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.

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.

UPDATE: Carol 2012 (Lambic)

After 2 months of wild fermentation I pulled a taste of the Lambic I brewed in October.  It has a distinct bitterness to the sour, much like a 3F or Cantillon, just not as harsh.  The sourness is very present for such a young sour, and different from a straight lactic sourness and no acetic.  The sour profile contains an acid from (I suspect) some of the early bacterias that weren't in the first edition.  There are a few esters in the young beer that are slightly off, not bad, but not totally pleasant.  Looks like I have a real Lambic fermentation on my hands with early bacteria and acids from other wild sources before the Lacto or Sacc started doing their thing.  I am looking forward to where it goes from here as the Pedio blooms and the Brett takes some of the less desirable esters and acids, and transforms them into (hopefully) wonderful fruity and funky esters.  The long aging period should also help some of the bitterness drop out that comes from the hops (if any of the bitterness is from the aged hops at all), as well as some tannins from the French Oak.

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…

Recipe: Carol "Lambic" 2.0 (Where the Wild Things Are)

As I sip on my “Lambic” from last year, which I am very pleased with, I am very anxious to brew another one.  This time I will use the same yeast culture from the last one as I saved the entire cake from the last brew in a gallon jar in the fridge.  This year I am going to go with a grist that is much more traditional, 65% Pils, 35% Raw Wheat, mashed @ 158*F.  Last year I had some character malts like Vienna and CaraVienne which are not traditional and I’m not sure they added any needed complexity other than color.  I also had a flavor hop addition which is pointless in a beer aged for a year, coriander was the same.  I added some cake flour last time for a little more dextrins to chew on since my mash temp was fairly low. 

I could always do a turbid mash, but why?  I could also do a cereal mash, but why?  These things are traditional, but do they add anything to the final product that won’t be there (or at least drastically noticed) in the final product?  My first Lambic is quite nice and it was mashed at 152*F, and hit 1.006 in 3 weeks.  The 158*F mash should leave a larger amount of dextrins in the wort for the bacteria and Brett to munch on, and the large pitch of yeast cake should ensure a healthy amount of bugs and Brett as well as autolized yeast for them to eat as well.  That combined with an overnight open cooling in the garage where all my wild stuff is going (which I already fermented a ½ gallon of left over Brown Ale spontaneously in there), and some more dregs from commercial and homebrewed sours should ensure a good, big, powerful, and characterful fermentation from the onset, avoiding some of the enteric bacteria that are not desired.  Add in a 3 hour boil, and aged hops, we are looking at a great start to a second Lambic for next year.

Stats:

5.5 gallons

1.050 OG

1.001 Est Fg

6.6% Est ABV

8 IBUs

3 SRM

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Fermentables:

7.5#  Weyermann Pils

4.0#  Flaked Wheat

0.50# Rice Hulls

10 Minutes @ 148*F

10 Minutes @ 152*F

45 Minutes @ 157*F

78% Extract Efficiency

72% Brewhouse Efficiency

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180 Minute Boil:

180 mins - 3.4 oz Aged Hops ~ 1.5AA%

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Fermentation:

Cooled overnight opened to air in garage

6 gallon glass carboy

Healthy pitch of cake from Carol 1 (cultured from blackberries plus dregs)

Dregs of 3 Fonteins Oude Gueuze

12 months at ambient in garage

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Additional:

Gypsum 1/2 t (mash), 5/8 t (boil)

Calcium Chloride 1/2 t (mash), 1/2 t (boil)

1 French Oak Cube in primary

Brew day started off difficult.  I overshot my strike temp and hit a mash temp of 165*F.  After adding cold water I ended up at 148*F.  Added boiling water to get up to 152*F, then added more boiling water to get it up to 157*F, and rested for 45 minutes.  Wasn’t planning on doing a step mash, but oh well.  After collecting 10 gallons of wort I drained the last of the runnings into a separate kettle and boiled it down to about 800ml of 1.080 wort.  I added this to the beer and drew off 1200ml of 1.040 wort from the boil and cooled it to make a starter to my dregs while the wort cooled over night.  I added the dregs from a Hannsens Oude Gueuze to the starter only for a fruit fly to get into it and render it useless.  After a 3 hour boil, I had to move the keggle into the garage for the overnight chilling, and of course, while carrying the 15.5 gallon beast of a brewpot with a scorching hot bottom, I hit my leg with it and burned it quite nicely, luckily I only did it once and got the wort to the garage without spilling any or hurting myself anymore.  I covered it in a large sheer curtain sack that I synched down on the sides, hoping that the Fruit Flies don’t get into there like the starter.  After about 28 hours at ambient temp I racked 5.25 gallons of the wort into the 6 gallon carboy with the yeast cake, oak, and dregs.