First go at a 'wild' brew, feedback needed :)

[Malloy]

Dear all.

After some thinking time, I've come to the point where I can no longer hold myself back. It's time to brew my first lambic style 'wild' brew.

Considering that the process will take around two years, I want to be absolutely sure (well, as sure as one can be when it comes to beer) that I end up with an acceptable product two years from now.

I've decided to have a fairly thought through strategy ready, and I would love to get any feedback, both good and bad, from the lot of you.

Materials: (5-gallon batch)
3 kg Maris Otter
1,5 kg unmalted wheat (organic bio stuff from a local farm)
100g aged low-AA hops (fake aged... It's going in the oven)
WLP655 (Belgian Sour Mix 1)

I aim for a OG of around 1.050, the grain should get me to that point.

Fermentation & aging:
WLP-yeast, at the moment I'm not able (and gutsy enough) to go 'true' wild.
I do my primary & secondary fermentation in plastic buckets, and I plan to do that here also. I am not bothered with the sour taste getting stuck in the bucket.

After an month or so, it is my plan to transfer the liquid into a Cornelius keg with a pressure vent, then let it sit for 18-24 months in the attic. I am not worried with temperature shifts, it'll do something to the beer, and that's fine.

After the 18-24 months I've thought about tapping half the batch in bottles (with a small amount of priming sugar (dextrose)), and adding fruit to the second half. I'm thinking cherries or strawberry, depending on what local stuff I can find at the time.
Actually i might just end up filling 4 kegs with 4 batches and then 'fruit' an entire batch up after the waiting period.


So, there we are, that's the plan. I've tried to think of everything, and of course I've probably missed several things, so if any of you have any comments, feedback, suggestions or straight up warnings please shoot away. I'm planning to start the brew within a couple of weeks but I will prospone if I'm in trouble.

Thank you all in advance!

 

[suprchunk]

What's the reasoning behind using Maris Otter instead of Pils?

eta: there are a ton of other questions I have to your method(s). Have you thought about reading up on this forum first, or reading a book about it, or perusing themadfermentationist?

 

[Malloy]

Thanks for your answer.

The reason for Maris Otter is that I have a bag of it standing around, but I'll change that to pils, no problem

I've gone through a couple of books so far, I especially like Sparrows 'Wild Brew's', I've also looked at themadfermentationist and this page, although that was a couple of monts ago.

If you have any concerns do not hold back, I'd rather know now than in 2 years time

 

[MattHollingsworth]

I think putting it into the attic is not necessarily a good idea if it gets warm up there. I have no sours under my belt yet, but if you reread Wild Brews, you will see that the pros in Belgium say that they do not want the fermentation getting too warm or it will go way, way, way sour and not be good. I was rereading that section last night. I think it was the guy from Cantillon saying they try to keep it at 61F or something like that.

Might be worth a quick reread before you get going.

And consider a turbid mash to give some starch to the bugs to eat on later in the fermentation cycle.

 

[Weezy]

Pils for sure and you do want to keep it below 70F. If it gets below 60F, that's ok it will just take longer.

Why not just primary in the corny? You want to leave it on the yeast, for food for the Brett.

100g of hops seams like a lot?

 

[MattHollingsworth]

Pils for sure and you do want to keep it below 70F. If it gets below 60F, that's ok it will just take longer.

Why not just primary in the corny? You want to leave it on the yeast, for food for the Brett.

100g of hops seams like a lot?

The recipe in Wild Brews uses 6 grams per liter, which would be 114 grams for 5 gallons.

 

[Weezy]

Ok. Just seemed high. I do small batch stuff.

The point is got get a lot of hop oils into the beer, but no bitterness, right? The reason old hops are used isn't because they want cheese funk in the beer, its because they want zero AA% hops and aging is the sure fire way to do that. couldn't we use a big addition of any hop at sub-isomerization temps, whirlpool, then cool???? On a commercial scale, the brewer can't do this. But we can on a home brew scale.

 

[Malloy]

Quick answers

Attic: The reason is that I live in a small apartment, so limited room. I do however think that the temperature stays relatively low even during summers, but I'll leave a USB-thermometer up there to 'moniter'.

Primary in corny: My reasoning was that the initial fermentation would be more managable in a bucket, but if you see no problems putting the wort directly into the corny, then I'll definately consider that!

As with my ales, I expect a very 'active' fermentation the first few weeks, I was thinking that that might be easier to manage in the bucket?

Hops: Looking around at different recipes, 100g seems well within the 'norms'.

 

[MattHollingsworth]

I wouldn't even want to ferment in a keg at all. I'd want to watch the pellicle! Sort of like having a science experiment that you cannot watch.

I am doing my first truly sour beer on the 13th. Done about a dozen Brett beers but this will be the first really sour beer. So, been rereading books, etc.

Anyway, let us know how it goes with yours.

 

[Malloy]

Thanks Matt, and good luck with yours as well.

Ideally I would ferment in a see-through container but storage is an issue (read: wife does not want me to place 3-4 buckets under the sink in the bathroom for 2 years). I might make a 'display' batch in a 1gal-glass container so that I may follow the process

 

[MattHollingsworth]

Yeah, limited space makes aging beer difficult. Good luck with that.