My final step for this year's Flanders Red Project is filling 2 fermenters which I emptied during my blending sessions.
I have quite a bit of diversity in my fermenters with Commercial Blends (Wyeast Roeselare, Yeast Bay's Mélange, and East Coast Yeast Flemish Ale Blend) as well as a couple with yeast captured from other beers (Rodenbach Foederbier and one with a mix of Jolly Pumpkin, Lost Abby, and Russian River dregs). This is a good thing for blending as you have a lot of flavors to choose from.
I've brewed the most beers with Roeselare which produces really nice flavors but can produce a fairly mild beer. The two I emptied (by distributing the remaining beers to other fermenters) were of the fairly mild variety. To fill these, I'll seek to add a bit more bio-diversity to the mix by using a couple blends by a fairly new Yeast Provider: GigaYeast. One is a Brett Brux blend (GB 156) and other is a Brett and Lacto blend (GB 150).
I'm going to product a double batch of beer which should be close to 12 gal for this. I'll try to bring them in at around 1.055 since these typically end up fermenting down to close to 1.000 which is a bit stronger than I'd like. I also plan to hop this batch to 28 IBU to try to reign in the lacto a bit as my collection of beers is plenty sour already. I'm thinking I'd like Fruity and Earthy flavors out of these new beers rather than more acid.
I'll give them about 4 weeks to ferment out with airlocks before I move them to secondary. Flanders Red 6.1.1 will primary in a bucket and will be transferred into a glass carboy for secondary (along with a lot of the yeast cake) - this is Fermenter #2. Flanders Red 7.1.1 is fermenting in a bucket which is my Fermenter #7. I cleaned out all the previous batch of beer from Fermenter #7 and sanitized. I did not clean Fermenter #2 and don't intend to if the small amount of dregs in it look/smell okay (as they did when I checked today)
Recipe Details:
- Grain/Adjunct:
- 9 lb Pilsner Malt
- 9 lb Pale Ale Malt
- 2 lb Flaked Corn
- 1.5 lb Aromatic Malt
- 1.5 lb Crystal 60 L
- 1.5 lb Special B
- 3 oz Acid Malt
- Hops:
- 2 oz Cluster (Leaf, 8.1% AA) at 60 min
- Yeast:
- Water:
- 12 gal Spring Water
- 5 gal Tap Water
- 2 tsp CaCl
- 2 tsp Gypsum
- 1 tsp Irish Moss
Process Details:
- Batch Size:
- 11 gal (Target 12 gal)
- Mash:
- 160 F for 60 min
- Boil:
- 70 min (Target 60 min)
- Fermentation Temperature:
- ~70 F (Ambient Basement Temps
- Primary Duration:
- 4 weeks
- Secondary Duration:
- 1-3+ Years
Results:
- OG:
- 1.060 (Target 1.055)
- Efficiency:
- 74% (Target 73%)
- FG:
- 1.001
- Apparent Attenuation:
- 100%
- ABV:
- 7.88%
Brewing Notes:
- 9/25/20 - Brewday - 1:30 PM to 5:30 PM- Including setup and cleanup
- Brought 7 gal of spring water up to 180 F
- Added 6 gal of water to the mash tun and cycled until the system was at 170 F
- Milled my grain. Added the CaCl and Gypsum to the mix
- Stopped the RIMS and stirred in the grain. Mixed well to eliminate doughballs. Added a couple more quarts of water to the top of the mash. Let the mash settle for 10 min. Started the RIMS again and cycled at 160 F.
- Heated up 10 gal of sparge water to 180 F
- Performed a fly sparge until about 8 gal had been collected
- Heated the wort after collecting about 4 gal. Had it at a boil shortly after collecting 8 gal.
- Added my bittering hops in 2 hop sacks
- Filled the mash tun up with 180 F water for a second batch sparge. Stirred this well and then let it settle for 10 min.
- Drained the mash very slowly and added wort to the kettle through the remainder of the boil. Chose a slow enough rate so that the boil didn't slow significantly
- Added Irish Moss with about 15 min left
- I ended up deciding to boil for an extra 10 min to get the last bit of wort from the mash tun into the kettle
- With 5 min left I pulled out the hops - let these drain as much wort as possible
- Added the wort chiller and let it sanitize by getting the beer back to a boil
- Chilled the beer down to 80 F
- Collected 9 gal. Divided this evenly between the two fermenters. Let the beer fall a foot or two to aerate
- Measured gravity as 1.074. I was going for a bit lower OG and bit more volume. Decided to add a gal to each fermenter to get down to 1.060 and 5.5 gal in each fermenter
- Pitched my yeast into each fermenter. I'm using a temporary bucket for the 6.1.1 batch as it will go into my Flanders Red Fermenter #2 which is a glass carboy. 7.1.1 is in its permanent fermenter
- 10/17/20 - The beers have been in the fermenter for 3 weeks now and seem to have stopped fermenting. I'm transferring 6.1.1 to a glass carboy and setting up 7.1.1 with a vented silicon bung. Took a gravity and flavor sample and found the following:
- 6.1.1 - Fermented with GB 156 - Brett Brux Blend
- The gravity for this one is at 1.006
- It had a vigorous ferment that drove beer up through the airlock
- The aroma is slightly fruity and malty
- There is a lot of yeast still in suspension with this one
- The flavor is primarily malty with a bit of bitterness. No sourness to this and no real fruity character. There may be some brett character though
- 7.1.1 - Fermented with GB 150 - Sour Cherry Funk:
- Fermented all the way to 1.000
- Malty and slightly fruity aroma
- This one is pretty much completely cleared
- Flavor is malty with a bit of bitterness. Only a very slight fruity ester character. No sourness
- Added a toasted piece of oak that had soaked in red wine into Fermenter #2 with 6.1.1 and a stick soaked in Port in Fermenter #7 with 7.1.1
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