Flanders Red 1.8.1 & Top Up Batch

Over the last 4.5 years I've brewed seven batches of beer on the Roeselare Yeast Cake I'll use for this bach.  This approach has repeatedly created some very interesting and complex beers for me.  It has been a bit over 2.5 years since I brewed my last batch using this yeast (Flanders Red 1.7.1) and I'm interested to see if I can get another out of it after all this time.  This will be Flanders Red 1.8.1.

In addition to this, I'll be making some extra wort to use to top off my other fermenters which were partially depleted from some recent blending sessions (see notes).  I'll be using the unfermented wort from this batch to hopefully give the microbes left in my other, older, fermenters a bit more to chew on over the next year.

I'll be using a very similar grainbill to previous batches along with a Cereal Mash using Corn Grits.  In a fit of creativity I decided to move some of the starchy cereal mash liquid directly to the boil kettle for this batch in an attempt to get some additional starches into the wort for the long secondary fermentation period.  Managed to add quite a bit of particulate matter into the boil kettle with it.  I'm sure it wont harm anything but will it help?

I will also be lightly hopping this batch in order to limit the influence of lacto as the beers a getting a bit more acidic than I would prefer.

Finally, it's going to be a cool brew day and a very cool night so I've decided to limit my use of the hose.  I'm going to let the wort air cool down to sub-100 F degrees rather than use my wort chiller.  This might also capture some wild yeast which will help get the primary fermentation done as yeast component of the Roeselare Yeast cake is likely mostly depleted.

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct
• 8 lb Pilsner Malt
• 6 lb Munich Malt
• 1.5 lb Aromatic Malt
• 1.5 lb Crystal 60L
• 1.5 lb Special B
• Cereal Mash
• 1.5 lb Pilsner
• 3 lb Corn Grits
• Hops:
• 1 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 3.5% AA) at 60 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 3763 Roeselare Ale Blend (Eighth Pitch)
•  Water:
• 11 gal spring water
• 7 gal tap water
• 2 tsp CaCl
• 2 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Citric Acid

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 10.5 gal
• Mash:
• Cereal Mash:
• 60 F for 30 min
• 120 F for 30 min
• 155 F for 20 min
• Boil for 30 min
• Main Mash:
• 160 F for 75 min
• Boil:
• 60 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• Ambient Basement Temps (~60 F)
• Primary Duration:
• 1 Month
• Secondary Duration:
• 1-3 years

Results:

• OG:
• 1.058
• Efficiency:
• 74%
• FG:
• TBD 
• Apparent Attenuation:
• TBD
• ABV:
• TBD

Brewing Notes:

• 2/10/19 - Brewday - 12:00 PM to 6:30 PM - Including cereal mash and cleanup
• Cereal Mash

• Soaked cereal mash in cool water (~2.5 gal of spring water) for about 30 min
• Heated the cereal mash to 120 F on the stovetop
• Let it sit at this temperature for about an hr while I ran to the store
• Heated it up to 155 F

• Let it sit for 20 min at this temperature
• Brought it to a boil and boiled for 30 min
• Brought 10 gal of spring water up to 210 F in my HLT
• Milled my grain
• Added half the brewing salts to the grain
• Found that I was out of Acid Malt.  Used 1 tsp of powdered Citric Acid instead
• Added 6 gal of strike water to the mash tun - let it sit for 10 min.  Temperature settled to 190 F at this point
• Rigged up the RIMS and cycled through the grant and RIMS tube.  Added another gal of water to the system as part of this.  Cycled for 5 min after which the temperature seemed to settle to about 175 F
• Added the grain and stirred well to eliminate doughballs.  Temperature settled at 160 F.  Right on target!
• Started cycling the RIMS again at 160 F

• Poured about a gal of the liquid from the cereal mash into the boil kettle.  I'm hopping this gives me a richer, starchier wort
• Added the cereal mash to the mash tun after 15 min
• Mashed with everything together for 60 min
• Added 5 gal of tap water to the HLT and then heated 8.5 gal of sparge water up to 190 F
• Added CaCL and Gypsum to the boil kettle
• Slowly drained the mash tun into the boil kettle.  Did a manual fly sparge where I added hot sparge water to the top of the mash tun when the water dropped below the grain bed level
• Collected 12 gal
• Started the flame on the HLT during the mash.  Had it at a boil a few min after the end of the collection
• Added my hops after the hot break cleared.  Boiled for 60 min
• Had a little over 10 gal at the end of the boil
• Decided to let the beer chill for a few hrs in the cold night air (was about 30 F outside) rather than getting out the hose for the wort chiller
• After 3 hrs the beer was down to 100 F
• I'm down to 9.5 gal after evaporation
• Measured the gravity of the beer as 1.060 at 100 F which is 1.068.  Added 1 gal of cool spring water which should get me to the high 1.05s/low 1.06s.
• Measured the gravity as 1.058 after adding the water.  This knocked it down to 95 F
• I had about 3.5 gal of Flanders Red 1.7.1 left (in Fermenter #12).  I transferred 2 gal of this off into a couple other fermenters (#4 and #6)
• Drained 4 gal into Fermenter #12.  Set this up with a 3 piece airlock
• I got 6 gal of remaining wort which I used to top off other fermenters (#1, #2, #3, #5, #7, #9, and #10)

• 2/16/19 - No krausen has formed on 1.8.1 or any of the other fermenters that I topped up.  All have reformed their pellicles which are looking a little more bubbly than usual.

Lessons Learned:

1. Concurrently with this brewday I baked some bread and made a pot roast.  Everything turned out well which was nice but it was an exhausting day.  I'll try not to be so ambitious again.
2. I have a lot of beer related projects going right now that do not involve actual brewing (last beer made had been in late October).  I enjoyed brewing again - shouldn't leave this much time between batches.

Russian Imperial Stout with Bourbon Soaked Oak - Tasting Notes

A little over a year ago I brewed up a big Russian Imperial Stout which I aged on my own whiskey soaked charred white oak in an attempt to make a clone of the famous Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout.  This beer aged for 6 months on oak and finished at a pretty extraordinary 1.046 (close to the Starting Gravity of many of my beers).  It started at 1.130 which puts it at about 13% ABV - it packs a wallop.

I bottled the beer about three months ago with wine yeast and was pleasantly surprised that it has carbonated somewhat.  I've been drinking it quickly (I've got less than half the batch left at this point) and it's been preventing me from drinking my stockpile of real BCBS.

This batch has re-enforced my opinion that duplicating the effects of barrel aging isn't a trivial matter.  Even though I didn't quite capture the BCBS barrel character I think I've gotten pretty close (definitely moving in the right direction compared with the medium toast Hungarian oak cubes soaked in whiskey).  Regardless, it has been a lot of fun!

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Oak and light whiskey aroma hits first followed by the smell of bitter dark chocolate, roasted malt, and coffee
• Appearance:
• Black and opaque.  Pours with a thin layer of brow foam.  This fades into a thin ring after a couple minutes
• Flavor:
• Malt hits up front - it has a chocolate and caramel character.  The oak (vanilla, roast, and smoke) and whiskey then come through.  They meld very nicely with malt.  In the finish there is a bitter roast flavor - very much like eating a high % dark chocolate.  I suppose some of the bitter finish is the hops as well although there isn't any hop flavor that clearly comes though.  There is also a strong alcohol component in the finish.  The finish has a balance between the sweet malty, bitter roasty, and alcohol flavors.
• Mouthfeel:
• It is a full bodied beer with quite a bit of sweetness.  It drinks fairly smooth - maybe a slight bit of astringency.  Has a warming alcohol presence.  As strong as this beer is it drinks very easily - not so heavy that you feel full after drinking one (although a second would be way too much if I want to get out of bed the next morning).
• Overall:
• This is a big, rich, and complex beer.  The base beer brought a real rich set of flavors which stand up nicely to the the whiskey and oak.  This was intended to be a clone of BCBS but I'm thinking I likely missed the mark a bit in terms of the strength of the whiskey character (will do a final side by side comparison).  Even so I think the beer strikes a very nice balance of it's own.  I'll be brewing another one of these.

English Barleywine (2018 Version) - Tasting Notes

I brewed this English Barleywine based on the Original Famous Thomas Hardy's Barleywine from the Famous "Shut Up about Barclay Perkens" Blog.  The recipe interested me due to it's heavy bittering (68 IBU) and very high fermentation temperature (73 F).  I followed the recipe in both of these specification and, prior to aging, the beer was rough around the edges.  After four months bulk aging with a bit of toasted oak I found it has softened significantly and the flavors were mellowed and melded nicely.

This is the fifth beer in a series of Barleywine I've brewed on the last five Memorial days.  I believe this is the best EBW I've made so far.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Fruity ester is the most dominant aroma followed by caramel and toasted bread.  I get a bit of herbal and tea like hop aroma.  I think I pick up a bit of oak.  Alcohol comes though as well.
• Appearance:
• Dark brownish-red.  Pours with a 5 finger head (was pretty aggressive with the pour this time).  Foam fades down to less than a finger pretty quickly and then lingers through most of the glass.  Leaves lacing.  The beer is very clear.
• Flavor:
• Caramel and malt flavor take the lead in the flavor.  Has a bit of a graham cracker taste to it.  The finish has a lot of fruity ester flavor along with a kick of bitterness.  The fruit is raisin like.  There is a bit of hop flavor mixed in as well as a bit of alcohol.
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium to full bodied.  Has a bit of sweetness that leaves my mouth a bit sticky.  Slight alcohol warming is detected.  Smooth with no astringency.
• Overall:
• This has a lot going on between the malt and ester flavors.  These get along very well together and make for a nicely complex beverage.  It is a sweet beer but it's not cloying or difficult to drink.  I think the hop bitterness the beer has retained over the long aging does a nice job to balance the finish such that you're called to take another sip.  I think this was a very good recipe.  I think this one will age nicely and look forward to many more tastings.

I'm excited to try this against the 4 previous years English Barleywine.

Spiced Flanders Red

With it's bold fruity flavors and aroma the Flanders Red style of beer is sufficiently interesting without any help but I was thinking it might be fun to try adding some additional spices and flavorings as an experiment given that I have quite a bit of beer to play with.  Flanders Red are often compared with wine due to the acidity and fruitiness although they don't taste particularly wine like.  With their sweet and sour components one might argue that their most close relative (outside of other beer of course) might be soda.  This idea got me thinking about how some of the flavors in a Flanders Red have similar components in Coca-Cola Classic - citrus, caramel, and vanilla.  Based on this, I've decided to spice this beer using components from the original Coke.

The Wikipedia article's original "John Pemberton" recipe seemed like a good place to start - I am using this as a basis for my spicing.  Coke is made using essential oils for flavoring.  I was thinking it would be more fun to use real fruit and spices for the beer.  I decided to make a tincture using the following ingredients:  Orange zest, lime zest, lemon zest, cinnamon sticks, ground nutmeg, ground coriander, bourbon vanilla bean, and vodka

I've done a bit of playing around with spicing beers in the past:  a Witbier with orange zest & coriander, a Berliner Weisse with grapefruit zest, a mead with oranges, cinnamon, & cloves, and a Tripel with orange zest, coriander, & star anise.  Some of these have been very subtle in flavor while others pack a pretty strong punch.  For this beer I'm thinking I'd like a fairly obvious flavor contribution from the spices.  It is not easy to choose the right amount to get the job done so I'll be doing two tinctures. I'll add one at the start and then sample after a few months.  If the beer isn't flavored enough I'll add the second.  Each tincture will be composed as follows:

• Zest of 4 oranges
• Zest of 1 lime
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 6 cinnamon sticks
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 bourbon vanilla bean
• 1 cup of vodka

It's difficult to say how closely these ratios relate to the original coke formulation but the aroma of the tincture is definitely fairly close to coke in aroma.

For the beers I'll be putting together a blend using the 12 fermenters of beer I performed a tasting on several weeks ago.  I think a boldly flavored base beer with a nice level of complexity and medium sourness would be good starting point for this one in order to balance with the spices.  This does run the risk of clashing with the spices but I am willing to accept that possibility.  This will be a 6 gallon batch.

I have chosen the following beers to make up this blend:

• 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 #6:
• Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:  Earthy funk and overripe fruit.  Fairly pungent
• Appearance:  Red and very clear
• Flavor:  Lightly sour with fruit and earthy and leathery brett character.  Fruit lingers into the finish nicely
• Mouthfeel:  Pretty smooth drinking - only a slight prickle
• Overall:  Pretty boldly flavored with a nice 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:
• 1 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
• Fermenter #12:
• Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:  Earthy and leathery brett character along with some fruit.  May get a bit of acetic acid from it as well
• Appearance:  Dark Orange/Red and pretty clear
• Flavor:  Slightly sour and very fruity.  Has a slight funk in the finish along with some bready malt.  Maybe a slight vinegar in the flavor as well.
• Mouthfeel:  Slight prickling 
• Overall:  Really bold flavor in this one with really nice complexity.  This one is really lovely - best of the bunch this time.
• Volume:
• 2 gal

I'll be blending this beer along with 3 other Flanders Red blends (see Plain, Cherry, and Raspberry).  Each will be a unique blend.  I'll plan to use 2-3 gal of all the beers so that each fermenter can get a bit of fresh top up beer.  I'm hoping this will sustain them through the next year.

Blending Notes:

• 12/27/18 - Made first tincture
• Zested oranges, lime, and lemon.  Added this to 1 quart mason jar
• Added cinnamon sticks which I snapped in half
• Added Coriander and Nutmeg
• Split vanilla pod down the middle lengthwise and scraped out the seeds.  Added the whole thing into the jar
• Added vodka - this submerged all ingredients.
• 12/31/18 - The tincture had initially had an orange aroma that was significantly more pronounced than all the other ingredients.  After a few days the orange has subsided a lot and the other ingredients are now fairly evenly mixed.  IT is actually smelling very much like coke now

• 1/1/18:
• Made second tincture
• Blended the beers in the volumes noted above in a bucket fermenter

• Added the spice tincture - stirred well

• Setup with a 3 piece airlock
• 2/16/19 - Sampled the beer to check the impact of the spicing.  Orange, vanilla, and spices come through in the aroma fairly distinctly.  Also pick them up faintly in the flavor.  I think the beer could handle quite a bit more spicing.  Added my second tincture to the mix - this has smelled more and more like Coke as it's aged.
• 6/30/19 - Sampled the beer again.  The aroma has a distinct vanilla and nutmeg spice character - the original beer comes though a bit but is overshadowed by the additions.  The spicing also comes through strongly in the flavor (vanilla, nutmeg, with some cinnamon) but it's close to an equal balance to the beer flavor.  Tastes somewhat like a coke as intended.  It's very dry - a bit of back sweetening will help this one quite a bit.  I plan to bottle soon.
• 10/19/19 - Bottled tonight with 2 lbs of home made Invert #2.  Had 6 gal of beer which netted me 59 bottles of beer.  The spicing is very nice - comes through strongly but not overwhelmingly so.  I'll watch this for the next week and a half and pasteurize once it's nicely carbonated.
• 11/16/19 - This beer finally carbonated for me!  I was starting to wonder if it ever would.  Pasteurized in a hot water bath of 145 F for 30 min (water started at 180-190 F).  No exploded bottles this time.
• 6/5/20 - Tasting Notes - A very interesting beer.  I think the spicing gives  it a very strong resemblance to coke.  The base beer blend was made up of boldly flavored beers but they didn't stand up to the spicing.  It doesn't really resemble a Flanders Red in any way - base beer doesn't come though.  So, while it is a very boldly flavored beer with a certain complexity it doesn't quite hit the mark for what I was hoping the beer would be.  Lighter spicing would be in the cards next time

Raspberry Flanders Red - 2018 Version

Last year I blended up Flanders Red using home grown raspberries and it turned out to be a really lovely combination (blending session and tasting notes links).  The flavor of the sour beer and the tartness of the raspberries really married well together.  My raspberry patch produced a lot more fruit this year (90 lbs) so I'll be making another Raspberry Flanders Red this year.

Last year I used about 10 lbs of fruit which produced a very nice raspberry flavor.  This year, given my extra yield I'm going to try it with 15 lbs.  I am hoping this doesn't completely overwhelm the base beer.  I think there is a risk that this will seem more like a raspberry wine than a beer - we'll see.

I'll be blending the base beer for this using 12 fermenters of Flanders Red that I've been aging for the last 4 years.  I have a really nice assortment of flavors to choose from (reference the 2018 tasting notes).  Given that I'll get a lot of sourness from the fruit I will make a bulk of the blend using the less sour/more mild tasting beers.

Based on that criteria, I have chosen the following beers:

• Fermenter #5:
• Tasting Notes:

• Aroma: Earthy and leathery brett character most prominent. A bit of fruit
• Appearance: Orangish red and very clear
• Flavor: Lightly sour with a citrus quality. Very mild brett character as well. Maybe a bit of mineral flavor in the finish.
• Mouthfeel: Has a bit of a sharp twang that hits the back of the throat
• Overall: Mild flavored and not very complex
• Volume:
• 2 gal
• Fermenter #9:
• Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:  Rich fruit aroma with a bit of earthy and leathery brett character.  A bit of a mineral aroma
• Appearance:  Dark orange with a slight haze
• Flavor:  Very lightly sour.  Has a bit of a band aid like brett character
• Mouthfeel:  Slight prickling in the palate
• Overall:  Pretty mild flavor and not very complex
• Volume:
• 1 gal
• Fermenter #10:
• Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:  Fruity with some leathery funk
• Appearance:  Orange and slightly hazy
• Flavor:  Lightly sour with a lot of brett character - this is earthy and leathery with a slight band aid flavor
• Mouthfeel:  Slight prickling
• Overall:  Bold flavors with a lot going on.  Wouldn't want to drink a whole glass of this but could add some nice complexity to one of the blander beers.
• Volume:
• 2 gal

I'll let the beer age on the raspberries for 3-6 months before bottling.  I expect that all the sugar will ferment out in this period.  I'll backsweeten it to 1.016 or so with invert syrup and then pasteurize it in a hot water bath once it has carbonated nicely.  I did this last time for all my 2017 Flanders Reds (Plain, Cherry, and Raspberry) and found that the sweetness balances out the flavor profile nicely.

In addition to this beer I'm brewing up a Plain, Cherry, and Spiced Flanders Reds.  I have made an attempt to use 1-3 gal from each of the fermenter.  This will make room for a bit of fresh top up beer in each so that I'll keep the microbes alive until next year.

Blending Notes:

• 12/31/18:
• Blended together the three beers in the volumes noted above
• Added 4 1 gal bags of raspberries which ended up being 15.7 lbs

• Stirred everything with the auto-siphon
• Setup the bucket with a 3 piece airlock
• 8/17/19 - Bottled the beer today with 2 lbs of invert #2 (cooked to 265 F) and a packet of white wine yeast.  Collected about 6 gal that got me 61 bottles.  I will let this carbonate for the next week or so.  Once it's carbonated up I'll pasteurize to leave a bit of sweetness.
• 9/5/19 - These have been pretty slow and uneven carbonating.  A random sampling today found one only lightly carbonated still, one pretty much at the right level, and one over carbonated (such that it gushes out of the bottle and makes a mess).  I'm not sure what went wrong (probably uneven sugar distribution) but I've decided to bottle pasteurize today.  Heating the bottles in a 150 F waterbath for 20-30 min.
• 5/23/20 - Tasting Notes - I think the raspberry and base Flanders red get along very nicely.  The fruit dominates but the beer shines through enough to keep it interesting.  Definitely a little on the dry side of the balance scale - could have done with some more back sweetening 

Cherry Flanders Red - 2018 Blend

As I've done for the last couple years I'll be blending up a Cherry version of a Flanders Red style beer (links to my 2016 and 2017 beers).  Flanders Red, if you've never had one, is an acidic beer that has a slightly fruity character which is somewhat reminiscent of a red wine.  This fruit character often is similar to Cherry in flavor and aroma.  Given this it seems like a logical progression to age this style of beer with cherries - Rodenbach Alexander is the famous example of this.

I have been aging my beers on Sour Pie Cherries (Montmorency) which I've been able to pick from a local orchard in the Summer (Highland Orchards).  This year I got 28 lbs in two picking sessions - these have been frozen to help extract the juice more easily.  I will split these evenly between this beer and a Sour blond I'll blend up in mid-2019.  This will get me a couple extra lbs of fruit over what I got last year.  The sour cherries are fairly light in color and taste a bit different than sweet cherries.  To get a bit more cherry flavor I have been adding some black cherry juice to the blend as well.  Last year I used 1 quart.  This year I'm going to try 2 quarts.  I was happy with the level of cherry flavor last year (see tasting notes) but I think more would be nice.

I'll be blending up five gallons of Flanders Red beer for this batch using the 12 fermenters of beer that I've accumulated over the last 4 years.  I will primarily use the more mild flavored beers for the blend as the cherries will bring a lot of sourness and complexity.

I have chosen the following beers (based on my 2018 sampling):

• Fermenter #1:

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Earthy and overripe fruit aroma
• Appearance:  Dark orange and very clear
• Flavor:  Medium sourness with a light fruity flavor.  Also get a bit of mineral flavor in the finish.  Maybe a bit of earthy brett character in there too.  
• Mouthfeel:  The acidity has a fairly strong prickliness that hits the back of the throat.
• Overall:  Mild flavors with fair bit of complexity.
• Volume:
• 1 gal
• Fermenter #2:

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Rich earthy aroma with a bit of fruit
• Appearance:  Brownish red with quite a bit of particulate in suspension
• Flavor:  Medium sourness with a pretty strong earthy brett flavor comes through in the finish.  Not much fruit in the flavor.
• Mouthfeel:  This one is fairly smooth - only a slight bit of prickliness
• Overall:  Has a bold brett character but not much else going on which would lend complexity.
• Volume:
• 1 gal
• Fermenter #6:

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Earthy funk and overripe fruit.  Fairly pungent
• Appearance:  Red and very clear
• Flavor:  Lightly sour with fruit and earthy and leathery brett character.  Fruit lingers into the finish nicely
• Mouthfeel:  Pretty smooth drinking - only a slight prickle
• Overall:  Pretty boldly flavored with a nice complexity
• Volume:
• 1 gal
• Fermenter #8:

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Earthy brett along with a vanilla oak aroma
• Appearance:  Dark red with a bit of a haze
• Flavor:  Slightly sour with a bit of earthy funk.  Malt comes through on the finish nicely.
• Mouthfeel:  Slightly prickly acidity.  Silky feel that gives the impression of being medium bodied.
• Overall:  Pretty boldly flavored with a nice complexity
• Volume:
• 1 gal
• Fermenter #9:

• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Rich fruit aroma with a bit of earthy and leathery brett character.  A bit of a mineral aroma
• Appearance:  Dark orange with a slight haze
• Flavor:  Very lightly sour.  Has a bit of a band aid like brett character
• Mouthfeel:  Slight prickling in the palate
• Overall:  Pretty mild flavor and not very complex
• Volume:
• 1 gal

I'll age this beer for 3-6 months on the cherries.  Like last time, I will backsweeten with dark invert syrup which I think helps the balance of the beer a bit - will bottle pasteurize using a hot water bath once proper carbonation levels have been reached.

I am making 4 blends this year (Plain, Raspberry, and a Spiced version).  Will try different blends for all 4.

Blending Notes:

• 12/13/18:
• Transferred the 5 beers into a bucket fermenter

• Added frozen cherries

• Added cherry juice

• This brought the level of the beer up to lid height
• Setup the fermenter with a three piece airlock.  I image some beer will be pushed up into the airlock during the secondary fermentation
• 2/16/19 - This beer has kicked up a very active fermentation after a month.  Beer has been forced up the airlock and onto the lid

• 8/4/19 - Bottled today
• Made some Invert #2 for back sweetening.  Mixed 2 lb of table sugar with 1/4 tsp of citric acid and 2 cups of water on medium low until the mixture reached about 260 F.  Had a nice raisin-like flavor at this temperature and was a dark gold color.  Added 2 cups of boiling water to the mix to get it a bit more fluid as, after cooling, it was very thick.
• Rehydrated a packet of Red Star Red wine yeast in a cup of 100 F water for 60 min.  Some foam formed on the surface at this point which gave me confident
• Transferred the beer off the cherries into the fermenter and added the sugar and yeast during the process.  Stirred well at the end of the transfer.  Also stirred frequently during bottling
• Ended up with a bit over 6 gal of beer which got me 63 bottles. 

• 8/13/19 - The beers have carbonated up to a nice level so I pasteurized in a 150 F water bath for about 30 min
• 4/19/20 - Tasting Notes - A really nicely flavored and pretty complex beer.  I think the balance of the finish between the acidity and slight sweetness is quite nice - really easy to drink.  Cherries are definitely the star of the show (as expected) but the base beer comes through enough to have a meaningful contribution.
• 6/26/20 - 2020 Vertical Tasting:
• Aroma:  Fairly bright candy cherry aroma along with earthy and musty Brett.  Some caramel comes through as well.  Some vinegar mixed in too.
• Appearance:  Poured with thick head which faded down to a think layer over the next minute.  Reddish brown and quite murky as the over carbonated bottle churned up the dregs
• Flavor:  Rich cherry flavor hits up front and lingers into the finish.  Medium acidity kicks in after the first wave of cherry and compliments it nicely - this also lingers into the finish.  Slight sweetness int eh swallow combats the acidity.  Finish is rich with mineral, earthy Brett, and maybe some malt
• Mouthfeel:  Medium-light bodied and pretty dry.  Very smooth drinking
• Overall:  Rich and flavorful beer.  Cherries are the center of attention here but a bunch of other stuff is going on as well.  The acidity on this one is very nice - really makes you want another sip.

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