A year and 3 months ago or so I brewed my first Flander's Red basing my recipe mostly on The Mad Fermentationist wine barrel flander's recipe The Mad Fermentationist wine barrel flander's recipe. I mostly happy with the results, though I compared it side by side with Rodenbach Grand Cru and it definitely lacked some of the complexity and was more sharply acidic than Rodenbach (albeit, not unpleasant). I entered it in a local competition and it pretty much confirmed my conclusions - lacking in the dark fruit/malt flavors, a bit on the sharp side for acidity, and a bit papery/sherry like (though they noted it was not offensive).
Despite the flaws it did score relatively well (3rd in the sours with a 38), though I'm always looking for ways to improve my brews. I really love the well rounded fruit flavors and sourness of the Grand Cru's of the world, so that is sort of my target at this point. I think I can attribute the sharpness to acetic acid production from the Brett (it sat in the basement for ~10 months in a 6.5 gallon carboy with quite a bit of head space) so I think that could be countermeasured. I really want to know how to bump up the flavors - especially the dark fruits. Any advice that anyone could give would be much appreciated. The recipe is as follows:
5.5 Gallon Batch Size
OG - 1.060
FG - 1.012
ABV - 6.3%
IBU - 12.8
Color - 18.3
Eff - 81%
Grains:
3 lb. 5 oz. Munich
3 lb. 5 oz. Vienna
3 lb. 5 oz. Pilsner
1 lb. 2 oz. White Wheat
8 oz. Caramel 60
8 oz. Special B
4.5 oz. Crystal 10
3.5 oz. Crystal 40
Hops:
1 oz. Crystal (3.3% AA) 75 min
Yeast (no starter):
2 Vials WLP665 Flemish Ale Blend
Jolly Pumpkin La Roja Dregs
Mash:
154°F for 60 min.
Water Treatment:
CaCl and Chalk (I don't remember why, though I know better now). I'd have to find what my target water profile is. I had it on my work computer that crashed, so it may be long gone...
90 min. boil
Fermented ~2 months in primary at 66ish
~10 months in secondary at basement ambient (through winter then summer)
Added 1 oz French Oak Med+ Oak cubes in secondary. They were fresh, but I boiled them for ~15 min to get a lot of the oak flavor out.
Despite the flaws it did score relatively well (3rd in the sours with a 38), though I'm always looking for ways to improve my brews. I really love the well rounded fruit flavors and sourness of the Grand Cru's of the world, so that is sort of my target at this point. I think I can attribute the sharpness to acetic acid production from the Brett (it sat in the basement for ~10 months in a 6.5 gallon carboy with quite a bit of head space) so I think that could be countermeasured. I really want to know how to bump up the flavors - especially the dark fruits. Any advice that anyone could give would be much appreciated. The recipe is as follows:
5.5 Gallon Batch Size
OG - 1.060
FG - 1.012
ABV - 6.3%
IBU - 12.8
Color - 18.3
Eff - 81%
Grains:
3 lb. 5 oz. Munich
3 lb. 5 oz. Vienna
3 lb. 5 oz. Pilsner
1 lb. 2 oz. White Wheat
8 oz. Caramel 60
8 oz. Special B
4.5 oz. Crystal 10
3.5 oz. Crystal 40
Hops:
1 oz. Crystal (3.3% AA) 75 min
Yeast (no starter):
2 Vials WLP665 Flemish Ale Blend
Jolly Pumpkin La Roja Dregs
Mash:
154°F for 60 min.
Water Treatment:
CaCl and Chalk (I don't remember why, though I know better now). I'd have to find what my target water profile is. I had it on my work computer that crashed, so it may be long gone...
90 min. boil
Fermented ~2 months in primary at 66ish
~10 months in secondary at basement ambient (through winter then summer)
Added 1 oz French Oak Med+ Oak cubes in secondary. They were fresh, but I boiled them for ~15 min to get a lot of the oak flavor out.
