Flanders Red 1.3.1

For the third round of Flanders Red using my Roeselare yeast cake I've decided to brew two batches.  This batch will be fermented for two weeks with regular yeast prior to adding the Roeselare blend while the other batch (1.3.2) will have the Roeselare blend do all the fermenting (as was the case for my first two batches:  1.1.1 and 1.2.1).  I am going to primary with WLP 530 Abbey Ale yeast slurry from my Belgian Double.  I am interested to see how the esters from this beer are transformed by the brett in the blend.

The main concern with allowing a primary yeast to ferment a sour beer first is that it will eat too much sugar and wont leave enough for the brett and bacteria to contribute their flavors to the beer.  I have decided to mash in the high 150s to the low 160s to try to prevent the gravity from coming down too far in primary.  Another potential concern (hypothesized by The Mad Fermentationist) is that oxygen levels in the beer after primary will be fairly low and that this could inhibit the brett from working well.  I am thinking that the three months I've been giving these beers in a bucket fermentor will give the brett enough oxygen to do it's thing.

I like the idea of primary fermentation separate from the souring because it seems like a much more controlled and potentially more repeatable way of brewing these beers.  Just pitching the Roeselare you don't really know how much of the sugar the yeast, brett, and lactic acid bacteria are each eating.  By using a primary yeast strain first you can be fairly sure that the brett and bacteria will be consuming most of the sugar going forward.  This is the method used by Rodenbach for their Flanders Red.

If this goes well I might try a few more rounds of this primary first approach.  It will be interesting to see how this batch compares to the direct 3rd generation Roeselare pitch after a few months of souring.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 4 lbs Pilsner
• 4 lbs Munich
• 3 lbs 8 oz Vienna
• 1 lbs 8 oz Flaked Wheat
• 12 oz CaraMunich
• 12 oz Aromatic
• 12 oz Special B
• Hops:
• 1 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 4.2% AA) at 60 min
• Yeast:
• WLP 530 Abbey Ale Yeast Slurry (4 Cups)
• Wyeast 3763 Roeselare Ale Blend (Third pitch)
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 160 F for 60 min (Target 162 F for 60 min)
• Boil:
• 60 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temp:
• 60 F to 75 F (Ambient Basement Temps)
• Primary Duration:
• With Abbey Ale Yeast:
• 2 Weeks
• With Roeselare:
• 3 Months
• Secondary Duration:
• TBD (15 to 33 Months)

Results:

• OG:
• 1.056 (Target 1.062)
• Efficiency:
• 62% (Target 70%)
• FG:
• TBD (Target 1.012)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• TBD (Target 80%)
• ABV:
• TBD (Target 6.83%)

Brewing Notes:

• 3/27/15 Brew day - 12:45 PM to 4:30 PM including setup and cleanup
• Brought 7 gal of water to 190 F strike temp - took 35 min
• Added CaCl and Gypsum to kettle
• Transferred 5 gal of strike water to the mash tun and let settle for 10 min - ended up at 179 F
• Added the grain and stirred in to eliminate dough balls
• After 10 min check the temp - was about 160 F (close enough to target to not fool with it)
• Gave the mash a stir at 30 min to help conversion - temp was still at 160 F
• Brought 5 gal up to 190 for sparge - took 30 min
• At the end of the 60 min the mash was still just about 160 F
• Stirred, vorlaufed, and then drained (slow and then quickly)
• Added the 5 gal of water as a single batch sparge - brought mash up to 173 F - stirred, vorlaufed and drained
• Ended up with 8 gal 
• Brought to a boil - took 15 min
• Added the 60 min hops after the massive amount of hot break subsided (it came back about 15 min into the boil and stuck around for most of the 60 min which was very odd)

• Added irish moss when volume got down to 6.5 gal
• Added the wort chiller to sanitize at flameout
• Chilled the wort down to 60 F - took 10 min
• Transferred to the fermentor - aerated by letting it fall a foot or so into the fermentor.  Let most of the cold break get into the fermentor but the hops behind

• Collected 6 gal of wort
• Added 4 cups of yeast slurry to the beer and setup the fermentor with a blow off tube
• Measured final gravity as 1.056.  The wort has a really rich maltiness and isn't that sweet.  I think my plan of preventing the primary yeast from getting the gravity down too far is going to work
• 3/29/15 - This beer was bubbling vigorously this morning.  I'm finding that Wyeast 530 is a pretty strong fermentor - hopefully it won't take this down too far.
• 4/11/15 - After 2 weeks I measured the gravity as 1.006.  This is much more attenuation that I expected (89%).  My Dubbel with the first pitch of WLP 530 only got 82% attenuation.  This is even with what seems like it should have been a much less fermentable wort (mashed in the low 160s).  I'm really shocked by this finding.  I have no idea how this could have happened - will need to do some research.  The beer has a pretty good fruitiness but is boozy.  Transferred it to a new bucket (have about 5.5 gal at this point).  Added half the dregs from Flanders Red 1.2.1.  It is going to be very interesting to see if this beer manages to get very sour.  I think there is plenty of ester character here to get pretty funky though.  Only time will tell.  I plan on doing some more rounds of this primary yeast first method - not sure what I'll tweak next but something will need to be tweaked.

• 7/25/15 - Transferred this beer to a glass carboy for long term aging.  Measured the gravity as 1.000.  It has a good bit of funk and a decent level of sourness.  It didn't end up as sour as 1.3.2 did which is probably due to the lower gravity after primary.  It is quite a bit more sour than every other batch after 3 months though which has to be largely due to the warmer basement temps.  It is quite a bit less fruity smelling than the direct pitch batches have been.  I transferred it onto about half a gal of 1.4.1 which had been primary fermenting in the carboy previously
• 7/23/17 - Status Report:
• Big vinegar aroma from the fermenter- none in the sample though.  Fruity and earthy smells to this beer.  It has a big aroma.
• Orange/red and clear
• Medium level tartness - restrained and pleasant.  Earthy Brett flavor comes through very strongly.  Also has a reasonably strong fruity flavor component.  Get a bit of grainy malt flavor coming through on the finish
• Strong flavor and aroma on this one with a good level of complexity
• 12/16/18 - See 2018 Status Report

Lessons Learned:

1. After a few frustrating batches of missing my mash temp by being too clever with my water to grain ratios I have hit (or gotten very close to hitting) my mash temps in the last couple batches.  I think shooting for a 1.5 qts per pounds ratio of mash water to grain has really helped with this.
2. I was really happy to have only collected 8 gal of wort which allowed me to just to a 60 min boil.  This was my quickest brew day ever at less than 4 hrs.  I don't feel like I had to sacrifice doing anything important for this either.  My efficiency wasn't good but I suspect this was more a product of the high mash temp rather than the amount of sparge water.  I'd trade an hour for a few gravity points anyway.
3. I'm really enjoying this 3 month cycle of brewing these beers.  It fits nicely with the 3 month tasting cycle I'm doing for the maturing beers.  I think this routine can help me hone in on impact of the various choices I've made in brewing these beers.