First Flanders Red questions

[Hotmamma]

I, like a couple other brewers on this thread am preparing to brew my first Flanders Red, following the recipe and instructions for DrewBrew Flanders Red published in BYO article written by Jeff Sparrow entitled Flanders Red. The only tweaking I plan to do is adding fruit and oak cubes to the secondary which will be a 6.5 gal BigMouth Bubbler. Shooting for a bottle-able volume of 5 gallons, so thought I should inject CO2 on top of the bigmouth before placing the airlock. Necessary?
Couple other questions:
1. Necessary to aerate wort before pitching? I'm using Roeselare Blend.
2. Corking vs. oxygen eliminating bottle caps?

Love to hear of others escapades with this style and invite any other suggestions and or comments.

 

[RPh_Guy]

If nothing else, I would suggest to limit hops to 0.2-0.4oz, depending on how sour you want it.

Aeration is good. Saccharomyces needs it.

Secondary fermenter isn't necessary.

I would purge headspace during aging if I open it... But I don't because I don't have CO2 equipment, so I rely on the pellicle to guard against oxygen.

2oz of oak cubes is a little much for my taste. I would start with 0.5-1oz and adjust from there if desired.

There's no right/wrong capping vs corking (or even corking AND capping).
Read this:
http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Packaging

Wait until 3-6 weeks before you plan to bottle to add fruit. This will maximize the flavor.

 

[singybrue]

1st gen Roeselare is kind of a lightweight, adding pitchable dregs from other sours will help increase the complexity needed for a good Flanders Red.

Corking vs capping?
Cork for tradition and presentation, along with increased work and expense.
Cap for for cheap and easy.

 

[Hotmamma]

1st gen Roeselare is kind of a lightweight, adding pitchable dregs from other sours will help increase the complexity needed for a good Flanders Red.

Corking vs capping?
Cork for tradition and presentation, along with increased work and expense.
Cap for for cheap and easy.

Any suggestions for "dregs"? using a bottle of commercially available sour?
New territory here so questions may sound silly to you

 

[Hotmamma]

If nothing else, I would suggest to limit hops to 0.2-0.4oz, depending on how sour you want it.

Aeration is good. Saccharomyces needs it.

Secondary fermenter isn't necessary.

I would purge headspace during aging if I open it... But I don't because I don't have CO2 equipment, so I rely on the pellicle to guard against oxygen.

2oz of oak cubes is a little much for my taste. I would start with 0.5-1oz and adjust from there if desired.

There's no right/wrong capping vs corking (or even corking AND capping).
Read this:
http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Packaging

Wait until 3-6 weeks before you plan to bottle to add fruit. This will maximize the flavor.

Do you recommend straining-filtering cooled wort?

 

[madscientist451]

Had pretty decent results using Jamil's recipe, mashing high, primary with So4, secondary with ECY Bug Farm.
I've heard Rosalare takes a long time, the ECY Bug farm produced a decent sour in 6 months, it was better after a year though. I didn't take any PH measurements.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Do you recommend straining-filtering cooled wort?

No, absolutely not. There are ways to get clear wort but it certainly isn't needed.

If you want to use dregs (generally a good idea, after primary fermentation completes), pick a mixed fermentation sour beer from which you like the Brettanomyces character or at least the general flavor ... It needs to be a bottle that hasn't been pasteurized or filtered.
Follow the procedure here:
https://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/06/harvesting-sour-beer-bottle-dregs.html
More reading:
http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Commercial_Sour_Beer_Dregs_Inoculation