Flanders Red 6.1.1 and 7.1.1

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:
• 6.1.1:
• GigaYeast GB156 - Brux Blend
• 7.1.1:
• GigaYeast GB 150 - Sour Cherry Funk
• 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

Malt Vinegar

A couple months ago I made my first batch of Vinegar using homebrewed hard cider.  It turned out to be a relatively simple process and the results were pleasing enough to want to try it out again.  This time I'll be making a vinegar out of un-hopped beer - a Malt Vinegar.

I'm going to make a small batch of wort for this using just pale ale malt in my kitchen (shooting for something close to 1.5 quarts).  My cider was about 6% ABV and the final vinegar was acidic but not quite as acidic as a commercial version.  I'll aim for a 1.06 OG which, depending on attenuation, should get me a 7-8% ABV - will be interesting to see how the acidity level is with this much alcohol.  I'll ferment the wort with White Labs 099 - Super High Gravity yeast which I had available.  This yeast is a strong attenuator and produces a nice ester character which I think could make for an interesting dimension for a vinegar. 

Once fermented I'll move the beer off the yeast cake and pour aggressively to aerate.  I'll then transfer the mother culture off the Apple cider vinegar into the beer and give it a month or so to perform the conversion to acetic acid.

I plan to try some more experiments with Vinegar after this one is complete (beer or wine will most likely be next).

Brewing Notes:

• 8/15/20 - Brew Day:
• Made up a mash of 1 gal of water and 4 lb of pale ale malt in muslin bags (will use part of this as a starter for a beer)

• Brought the wort to a boil for a few minutes
• Chilled
• The wort measured 1.092 SG
• Transferred this to a large jar for fermentation.  Have 4 cups of wort.  Decided to water it down with 2 more cups of spring water which brings it to 1.059

• Added a maybe 2 tsp of yeast to the wort
• 8.19/20 - Fermentation seems to be about complete.  Solids are starting to settle out of the beer and sink to the bottom.  Left this in the kitchen and it was fun watching it bubble.  Was a pretty tame fermentation which didn't really form any krausen.  I'll give this another week to clear before I rack it off
• 8/29/20 - Solids have mostly settled to the bottom.  I decanted the beer off the top of this into a new jar.  The beer had fermented all the way down to 1.000.  This is 7.7% ABV.  It's dry with a slight bit of malt flavor.  I then pulled the mother culture off the surface of my Apple cider vinegar and added it to the beer.  Put a rag over the mouth and screwed it on using the lid ring.  Will let this sit for a few weeks in the kitchen before giving it a first taste

Mother culture from Cider

• 9/18/20 - The beer has gotten very dark over the last few weeks but hasn't formed a film yet.  I tasted it and it's got a very oxidized malt flavor.  No acidity has formed so far.  I decided to add 2 spoonful of the Bragg Apple cider vinegar to get it going.

• 9/26/20 - Still no sign of a film forming after another week.  I'm thinking maybe the beer has enough carbonation left over that it's hindering the acetic acid microbes.  I attempted to de-gas the beer by transferring the contents of the jar back and forth to another container.  It did seem to be letting off a fair amount of carbonation at first which decreased significantly after 3 or 4 transfer cycles.  We'll see over the next week if this made any difference
• 10/18/20 - The malt vinegar finally has formed a thin layer of film.  It has a sort of fruity/acetic aroma starting to become prominent.
• 10/31/20 - I think this is just about done.  It has developed quite a bit of acidity (although it is still very mild compared with the Brag's Apple cider vinegar).  Has a mild but recognizable malt presence which is quite nice.  I'm going to move it into a swing top jar for keeping.  Will use the mother culture from this to make a new vinegar.

• 11/26/20 - I've been using this on salad.  It is plenty acidic and I'm really enjoying it

Rye Pale Ale Take II

 This week I'll be brewing up a low alcohol but aggressively hopped pale ale.  Up until now I've been restricted to bottling hoppy beers and, although I've made some nice ones, I've always been slightly disappointed with how quickly the hop aroma and flavor fades.  With the goal of doing better, I've finally bit the bullet and invested the $$$ and time into building a Chest Freezer based drought beer dispenser.  This will be my first beer using it.

I decided to play around with my own recipe for this beer.  I chose to use Rye malt in this beer in attempt to give the light malt bill a bit more interest.  I had used Rye in a pale ale once before to good effect.  Also added in a bit of Caramel Malt for color and hopefully to accentuate malt flavor a bit.  I'll be mashing pretty low (150 F) on this one as I'd like it to finish fairly dry.  My goal will be to bring this in at 1.045 and ferment down to around 1.012 for an ABV of around 4%.  Sometimes I'm tempted to go for a 3rd beer in the evening which should be just fine at such a low ABV (have to stop at 2 when drinking 6+% beers or I feel a bit ill the next morning).

I'll hop this beer with a combination of Cluster and some home grown Cascades a friend of mine gave me.  I got a 1 lb bag of Cluster from Hops Direct and thought they had a wonderfully bold herbal and pine character.  I'll use these for bittering and flame out.  I'm using the home grown cascades for late flavoring and then dry hops as they have a really lovely aroma (citrus and pine typical of Cascade).  I'll be using a total of 11 oz of hops in this beer:  2 oz bittering, 5 oz post boil for flavor, and then 4 oz of dry hop (first dose in fermenter and second dose in the keg).

I'll be using Wyeast 1028 London Ale with this batch as I had some in storage from recent beers.  This will be a fairly cheap beer to brew reusing yeast (on top of the light grainbill and bulk purchased/donated hops).

I'm really excited to be brewing my first keg beer.  I expect I'll be brewing a lot more sessionable hop focused beers going forward

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 6 lb 2 Row
• 3 lb Rye Malt
• 8 oz Crystal 20L
• 8 oz Crystal 60 L
• 3 oz Acid
• Hops:
• 2 oz Cluster (Leaf, 8.1% AA) at 60 min
• 3 oz Cluster (Leaf, 8.1% AA) at 0 min
• 2 oz Cascade (Home Grown Leaf) as Whirl Pool Hops
• 2 oz Cascade (Home Grown Leaf) as Dry Hop
• 2 oz Cascade (Home Grown Leaf) as Keg Hop
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 1028 London Ale Yeast (3rd Pitch)
• Water:
• 10 gal Spring Water
• 5 gal Tap Water
• 1 tsp CaCl
• 1 tsp Gypsum

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 5.5 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 150 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 70 min
• Fermentation Temperature: 
• 68 F
• Primary Duration:
• 3 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.044 (Target 1.045)
• Efficiency:
• 65% (Target 72.8%)
• FG:
• 1.016 (Target 1.012)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 63% (Target 73%)
• ABV:
• 3.68% (Target 4.33%)

Brewing Notes:

• 9/7/20 - Brewday - 11:00 AM to 3:40 PM.  Including setup and cleanup
• Brought 5 gal of spring water and 3 gal of tap water to 180 F
• Milled my grain.  The rye is a smaller piece of grain so it didn't get quite as good a crush as the malted barley - hope this doesn't lead to terrible efficiency.  Added CaCl and Gypsum to the grain

Rye Malt

• Added 5 gal of strike water to the mash tun and cycled through the RIMS until the system had settled to 162 F
• Stopped the RIMS cycle and stirred in the grain.  Made sure to break up all dough balls
• Let this settle for 10 min

• Cycled through the RIMS at 152 for the remaining 50 min of the mash.  It settled to 150 F
• Heated 8 gal of sparge water to 190 F
• Performed a combo fly/batch sparge.  Collected 4-5 gal and drained the mash tun.  Then added more water to the mash tun to get back to 5 gal level and let this sit for 10 min (settled at 162 F.  Then drained this off, fly sparging with more water until I'd collected 8 gal.
• Started heating the kettle at 4 gal.  Had the beer at a boil half way through the sparge.
• Added the bittering hops once it was at a boil
• Added irish moss at 15 min
• With about 5 min left I was at a bit over 7 gal of wort.  Decided to extend the boil an extra 10 min
• Took my yeast out of the fridge to warm to room temp.  This was a 1 pt jar of yeast slurry
• Added the wort chiller to sanitize for the last 5 min of the boil
• Added flameout hops
• Chilled the beer down to 180 F and then added "whirlpool" hops.  Let the beer sit for 30 min cooling naturally.  It was down to 160 F by the end of this half hr.

• Chilled down to the 80s
• Transferred into my SS brewtech brew bucket.  Let the wort fall a foot or so to aerate
• Collected 5.5 gal of wort
• Measured the gravity as 1.044
• Moved the beer to the fermentation chamber to chill down to 68 F
• Pitched the yeast once it got down to fermentation temp
• 9/9/20 - Still no signs of fermentation this morning (a good 36 hrs after pitching).  I decided to add a second pint jar of Wyeast 1028 slurry and move the beer out of the fermentation chamber to warm to basement temps (low-70s).  This yeast was slow starting with my English Barleywine as well.  Always frustrating when this happens but I think it's going to turn out just fine regardless of this slow start.

• 9/10/20 - Airlock is bubbling rapidly today and krausen has formed on the beer.  It's producing an overripe fruit aroma on the fermentation that isn't pleasant.  Hope that flavor doesn't carry over.
• 9/19/20 - Measured the gravity today as 1.018 - still bubbling a bit so I imagine it will come down a bit more  The beer has sort of an unusual mineral flavor and aroma with malt and hops in the background - maybe from the yeast.  Doesn't have the overripe fruit from fermentation.  I'm adding the first 2 oz of dry hop to the beer today.  I put these in two muslin sacks weighed down with stainless steel nuts and bolts.  Will leave this for a week while it finishes with fermentation
• 9/24/20 - It has finally happened:  I have an infected beer.  
• The beer has formed a bit of pellicle in the last 5 days.  The unusual mineral flavor and aroma has become a bit more prominent.  It reminds me quite a bit of Brett Claussenii which I used for the first time in a Berliner Weisse
• I checked the gravity and it has only come down to 1.016
• Based on the flavor profile being there in my first tasting I suspect that my original problems with getting fermented started were the root cause for the beer ending up like this - good strong start to fermentation is important to keep other stuff (that probably is always there) from making an impact.  My handling of the yeast was careless and this is the result - should have made a starter
• Anyway, the beer isn't what I wanted but I think I could enjoy drinking it anyway (somehow feel a bit better about the extra flavor component now that I'm aware of what it is).  I'll give the beer a couple more week maybe to see if it drops further.  I believe I'll be bottling it instead of kegging unfortunately

• 9/25/20 - Thought about this a bit more and have decided to cold crash and fine the beer and then keg as originally planned.  I'll dry hop it as well.  Moved it to the chest freezer to spend a few days at 36 F
• 9.27/20 - Added about half a tsp of gelatin dissolved in hot water
• 9/29/20 - Transferred to a keg with 2 oz of dry hops.  I purged the keg with CO2 before filling to try to help preserve the beer better
• 10/7/20
• I've been keeping this keg between 40 and 45 F and force carbonating at 12 PSI.  It has started to carb up for me.  
• After further consideration of the "odd" flavor I'm starting to think that the homegrown hops were the major component.  When I rub the hops between two hands they have a lovely cascade aroma but just the bag has the same kind of odd smell I get from the beer.  As I've come to grips with the smell I've started to warm to it a bit.  I think I'll enjoy the beer
• I forgot to measure an official FG when I transferred to the keg.  Took one today and found it stopped at 1.016.  So, this is a pretty easy drinking beer at 3.6%
• 10/20/20 - Tasting Notes - A really nice sessionable keg beer.  I've had six pints of this on a brew day and was no worse for ware by the end.  This is exactly the kind of beer I was thinking I wanted to start making.  it is flavorful and complex in addition to drinkable.  I've been impressed by the hop character as it's aged - having the hops in the keg is a real help I think (as is being able to purge the keg of Oxygen)
• 10/30/20 - The keg kicked today.  The last few pints were cloud and hap hop particulate matter in suspension but were still very tasty.

Goose Island BCBS vs My Clone Attempts

Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout (BCBS) is a big (13-15%) Bourbon Barrel Aged Russian Imperial Stout released yearly on the day after Thanksgiving.  It was one of the first Bourbon Barrel aged beers (if not the first) and has spawned many more beers brewed using whiskey barrel aging.  Despite the large amount of competition these days, I have yet to find a beer that matches its bold whiskey character.  The balance it strikes between bold whiskey and supporting stout character is really a thing of beauty. 

Goose Island has been generous and has provided the recipe details for BCBS which includes OG, FG, and percentage composition of their grainbill.  It might seem like a bit of a reckless move to share this detail for such a famous beer but, as I've found after trying to brew this twice, the grainbill by itself doesn't get you very close to the real thing.  The barrel, and whatever they're doing to extract the barrel flavor, makes this beer.

My first attempt to make this beer, in 2018, used oak that I'd toasted and charred myself and the soaked in Makers mark whiskey for several months.  I used 4 sticks of about an oz each.  The beer fermented out to 1.046 which was a bit higher than target (mid 1.03s).  It was good but just didn't have the whiskey character of the original during my initial side by side comparisons.

For my second attempt, I tried, in earnest, to increase the whiskey character of the beer.  My first batch was aged with 90 proof (45% ABV) Makers Mark when the real BCBS goes into freshly drained barrels with residual barrel-proof spirit of 60-65%.  To duplicate this I aged my toasted and charred oak on Everclear which I diluted down to 60% ABV.  I used 1 big stick (maybe 3 oz) and 2 smaller (1 oz) in this beer and aged it in my hot attic to maximize extraction.  All in all, I think this was a positive step as the 60% spirit better approximates the flavor in the real BCBS.  My fermentation ended up halting on this beer at 1.055.  The un-oaked beer was absolutely delicious so I decided to let it ride.  As you'll see, it's tough to clone a beer of 1.03s with a beer in the 1.05s.

Anyway, in preparation for my third attempt I'll do another comparison tasting to a real BCBS. I'm using a 2017 version with an ABV of 14.1%.  This will give me some final things to assess when making critical decisions for the next batch.

2018 Comparison:

• Aroma:
• Malty with a bit of alcohol coming through.  Maybe get some fruity ester.  BCBS has a significantly more prominent Whiskey and Oak Character
• Appearance:
• Same color and basically same level of head as BCBS
• Flavor:
• Malty and chocolate character.  A bit of whiskey hits in the finish and offers a slight bit of competition to the malt.  The real BCBS is quite a bit less malty and the whiskey is prominent through the middle and into the finish
• Mouthfeel:
• Very close to BCBS - perhaps just slightly more full bodied.  Sweetness level is equal
• Overall:
• Way, way off in terms of whiskey oak character.  I think it's a delicious beer and that, if oaked to the correct level, may have been a pretty close match to the BCBS base beer

2019 Comparison:

• Aroma:
• Rich chocolate malt.  A bit of alcohol but it is very much in the background.  Whiskey character much less than BCBS (and less than 2018 as well)
• Appearance:
• Same color but a bit less head on the pour than BCBS
• Flavor:
• More malty and sweet than 2018.  I think it may have a bit stronger whiskey oak character coming through.  Balance compared with real BCBS is way off though - much more malty
• Mouthfeel:
• More full bodied and quite a bit sweeter than real BCBS
• Overall:
• Balance is much more towards malt than the real thing (not surprising given the 1.055 FG).  I think the whiskey character in this one is stronger than 2018 but still a long way off from the real thing

Flanders Red Unfermented Top Up Batch (2020)

This will be a top up batch for my Flanders Red beers.  I used about 21 gal of beer this year on 4 blends:  Plain, Cherry, Raspberry, and Tamarind & Raisin.  This top up batch will replace half of beer taken.  It will be unfermented so that the cultures still living in the fermenters will have something to munch on over the next year.

I'm using a malt bill very similar to what I had in the past.  The specialty malt are the critical piece for color.  I'll be mashing high like always (160 F) to give the slower microbes some more complex sugars to work with.

One significant change is that I'm hopping slightly more aggressively with this beer in the hopes of inhibiting Lactobacillus as the beers are getting increasingly sour over the years.

From past additions of Unfermented beer I expect the fermentation to be fairly slow an gentle.  I should be safe with using Vented silicon bugs on these beers rather than 3 piece airlock


Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct
• 7 lb Pilsner Malt
• 7 lb Pale Ale Malt
• 4 lb Munich Malt
• 1.5 lb Aromatic Malt
• 1.5 lb Crystal 60L
• 1.5 lb Special B
• 1.5 lb Flaked Corn
• 3 oz Acid Malt 
• Hops:
• 1 oz Chinook (Leaf, 12.2% AA) at 60 min
• Yeast:
• NA
• Water:
• 12 gal spring water
• 5 gal tap water
• 1 tsp CaCl

Process Details:

• Volume:
• 11.25 gal (Target 12 gal)
• Mash:
• 160 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 1 hr
• Fermentation Temperature:
• Ambient Basement Temperature (60-75F)
• Primary Duration:
• NA
• Secondary Duration:
• 1-3 years

Results:

• OG:
• 1.062 (Target 1.050)
• Efficiency:
• 79% (Target 68%)
• FG:
• NA
• Apparent Attenuation:
• NA
• ABV:
• NA

Brewing Notes:

• 8/16/20 - Brewday - 10:30 AM to 3:30 PM- Including setup and cleanup
• Heated 12 gal of strike water to 190 F
• Milled my grain.  Added CaCl into the grain
• Moved 6 gal of water to the mash tun and then cycled through the RIMS
• Stopped the RIMS and added my grain.  Added the flaked corn last.  Topped the mash up with 1 gal more of water

• Let the mash settle for 10 min.  The temperature was just about 160 F at that point
• Cycled the RIMS for 60 min
• Heated 11 gal of sparge water
• Did a fly sparge until 7 gal was collected.  Started heating this at 4 gal.  Had it at a boil 10 min later. 
• Left the mash tun full of water for a second batch sparge
• Added the hops to the boil kettle
• Slowly did the second batch sparge and fed into the boiling kettle
• Boiled for about 75 min to finish the batch sparge
• Added the wort chiller in the final 5 min to sanitize
• Added 1 gal of spring water to increase the volume (I checked the gravity near the end of the boil and found I was quite a bit higher than expected)
• Chilled to 85 F

• Collected 11.25 gal
• Measured the gravity as 1.062
• Transferred to wort into my Flanders Red Fermenters as follows:
• Fermenter #1 - 1 gal
• Fermenter #3 - 1 gal
• Fermenter #4 - 1 gal
• Fermenter #5 - 1 gal
• Fermenter #6 - 1 gal
• Fermenter #8 - 1 gal
• Fermenter #9 - 1 gal
• Fermenter #10 - 1.25 gal
• Fermenter #11 - 1 gal
• Fermenter #12 - 2 gal

Raisin & Tamarind Flanders Red

I currently have 12 Fermenters of Flanders Red beer aging.  This provides quite a few options for blending which makes for an interesting process and, hopefully, produces a more complex and bolder flavored beer than I could get otherwise.  The downside is that there is a lot of beer to maintain and, if left unfed, the batches will likely start to die out and cease to produce interesting beers going forward.  I'm trying to find a balance where all fermenters get used each year so that there is room to top each one up with fresh new beer.  I've decided that blending 4 batches of beer each year is good way to ensure that enough beer is pulled to make room for a reasonable amount of fresh beer.

I would consider a Plain blend and a cherry blend to be traditional (most based on the fact that Rodenbach makes both of these) and a raspberry blend to be a pretty natural fit.  I assume I'll always produce these three.  This leaves a fourth version in which to experiment with.  Last year, I made a Spiced Flanders Red which leveraged the flavorings of Coca cola (which has sort of a parallel flavor profile to Flanders Red - to my mind at least).  This made an interesting beer, that I enjoy drinking, but isn't something I'd want to have 2 batches worth of at the moment.

For this years Experimental Flanders Red I decided to try out and interesting ingredient found in Indian cuisine:  Tamarind.  I purchased a small container of concentrate which is used in sauces.  It has a sour and slightly bitter flavor which kind of resembles dark fruit.  These are flavors in the neighborhood of a Flanders Red but also distinctly different.  I have no idea how much to use so I've decided to go with an entire small canister which is 227 g (maybe a cup in terms of volume).  

The nearest fruit I could compare Tamarind to is Raisin.  To accentuate this relationship I decided to also add 5 lbs of Raisin to the mix.  I had previously used 15 oz of Raisin in my 2017 English Barleywine where they seemed to contribute a subtle wine-like character (also used 1.5 lb in a Dark Saison that I haven't bottled yet).  

To accentuate the wine character I'll also add a couple ounces of port soaked oak.

What impact will 227g of Tamarind concentrate and 5 lb of Raisin have on 6 gal of Flanders Red?  We'll find out.  This is an experiment after all - so there are no wrong answers.

For blending the base beer I've chosen to use mostly bold flavored beers that can handle being the star of the show if the Tamarind and Raisin turn out to be mild in character.  I also chose a couple based on the desire to use up more of the mild beer for Fermenter top up purposes.  Beers were chosen based on recent tasting notes.

 I have selected the following beers for this blend:

• Fermenter #2:
• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Quite fruity with some earthy brett character as well as some mineral character
• Appearance:  Reddish brown and fairly clear
• Flavor:  Lightly sour.  Has a really nice fruity flavor up front that suggests a sweetness.  Earthy brett character comes in with the finish.  Some bready malt comes through as well
• Mouthfeel:  Medium light bodied and pretty dry. Has a prickliness that hits the tongue and back of the throat.
• Overall:  Pleasing fruit flavor is pretty bold.  Nice level of complexity
• Volume:
• 2 gal
• Fermenter #7:
• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Over ripe fruit and a mineral character.  A bit musty as well
• Appearance:  Light reddish brown and a little murky
• Flavor:  Light sourness.  Has a lemon like character.  Some overripe fruit and a bit of earthy brett character comes through.  
• Mouthfeel:  Light bodied and dry.  A little prickling acidity
• Overall:  Flavors are pretty mild.  Not terribly complex range of flavors in this one
• Volume:
• 1 gal
• Fermenter #9:
• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Overripe fruit and a bit of mineral character.  Also get earthy funk
• Appearance:  Reddish brown and a bit murky
• Flavor:  Medium sourness with a fruity character.  Some mineral flavor along with earthy and leathery flavor.
• Mouthfeel:  Light bodied and pretty dry.  Has a bit of prickling acidity that hits the back of the throat on the swallow.
• Overall:  Fairly mild beer with a bit of complexity
• Volume:
• 1 gal
• Fermenter #10:
• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Strong overripe fruit and a bit of earthy and leathery funk.  Also has a sort of spiciness to it
• Appearance:  Reddish brown and fairly clear
• Flavor:  Medium sourness.  Has a fruity flavor fairly well balanced with earthy and leathery brett.  Has a fairly prominent bitter bite in the finish which is pleasant
• Mouthfeel:  Medium light bodied and dry.  Prickles the back of the throat slightly.
• Overall:  Boldly flavored and has a nice bit of complexity.  Quite a pleasant beer.
• Volume:
• 2 gal

I will let this beer age with the adjuncts for 3-6 months.  I plan to backsweeten and then bottle pasteurize this batch which ensures a bit of sweetness in the final product that helps a lot with drinkability and balance.

Blending Notes:

• 8/8/20:
• Added the 4 beers to a bucket fermenter
• Added the Raisin and Tamarind concentrate

• Added oak

• Set this up with a 3 piece airlock to ferment
• 3/12/22 - Bottled up this beer with 1 pack of rehydrated Red Star Premier Cuvee yeast and 2 lbs of Home made Invert #3.  Got 61 bottles of beer.  I'll plan to sample one of these ever week to check for carbonation levels before pasteurizing them.  The tamarind concentrate seems to have sunk to the bottom of the fermenter so I don't anticipate it will be a huge component in the flavor

Raspberry Flanders Red - 2020 Blend

This will be my third Flanders Red aged with Raspberry (read about the first and second).  I grow my own raspberries in a large patch which has been producing 100+ lbs of fruit a year for me.  I've been gradually increasing the amount of fruit used in these beers as I've gotten a better feel for how much I'll have.  First year I used 10 lbs, second year I used 15 lbs, and this year I'll use 20 lb.

The fruit is a very nice compliment to the beer and the beer is a very good base for a raspberry beer.  With 20 lbs of fruit I fully expect this to be a Raspberry beer first and foremost and a Flanders Red as a distant second - something like the New Glarus Raspberry Tart (that I've never had but which was the inspiration for a previous beer as well using black raspberry).

I'll be using multiple beers from my 12 fermenters of Flanders Red (based on my recent tasting notes) with the goal of making a fairly mild beer as the Raspberries themselves are pretty tart.

I'll let the beers work on the fruit for 3-6 months and then bottle with extra sugar for backsweetening followed by bottle pasteurization once they've carb'd up.  This is a beer that will be too intense if it gets too dry.

• Fermenter #6:
• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Very fruity.  Also has a mineral aroma along with earthy and leathery brett
• Appearance:  Reddish brown and pretty clear
• Flavor:  Medium sourness.  Fruit comes through first followed by leather and earth from Brett.  Also get bready malt  
• Mouthfeel:  Light bodied and dry.  Some prickles the back of the throat on the swallow
• Overall:  Some nice bold flavors with enough going on to bring some complexity
• Volume:
• 2 gal
• Fermenter #7:
• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Over ripe fruit and a mineral character.  A bit musty as well
• Appearance:  Light reddish brown and a little murky
• Flavor:  Light sourness.  Has a lemon like character.  Some overripe fruit and a bit of earthy brett character comes through.  
• Mouthfeel:  Light bodied and dry.  A little prickling acidity
• Overall:  Flavors are pretty mild.  Not terribly complex range of flavors in this one
• Volume:
• 1.5 gal
• Fermenter #9:
• Tasting Notes:
• Aroma:  Overripe fruit and a bit of mineral character.  Also get earthy funk
• Appearance:  Reddish brown and a bit murky
• Flavor:  Medium sourness with a fruity character.  Some mineral flavor along with earthy and leathery flavor.
• Mouthfeel:  Light bodied and pretty dry.  Has a bit of prickling acidity that hits the back of the throat on the swallow.
• Overall:  Fairly mild beer with a bit of complexity
• Volume:
• 1 gal

Brewing Notes:

• 8/7/20:
• Put the frozen fruit in a bucket fermenter to thaw for a couple hrs
• Blended the 3 beers in a separate bucket

• Transferred the beer onto the fruit

• Set it up with a 3 piece airlock
• 1/10/22 - Bottled today with 2 lbs of homemade invert #3 and a rehydrated packet of Red Star Premier Cuvee yeast.  Collected about 6 gal of beer (this was starting with 4.5 gal so 1.5 of that is from the fruit).  This got me 60 bottles.  I will sample this beer a couple times a week and pasteurize once it's reached a good level of carbonation.

• 6/21/22 - This beer took forever to carbonate.  Opened bottles every few weeks and found them to be flat until I tried one today and it was quite a bit over carbonated.  I'm pasteurizing today in a 160 F water bath for 30 min - it settles down to 140 F after a few minutes.  I have 45 bottles left after all the tastings.  I lost 4 bottles during the pasteurization so I'm down to 41.