’t be too warm or too cold, so it’d be a good time to collect some local microbes.

Also thinking about juicing some crab apples from the tree in the yard and adding it to something. From what I’ve read, they they ripen in the fall, so it’ll have to wait until they do so. Anyone else used them? They’re supposed to be pretty bitter, but are also supposed to have a higher sugar content than regular apples.

Originally posted by HornyDevil
Also thinking about juicing some crab apples from the tree in the yard and adding it to something. From what I’ve read, they they ripen in the fall, so it’ll have to wait until they do so. Anyone else used them? They’re supposed to be pretty bitter, but are also supposed to have a higher sugar content than regular apples.

There are a couple of varieties of crabapples. I have an ornamental one in my yard that produces fruit even the birds won’t touch but there are also "good" crabapples that make awesome jams and jellys so I suspect they would be pretty good in beer as well. A good course of action would probably be to get rid of the peels in terms of getting rid of bitterness and the tremendous amount of pectin they contain. Might be a pain though, with such small apples.

On topic, I’m about to try brewing a lambic as well, I cultured up some dregs from 2 drie fonteinen oude gueuze bottles and will try to get things started in there. I was wondering about using a bucket for fermentation - On the one hand, I’m thinking that the small amount of oxygen that permeates the plastic might be similar to what seeps through a barrel - On the other, I really don’t want to give any possible acetobacter any more of a chance to compete by giving them air.

The risk of an imperfect bucket seal is too much for me to risk on a long aged beer.

Originally posted by OldSock
The risk of an imperfect bucket seal is too much for me to risk on a long aged beer.

I guess I could wax the lid...

I agree with you guys that say its a safer bet to pitch dregs, do a starter, etc but I don’t have a ton of money stuck in it so I’m trying it out. As an update I brewed this on Sunday, racked to closed container 24 hours later and as of Tuesday there was zero visual fermentation activity. On the crabapple note, I had a crabapple wit beer a while back that was quite interesting. I also got to try a cider with 60% crab apples and it was super tart. The cider maker claimed it was primarily tartness from the apples themselves not bacteria.