Lambic v3.0

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strange-steve

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Today I'm finally getting round to brewing my third lambic which will eventually become the third and final part of my 4 year guezue project. I'm a little behind schedule with this, I should have brewed this a few months ago but things have gotten in the way. Anyway the recipe:

Straight Lambic v3.0

Recipe Specs
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Batch Size (L): 20.5
Total Grain (kg): 5.08
Total Hops (g): 25
Original Gravity (OG): 1.053
Final Gravity (FG): 1.005
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 6.3 %
Colour (SRM): 3.3
Bitterness (IBU): ~6 (Average)
Boil Time (Minutes): 60
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 71

Grain Bill
----------------
2.500 kg Flaked Wheat (49%)
2.500 kg Pilsner (49%)
0.080 kg Acidulated Malt (2%)

Hop Bill
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25 g Aged Cluster Leaf @ 60 Minutes (Boil)

Water Treatment
----------------
0.2g/L Calcium Chloride in 90% RO Water

Mash Schedule
----------------
15 min rest at 45°c
15 min rest at 50°c
45 min rest at 65°c
30 min rest at 70°c

Notes
-----------------
Fermented at 20°C with Wyeast 3278 harvested from previous batch
Primary fermentation - 12 months

Water is being collected from the RO unit now, some pics to follow.
 
This is the 6 year old hops, not much smell or taste left in them, as you'd expect.
g4Y0Sa2.jpg


The rather anaemic looking wort
BS0Rafp.jpg


The pH was a little high, even with the acid malt, but not enough to worry about
NWvJHOL.jpg
 
Having a sample of v2 while waiting for the chiller. It is seriously, mouth-puckeringly sharp initially but after the first couple of sips it's actually rather good.
Jq0SBFN.jpg
 
Did v2 have the same grain bill? It's quite a colour for pilsner and flaked wheat


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Well all wrapped up now. Efficiency was down a little (again) but good enough at 1.053 OG rather than the expected 1.056.

Did v2 have the same grain bill? It's quite a colour for pilsner and flaked wheat


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Yes it did, the colour must come from the aging (it's about 17 months old right now) because I remember the wort was just as pale. Version 1 is even darker at 30 months old.
 
Well 3 days later and there is absolutely no signs of life at all, which is quite concerning because the last couple kicked off very quickly. The yeast/bacteria blend probably wasn't in great condition after a couple of months in the fridge, so today I chucked in a pack of crossmyloof pale ale yeast which will hopefully get fermentation started before anything unwanted takes hold.
 
Ok 3 weeks in now and the gravity is currently 1.006. Flavour wise it's very bland, like a really poor wheat beer. A little phenolic, presumably from the Belgian yeasts in the blend, but otherwise pretty flavourless. I'm gonna open a bottle or two of my v1 lambic and add the dregs because I'm not convinced the sour mix I added was in good health.
 
Maybe the pale ale yeast did too much of the fermentation and that's why you don't have the sourness you'd be looking for


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Maybe the pale ale yeast did too much of the fermentation and that's why you don't have the sourness you'd be looking for


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It's actually not an unusual practice when making a sour beer to pitch a neutral yeast such as US05 and leave it for a week before adding the sour mix. Jamil Z recommends doing so and I did it with my first lambic which turned out really sour. I'm just being premature, it can take a long time for brett and lacto to present themselves, especially if it's not a great culture, but it will sour eventually.
 
Makes sense to let sacc get the sugars it can then turn the bugs loose on the more complex sugars.

I'm amazed at how little dregs can make a huge difference. I had a beer stall at 1.020 and I separated it out. Most got a sour blend and I've just left it. One gallon got infused with blackberries then dregs from four lambics I bought. In three months it's down 6 points and is transformed, nice tartness and some fruit. Pretty damn cool!


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