Flanders Red - 2018 Blend

Time to blend up my third attempt at a Flanders Red style beer (click to read about my first and second attempts).

Flanders Red is my favorite style of beer and I've taken on large project with 12 simultaneous batches to give myself some interesting blending options.  My recent tasting of these 12 beers will form the basis of this blending session.  For this plain blend I'm going to choose my most boldly flavored and complex beers and will shoot for a medium level of sourness.

I will go with the following in order to get 6 gal of beer:

• Fermenter #3:

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Sweet dark fruit and a bit of earthy funk
• Appearance:  Dark red and pretty clear.  A bit of floating pellicle chunk
• Flavor:  Light sourness followed by a light overripe fruit flavor.  The finish has a bit of earthy brett character which balances things nicely.  The finish also may have a hint of a chocolate like flavor mixed in.
• Mouthfeel:  Fairly smooth drinking
• Overall:  Flavors are pronounced and there is a great deal of complexity to this beer.
• Volume:
• 2 gal
• Fermenter #4:

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Fruity with a bit of earthy brett character.  Also has a mineral aroma
• Appearance:  Brownish red and pretty clear
• Flavor:  Very light sourness.  Has a yogurt like lacto character.  The finish has an interesting funky, fruity and earthy flavor
• Mouthfeel:  More substantial than I'd expect from one of these beers - Medium bodied.
• Overall:  Medium level of flavor but has a nice variety of things going on that give it a good amount of complexity
• Volume:
• 1 gal
• Fermenter #7:

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Fruity with some earthy and leathery funk
• Appearance: Dark orange and clear
• Flavor:  Medium sourness with a really lovely fruity flavor (tropical fruit kind of flavor).  Earthy brett and some malt come through in the finish
• Mouthfeel:  Pretty smooth - slight pickling of acidity
• Overall:  Has a bold and very pleasant flavor along with some nice complexity.  This is one of the best.
• Volume:
• 2 gal
• Fermenter 11:

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Fruity with a slight earthy brett character.  Also get a wine like aroma
• Appearance:  Dark Orange and pretty clear
• Flavor:  No sourness has developed.  Has a bit of a bitter flavor in the finish which I think is Brett - kind of like the bitterness from a grapefruit or pineapple.  Has a fairly pungent overripe fruit flavor as well
• Mouthfeel:  Medium bodied and pretty smooth
• Overall:  Pretty bold flavors and pretty complex.  Has come interesting things going on that none of the other beers do.  I think this will make an interesting blending component
• Volume:
• 1 gal

I'll be making 3 other batches this year (Cherry, Raspberry, and a Spiced Version).  I'm thinking I'd like to use at least a couple gal out of each of my 12 fermenters and not drain any of the fermenters completely.  I'll top all the fermenters off with some fresh beer which will hopefully give the microbes enough food to live another year.  Also hoping that the best tasting fermenters maintain their good flavors this way.

Like last time I'll plan to backsweeten the beer to ~1.012 and then bottle pasteurize once it has carbonated.  I think the bit of sweetness really helped to balance the beer.

I'll give this plain batch at least 3 months for the flavors to meld prior to bottling.


Blending Notes:

• 12/29/18:
• Siphoned the 4 beers into a bucket fermenter in the ratios decided upon above

• Set it up with a vented silicone bung
• 7/14/19 - Bottling day:
• Made 2 lbs of invert #2 syrup using table sugar.  I did this my mixing the sugar with 1/4 tsp of citric acid and 2 cups of water and heating on medium low until it reached 260 F and was a golden color
• Added sugar and 1 pack of rehydraded red wine yeast from red star.  Stirred this all together for a couple minutes to try to ensure an even mixture.
• Ended up with about 6 gal of beer which netted me 61 bottles
• I will let these carbonate for a few days before checking the first one.
• 7/22/19 - I've been trying these every couple days.  They've gotten nicely carbonated after 8 days.  Still sweet but pour with a finger or two of head.  Bottle pasteurized in a 145 F water bath for 20 min.  No breakage this time.
• 3/28/20 - Tasting Notes - Flanders Red is a wonderful style of beer and I would say this is a pretty good one.  This is a complex and boldly flavored beer that is also quite refreshing.  I think the level of sweetness remaining after the pasteurization is very nice - really helps the balance a lot.  I haven't had Rodenbach Grand Cru in a while but I believe this beer is quite close to matching it's quality.
• 6/26/20 - 2020 Vertical Tasting:
• Aroma:  Fruity with earthy and leathery Brett character.  May get a bit of vanilla oak character as well.
• Appearance:  Reddish brown and fairly clear.  Poured with a thin layer of foam that was gone quickly
• Flavor:  Fruity character up front - cherry.  This smoothly blends into the acidity and carries into the finish nicely.  Has a slight sweetness that balances the acidity into the finish.  Has a bit of caramel mixed in.  A bit of Brett character rounds out the finish as well.  Maybe a bit of bready malt in there too.
• Mouthfeel:  Medium-light bodied and slightly sweet.  Pretty smooth drinking with only a faint prickling
• Overall:  Bold flavors and complex.  Has a very nice fruity character and a lovely sweet and sour balance