Update: Carol 2.0

Last week I brewed my second Lambic.  After a 24 hour chill open to the air in my garage I racked the beer into a sanitized 6 gallon carboy.  Upon racking it, I added about a ½ cup of slurry from my previous Lambic (over a year old, and had been in the fridge over a month), as well as the dregs from a 3F Oude Gueuze.  There was no activity for 3 more days.  On Friday morning I sent a message to Mad Fermentationist asking how long is too long to wait before pitching something, and he advised pitching something right away if it didn’t take off that day.  When I got home from work that day there was a pure white soapy foam on top about a ¼” thick or so - it looked like StarSan foam.  This lasted for a few days and began to die back some.  On Sunday afternoon I pitched some of my Strawberry Starter that I had made earlier in the summer and had stepped up with some of the wort for the Lambic.  On Monday night I racked my ½ gallon of spontaneous fermented Brown Ale into a glass jug with an airlock and added the yeast slurry to the carboy (the beer tastes kind of watery and wild, but not off putting, nor does it taste like the Brown Ale).  Upon smelling the Lambic while adding the yeast the smell is not disgusting, but not appealing either.  I’m hoping that the fermentation will blow off any unwanted aromas, and the wild yeast will transform any unwanted acids and fats into lovely esters over the course of the year it ages. There could be some dangerous bacteria growing, DMS from the Pils and no chill, or a number of other possibilities, but most Lambics go through this stage for much longer than a week.  As of Tuesday morning there is a normal krausen starting to form on the beer and the airlock is starting to crank out like normal while it sits in the garage at a steady 67*F.  We’ll see where it goes over the course of a year…