RECIPE #71: WTWTA: The Carol 3.0 (Lambic)

Earlier this year I entered a local BJCP competition and happened to win the Best of Show with a wild fermented "Lambic" I had brewed 2.5 years earlier.  I had cultured yeast and bacteria for that batch from blackberries over growing the fence of the back yard at our old house we rented, as well as peaches from the local farmer's market.  This was the only yeast I used for fermentation.  Over the course of the year I added dregs from commercial and homebrewed sours.  After a year and a half in bottles it won BOS.  When this happened I of course wanted to re-brew it, so I started stepping up the dregs.  For winning BOS I got to brew the batch at Falling Sky, but they don't do sours, so we did a kettle soured version that mimicked the original.  

Just after the win I was chatting about the beer with Matt Van Wyk of Oakshire Brewing and that it wouldn't actually be re-brewed commercially.  Then, almost as if it wasn't a big deal, he stated that he would brew the beer with me.  Matt makes amazing sours and the thought of even being able to do my beer with him is a huge honor.  8 months later and we are there.  I brewed this current batch for myself, 10 gallons, to fill a 6 gallon wine barrel, and have some for aging and blending later, as well as the big reason, to begin growing the yeast up for the 10 barrel batch.  I had pitched my starter onto 6 gallons of the wort I got from my Falling Sky brew, then pitched that slurry onto this 10 gallon batch.  I gave the slurry from this batch to the Matt who stepped it up on a 1 barrel batch to have it ready to ferment 10 barrels.  A few days from typing this, I will be at Oakshire brewing this recipe on a large scale for aging in full size wine barrels.  Never thought I would see this day come.

Update: A Barrel, and A Brewer for A Day (Or Two)

It has been a busy past few weeks and in our world, it isn't going to slow down anytime soon.  Wanted to give a quick update for what is in the works since there is nothing completed at the moment to post about.

I was able to squeeze in a brewday just over a week ago for 16 gallons of Belgian Blonde which I had made 2.5# of Invert Sugar for.  This will be going into a 14 gallon wine barrel that I was given by a friend.  Trying to get a bone dry barrel to swell was not an easy task.  I started yesterday morning and it is still dripping today, but nothing like the waterfalls pouring out when I first added water.  I put a holding solution of Citric Acid (1g/L) and Potassium Metabisulfate (2g/L) in there to kill any acetobacter or mold that might have been inside, and to keep it swollen and ready for this weekend when I move the beer into it.

Some seepage from the top staves

Falling drip of water

Another Drip Shot

I also spent this past Saturday and Yesterday as a brewer for a day at Falling Sky Brewing.  It was my prize for winning Best of Show in February.  We weren't able to rebrew my beer since they don't do sours, but we did a mock of it which was fun.  We mashed and soured the wort on Saturday, then went back on Tuesday to finish it off with a boil and hopping.

Adding the grains to the mashtun

12oz Citra Mash Hops

Brunch at the brewery, Pork Benedict

Cleaning out the Lauter Tun

Simcoe, Galaxy, 291

Free wort for me to take home and play with

Surprise lunch visitor came to see me brew

The yeast is in

Review: Where The Wild Things Are: The Carol (BOS Geueze/Lambic)

I am actually surprised that I have not reviewed this beer in its 1.5 years from bottling.  I entered this beer at about 3 months into a Club Only Comp and got knocked hard because it was carbonated and Lambic is a still beverage (per their interpretations).  So when I decided to enter it into an actual BJCP comp at 18 months in the bottle (2.5 years from brewing) I took the advice of many other homebrewers on forums everywhere... enter what it is, not what you wanted to make.  Even though it was not a blend of 1, 2, and 3 year old Lambics (not even a Lambic as it wasn't Pils and Unmalted Wheat, nor did it have aged hops), I entered it as a Geueze.  I am looking forward to the new BJCP Guidelines to be released this year; I really hope the addition of Wild Beers expands the categories enough to cover all types of sour beers and wild ales, American Sours, Floridaweisse, 100% Brett Beers, etc.  

Anyways, I judged the competition and was able to hang out for the Best of Show judging.  It was a trip to watch this beer go forward, 22 beers to 7, top 6, top 5, top 4, why aren't they even discussing my beer?, top 3, oh crap top 2, I am for sure the honorable mention if nothing else... then the question from Jamie Floyd (brewer/owner of Ninkasi) says to Jason Carriere (owner of Falling Sky), "Is there anything wrong with the Geueze?"  Jason replies "We don't have a case of it!"  And that was it, the moment every brewer dreams of, but few see, and even fewer see it all unfold in front of their very eyes.  My beer took Best of Show.

Look:

Pours a beautiful golden orange with a nice dense offwhite head that actually sticks around for awhile and fades to a ring that stays the rest of the way.  Slightly hazy, not clear, but definitely not foggy.

Aroma:

Peach bursts from the glass first, followed by mango, and pineapple, hay, light funkiness (touch of baby diaper, but not in a bad way), oak/winey, some horseblanket, and citrus to finish.  Lots of fruit going on in the nose, followed by a fainter layer of funk.  It is very enjoyable to see how Brett can cause so many different layers of complexity.

Flavor:

First thing to hit the palate is a clean Lactic tartness, not face numbing, but puckering.  Mango, peach, and a touch of funk follow.  Definite oak/wine character there, but not too much, vanilla, sweet berries, touch of acetic acid.  Like the nose, the Brett layered on the juicy fruits more than funk.

Mouthfeel:

Light crisp tart body, but not thin thanks to the unmalted wheat.  Astringent oak tannins pull on the sides of the throat alongside the tartness.  The medium carbonation is perfect for the beer, it pushes out the aromatics, but doesn't mess with the feel.

Overall:

A very juicy, complex, fruity sour.  Not exactly a Geueze, but very complex, lots of Brett fruit, touch of funk, clean Lactic character, hints of oak.  Whether it is a Lambic, a Geueze, or an awesome American Sour is pointless (a couple brew club BJCP guys made sure to point out multiple times they wouldn't have made it BOS), this beer rocks!  I am culturing the dregs up right now too and will see how they work when used again.

2014: What to Do, What to Do?

I recently posted a last year in review post, and thought it would be good for me to get an expectations and goals for the coming year article up as well. Last year was a good year with lots of expansion to the brewery, learning and using new techniques, some really good recipes, buying a house, etc. This year I have a few things that I really want to either get into or refine. Unfortunately I am posting this one a few weeks later than I had hoped to, and so some of these goals are already achieved or at least parts of them are.

To start, this is the year of competitions. My aim is to enter my beers in competitions and place as many as possible. It is all fine and dandy when I like my beers and think that I did a good job, it is another thing to have unbiased judges give real feed back and to have medals to validate my own beliefs about my recipes, process, etc. We have 6 Club Only Competitions this year, 5 of which I am able to enter (one is for first time COC entrants only). I am hoping to beat out the reigning 3 time COC winner this year, high hopes for sure, but I think I have a chance. I have also entered 7 beers into the KLCC homebrew competition which is BJCP sanctioned, and was judged this past weekend. There were 221 entries total, and from my 7 entries I had 4 beers place. My Dopplebock, Procrastinator, took 2nd place, The Caleb, a recent Bourbon/Oak aged Imperial Stout took 1st, CUDL Buddy, a Winter Warmer entered as an American Brown, took 1st, and my first Lambic from September 2011, The Carol, took 1st place in sours as well as Best of Show for the comp. I will also be entering the Sasquatch homebrew comp, which is another locally hosted but nationally opened BJCP comp in June.

We started refashioning an extra room in our house (built in the garage) into an entertainment room. We have painted, installed really nice shelves on which we arranged glassware and "show bottles" (Cantillon, Dissident, Abyss, etc.). We bought a couple comfortable but ugly chairs that we need to reupholster, and we want to use a dark leather to do so. I am hoping to border the room from the floor to about 3' up the wall with metal corrugated panels to add that garage feel, and also accent with some dark wood. I also want to buy a mini fridge for my yeast, and then put full taps in the beer fridge door with a drip tray. Eventually we want to get a new TV for the Family Room and move our smaller one into the entertainment room. We also need to take some good shots of my beers with nice backgrounds and frame them for the walls, and mount awards/ribbons as well.

I have plans to build an incubator in the coming months for culturing yeast. I want to couple this with actually culturing more yeasts. A buddy from church is a microbiologist and ranches yeast, and I have been getting into this with him. We are working on culturing Cascade's Lacto strain that I was stepping up. We are also trying to clean up some Conan I got second hand that was infected. I have petri dishes with medium on them and a few slants as well to start using.

Last year I got new kettles that have a larger boil off rate than my previous ones. I also recently bought a 70 quart cooler to convert over for mashing bigger batches and that will take some testing. I need to pin down this new system during the start of the year. I have also been getting much higher efficiency on my system with my water treatment and over night mashing, so I need to dial this into account when building recipes, especially when trying to replicate previous brews.

Last year I wanted to start a Solera project, but was not able to track down a barrel or legal keg to use. After doing some networking I found out that one of my buddies in the club has a used 14 gallon wine barrel he wants to do some sours in. He has agreed to splitting the barrel which will probably age in my garage, and we are going to start with a Flanders Red, a style I absolutely love but have yet to brew for some odd reason. After a year or so we plan to remove 5 gallons each of the beer from the barrel and replace with a new 10 gallons of beer to mix with the remaining 4 from the first batch. He is also trying to track down another 14 gallon barrel for me to get and brew on my own.

In previous years I have brewed 2 Wee Heavy beers, and both were failures. The first batch was infected with a gusher yeast and tasted too much like cherries. The second batch was a good base beer but I pitched a large jar of old yeast and ended up with autolysis which made the beer taste like pot roast. It is great for cooking beef and pork dishes with, but not much more. My desire for this year is to brew a really good Wee Heavy, and I brewed the beer a few weeks ago. So far it seems to be a good beer, but needs to get some age on it for melding the flavors. At 4 weeks it is sweet, chewy, malty, caramelly, and good, just needs to come together more, and I might need to add some acid to the keg just to drop the final pH a few points and brighten it up as the finish is a little flabby. It is bulk aging in a purged and sealed keg in the garage, and might get some oak at some point. 

For some odd reason, much like the Flander's Red, I have yet to brew a Barleywine. This year that is going to change. I was planning to max out my current mash tun, but with the new one on the way, I won't have to. This beer will be big; I am planning on a 13%+ ABV beer on this one, tons of hops, and over 120 IBUs. I also want to brew a Vienna Lager this year. 

As of yet, I have not actually grown hops. I have hops planted, but I have not grown enough to count. The first year I planted Chinook in a container and got maybe 12 cones. The second year I planted another 8 varieties, and got maybe a pound total from them, the transplanted Chinook giving the largest harvest. Last year we bought a house and moved the hops late in the season so I didn't have any plants to harvest. I was able to install a sprinkler system for them which will help a lot. i am hoping that this year I will have my first good crop, at least from the established plants. I am going to be removing the Brewer's Gold and planting Cascades, Centennials, and Columbus. Maybe even some Magnum to get a clean bittering hop. My eventual desire is to become self sustaining for hops (unless I need to buy some patented hops like Mosaic or something).

I want to rebrew a few beers this year, mostly with slight tweeks to the recipe. I have already rebrewed my IPA and Black IPA split ferment from this time last year. I change some of the hops up and one of the yeasts, but I also got super high efficiency leading to an OG of 1.074 instead of 1.065, and got full 5.25 gallons instead of the 5 and 3.75 from last year (another reason to pin down my system). I also want to rebrew my 1st place Dopplebock, stepped up to a 10 gallon batch as I have a family member that wants to have some cases of it and is paying for his batch. 

My buddy from church loves to work with metal, and has an itch to weld. He has offered to build me 2 burner brew stand, which would be awesome for brewday. I am hoping for one that I can set on its side out of the way when not in use, then drop down and roll around during the course of a brew. I hope to assist (watch) him on this project. 

Each year I ask for brewing gear for my birthday and Christmas that I can't really justify buying throughout the year. This year I really want to move from aeration to oxegenation, so I am asking for the oxygen regulator and stainless steel wand from William's Brewing. I wouldn't mind getting new quick connects for my equipment to replace the Aluminum cam locks with Stainless Steel ones as I use Bar Keeper's Friend and Oxiclean on my equipment and these are not good for Aluminum.

That is a lot of stuff to cram into one year, but I am well on the way to getting it done. We'll see at years end how I did. Until then, I'll keep brewing, and Let the Beer Speak.

A Yeast Starter w/o Yeast?

I am preparing to make a beer in 3 weeks that will not have yeast added to it for fermentation... well, not directly; I will be adding fruit directly to the unfermented wort to do what is called a Spontaneous Fermentation. Spontaneous fermentation is used in Belgium to make Lambics; the hot wort is pumped into a cool ship (a flat, shallow steel container with no lid) that sits high in a pathway for good night time breezes and awaits the breeze to bring local microflora: wild yeasts, and beer souring bacteria. After a night of cooling and being innoculated with these wild strains, it is transfered into a wooden barrel that is home to wild yeasts and bacterias, and it ferments here for years.

I will be doing something like this, but not quite. The wild yeasts and bacteria that are in the air used by Lambic brewers are mostly from fruit. Fruit have all the organisms needed to make a wild ale: Saccharomyces, Lactobiccilus, Pediococcus, and Brettanomyces. My plan is to add the fruit with these microflora on them directly to the beer and allow the resident critters to do what they naturally do. The fruits contain sugars that will be eaten and increase the alcohol in the beer as well as helping to dry it out, and they contain acids that will help add another layer of sourness to the finished product. I am going to use blackberries and peaches, the blackberries will give a nice acidic and fruitiness, and the peaches will have a large amount of Brett living on the fuzzy skins. I also will be adding French Oak cubes to primary to add some more depth, as well as any microflora living in the wood.

One huge risk I run by doing this is if there is too much oxygen, acetobacterer can grow which can turn the beer to vinegar. So to avoid a slow start to fermentation, I am taking a precaution. I am making starters from the fruit, that I will pitch along with more fruit when it comes time to ferment. So far I have made the starter wort: 200ml Simply Apple Juice and 800ml of water, to 50 grams of light DME, boiled with yeast nutrients. To this I added 15-20 fresh blackberries from my neighbor's bush. It has been 4 days, and it has hit high krausen, has a substantial amount of yeast on the bottom, and is forming a pellicle. It tastes great. Lots of fruit, light alcohol, clean sourness that is more than straight tart blackberry. Here is a progression:

12 Hours - Some signs of growth as the slurry on the bottom is larger than before.


24 hours - the blackberries are starting to float around a bit, and there is quite a bit of yeast (I assume) on the berries on the cores.


36 hours - many of them floating on top and what appears to be fermentation signs on the top. Progressing nicely.


44 hours - definite signs of a good fermentation.


48 hours - krausen has formed, and smells of fermentation.

84 hours - fermentation seems about done, there is a substantial amount of yeast on the bottom, and I see signs of a pellicle forming on top.

I will be updating again soon as I do the starter for the peaches (the Farmer's Market was sold out the other day, hoping to get some tomorrow morning), and again as I step them up, and of course, brew day!

NOTE: This beer took 1st place in Sour Beers and BEST OF SHOW in February 2014 at the KLCC BJCP comp.