Flanders Red 2.1.1

I recently placed an order with the Yeast Bay so I decided to give their sour blend (Mélange) a try.  This will give me a bit more biodiversity and hopefully provide some more range for blending my Flanders Reds.  As some point I'll probably mix this culture with Roeselare to see how the two interact.

I have also put together a new grain bill that I'll try on my next few Flanders Reds.  I have swapped out the Pilsner, Munich, and Vienna malts for 2 Row and some Victory malt to get a cheaper mash that will hopefully provide roughly equivalent levels of malt complexity.  I have also swapped the flaked oats for corn grits with the hopes of extracting a bit more starch.  My efficiency always seemed to suck with the old grain bill and I've suspected it was the fault of the oats.

Corn is apparently a fairly common ingredient in Flanders Reds so I feel justified in using it.  I will be using a cereal mash for the first time to extract the starches from the corn.  I plan on adding it to the mash right before the sparge to hopefully allow some unconverted starches to make their way into the kettle.  I will also be using rice hulls for the first time to try to avoid any sticking of the mash due to the corn.

Once again, no hops on this batch.  It will be very interesting to see how sour this blend will get on it's first pitch.  It's fairly new and I haven't been able to find much in the way of user reports on the blend yet.  It smelled great going into the fermentor.  I'm looking forward to seeing it develop.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 8 lbs 2 Row
• 1 lb Victory
• 12 oz Caramunich III
• 12 oz Aromatic
• 12 oz Special B
• 2 oz Acid Malt
• Cereal Mash (Not factored into efficiency calculations):
• 1 lbs 8 oz Corn Grits
• 6 oz 2 row
• Hops:
• None
• Yeast:
• Yeast Bay Mélange Sour Blend
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 5 gal tap water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• Extras:
• 1 oz of Oak Cubes (in primary)
• 8 oz of Rice Hulls in Mash
• 1 oz of Oak Cubes from a clean batch of beer (in secondary)

Batch Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 160 F for 60 min (Target 160 F for 60 min)
• Boil:
• 60 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temp:
• 60 F to 75 F (Ambient Basement Temps)
• Primary Duration:
• 3 months
• Secondary Duration:
• TBD (15 to 33 months)

Results:

• OG:
• 1.059 (Target 1.050)
• Efficiency:
• 87% (Target 74% - Does not factor in the Corn Grits which will not get a full mash)
• FG:
• TBD (Target 1.002)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• TBD (Target 96%)
• ABV:
• TBD (Target 6.30%)

Brewing Notes:

• 8/30/15 - Brewday - 4:40 AM to 9:30 AM - Including setup and cleanup
• Heated 10.5 gal of strike water to 165 F.  Cycled through mash tun and RIMS to get them up to the target temp - took 45 min
• Ended up with 4 gal above the false bottom and 6.5 gal in the system
• Added CaCl and Gypsum to the mash tun
• Added the grain and rice hulls and stirred it all in.  Ended up with 5 gal above the false bottom after dough in

• Cycled at about 2 qt per min with the RIMS set to 165 F
• Added 4 qt of spring water at ~165 F to a separate pot for the Cereal mash
• Added the corn grits - temp fell to 157 F.  Added the two row which brought the temp down to 152 F

• Let the Cereal mash sit for 15 min
• Main mash was at 161 F after 20 min.  Stirred the first time.  Lowered the RIMS to 160 F
• Brought the Cereal mash to a boil after 15 min rest on the kitchen range.  Stirred it periodically.  At one point I stepped away too long and had a big boil over which was a sticky mess.
• Added 5 gal of tap water to the HLT for a total of 8 gal and brought to a boil
• Stirred the main mash again at 40 min.  Temp was down to 156 F so I raised the RIMS back to 165 F
• Stirred the mash one final time at 60 min
• Drained all the wort from the grant back to the tun and stopped the cycle
• Poured the near-boiling Cereal mash (which was the consistency of watery oatmeal) into the main mash

• Fly sparged with near-boiling water at a rate of approximately 1 gal per 5 min.  Had about 7 gal above the false bottom during the sparge which gave a good layer of water.  Drew lines in the top of the mash with my paddle to help ensure even draining.
• At the start of the mash the gravity at the grant was 11.2 brix (1.045)
• Started heating the kettle once I'd collected about 3 gal.  This will halt conversion of the corn's starches if the hot sparge water hasn't already.  Gravity at the grant was about 12 brix (1.048) after collecting 3 gal
• Gravity at the grant was 10.2 after collecting 6 gal
• Stopped the sparge at 8 gal - gravity at the grant was 3 brix (1.012) at that point
• Sparge took about 30 min
• Brought to a boil - took only about 5 min more thanks to the heat during the sparge.  Fly sparging is great.
• Boiled for 60 min
• Added the chiller at flameout to sanitize
• Chilled down to 70 F - Took 50 min
• Measured the gravity as 14.4 brix which is 1.059
• Collected 6 gal by letting the wort fall down to a couple feet to the fermentor.  
• Moved the fermentor down to the 70 F basement and pitched the yeast
• Added 1 oz of oak cubes
• 8/31/15 - The fermentor was bubbling by this afternoon
• 9/13/15 - The airlock is still bubbling a bit after two weeks.  This was also a pretty strong fermentation that had caused the airlock to fill with wort in the first several days.
• 12/5/15 - Transferred to a glass carboy to age with a 3 piece airlock.  The carboy had 1 oz of oak cubes that my English Barleywine had aged on.  Freed the cake for Flanders 2.2.1.  The beer was down to 1.001.  It has a very funky and slightly unpleasant band aid like aroma.  The flavor isn't offensive - quite a bit of brett funk and a slight fruitiness.  No sourness has developed so far.  I think the Roeselare was a bit nicer on the first batch.  We'll see how this one develops.

• 7/23/17 - Status Report:
• Bold earthy aroma mixed with dark fruit
• Dark red and clear - very nice looking beer
• No sourness has developed.  There is a bit of interesting fruitiness and some bready malt.  Also get a hint of alcohol.  Finish has a bit of funk
• Mild flavor with a fair bit of complexity.  I think this one is outshined by the Roeselare batches but it brings some different flavors

Lessons Learned:

1. My efficiency was much higher than normal.  My assumption about not getting any sugars from the Cereal mash is flawed.  If I factored that in my efficiency would have been about 74% which is much closer to my normal.  The role the rice hulls played is something I'd like to understand better.  I will keep using them going forward.
2. I still feel like my use of the system is improving.  I was able to cleanup efficiently in parallel with the boil.  This included a drain of the mash tun and a soak in Oxiclean.  The oxiclean then went into the boil kettle and then everything got a rinse with tap water.  This did add about 45 min to the end of the brew day but I think it is worth it to have a clean system for the next batch.  I still think there is room for improvement.