Flanders Red - Adding body post fermentation with Lactose?

[rwing7486]

Hey everyone. So back in January 2017 I brewed my version of a "flanders red" using a similar grain bill to Jamil's (see below) and I am now getting ready to keg 4 of the 5 gallons (saving 1 gallon to blend for next years batch). For yeast I pitched Sour Cherry Funk from Gigayeast which consists of 3 strains of brett and 1 strain of lacto. The beer started at 1.054 and finished at 1.000 - This was kind of expected with the brett. The beer aroma and flavor is great, but the beer finishes very dry and thin. So I am looking at adding some body and "sweetness" to balance out the dryness. My idea was to boil 1/2lb of lactose in some water and add that to the keg during kegging to raise the FG up to ~ 1.006. With that said I know Brett can ferment out Lactose so my question is will adding K-Meta or K-Sorbate to the fermenter before kegging stop the brett from eating the lactose? or is there a better method for adding body back into a sour beer that has brett in it?

Grain Bill
Pilsner 42.3%
Vienna 42.3%
CaraMunich III 3.8%
Aromatic 3.8%
Special B 3.8%
Wheat 3.8%

0.75oz French Oak cubes into the secondary

Cheers!

Rob

 

[oceanic_brew]

It's really odd that I just a second ago read an article about how a lot of commercial breweries pasteurize or centrifuge to lock in the body of their Flanders reds before bottling.

Those beers are so complex from a microorganism stand point.

You could try bottling a few from the keg and then pasteurizing in a water bath. Chill them to the same temp and do a side by side to see if it had any negative effect.


There's something about that which doesn't seem "authentic" to me but this hobby is about experimenting and trying new things.

 

[oceanic_brew]

I'm planning my Flanders right now. I have an 11 Gallon barrel already conditioned for it. Gonna brew it next weekend.

I'm doing the solera method and will replace 5 gallons every 8-10 months.

 

[chrilr]

You decide on adding anything yet?

 

[rwing7486]

My plan is as of now is to add both K-meta and K-sorb and then add lactose to my keg and rack over the beer on top of it. I am going to wait until February to Keg it.

 

[divrack]

Hey everyone. So back in January 2017 I brewed my version of a "flanders red" using a similar grain bill to Jamil's (see below) and I am now getting ready to keg 4 of the 5 gallons (saving 1 gallon to blend for next years batch). For yeast I pitched Sour Cherry Funk from Gigayeast which consists of 3 strains of brett and 1 strain of lacto. The beer started at 1.054 and finished at 1.000 - This was kind of expected with the brett. The beer aroma and flavor is great, but the beer finishes very dry and thin. So I am looking at adding some body and "sweetness" to balance out the dryness. My idea was to boil 1/2lb of lactose in some water and add that to the keg during kegging to raise the FG up to ~ 1.006. With that said I know Brett can ferment out Lactose so my question is will adding K-Meta or K-Sorbate to the fermenter before kegging stop the brett from eating the lactose? or is there a better method for adding body back into a sour beer that has brett in it?

Grain Bill
Pilsner 42.3%
Vienna 42.3%
CaraMunich III 3.8%
Aromatic 3.8%
Special B 3.8%
Wheat 3.8%

0.75oz French Oak cubes into the secondary

Cheers!

Rob

i dont really like the idea of adding those chemicals to beer but im very sensitive to that group of flavours and plastic flavours.
if you keg you can always sweeten it in the keg and at a cool temp its not going to do much. likewise you could filter and cold crash heavily maybe with a light campden dose before sweetening and i dont think itd be too much worry, but id personally avoid the risks of all options and just make up your choice of sweetener and add some when pouring the beer, a la over-dry cider. that way youre not risking screwing up a beer that has taken years of love to brew.