Well, after one of the worst days at work I have had in about a year, and a frustrating food shopping trip, I came home to miss kissing my sick daughter to bed since I was late. The only thing that made the crummy day turn around was the delivery of my latest BYO magazine. This was not just any BYO, but the one I had been waiting for as much as the label contest win.

Rewind time a few months. I got a random email from an intern at the magazine asking me if I was interested in writing for the mag. Skeptical, I was curious why he was asking and what exactly he wanted. Turns out, the label I won with saw the spark of the email:

“I was sorting through a pile of entries from an old label contest, and I thought your entry had an interesting story behind it”

Well, after trading several emails with the intern, we nailed down the topic of the article, my toolbox (insert 3rd grade joke here). I sat down and did the best I could to do a step by step build process for a gadget I made 3+ years ago. Well, it was good enough for them, and I was told it will be in the October 09 edition.

So I quickly thumbed through to the Equipment section to see my masterful article. It is majestic, breath taking, ground breaking and worthy of many literary awards.

For those homebrewers that live under a rock, and are unaware of the Wyeast VSS Roselare release, this is supposedly a blending of saccharomyces, brettanomyces, and lactic acid bacteria blend. The rumor is the blend is to mimic the microbes at the Rodenbach brewery. Since its release in late spring, I have brewed 4 beers currently sitting on this strain; 5G of Cranky Wife Tonic, 5G of the Flanders Red recipe in Wild Brews, 5G of Jamil Z's flanders red and 5G of the La Roja clone. The 2 flanders reds and the La Roja (could be considered a third flanders red) are all from the same original pitching, so the La Roja is sitting on the third generation of the strain.

The word out there is, each generation of the strain develops a more complex and sour product up until generation 6, where the beer becomes too sour and makes vinegar.

So the Cranky Wife Tonic, my house brown that is freaking fantastic, was part of a 10G batch fermented cleanly with another Wyeast VSS strain Yorkshire Ale. Half was kegged and consumed in 48 hours after reaching proper carb levels. The other half was placed in a secondary with one pitch of Roselare and I used an oak dowel through a stopper to mimic the oak levels and oxidation provided in barrel aging.

The first Flanders Red was from Wild Brews. If you do not own this book, buy a copy immedietly. It is the best breing book I own, once you get the basics from Palmers 'How to Brew'. This was brewed in a 5G batch size and got a 1st genreation Roselare pitch. The first pitch did not show fermentation for 3-4 days, so I pitched my other pouch, and fermentation took off in 12 hours. After 3 weeks, I moved this beer to a secondary, and again added an oak dowel through a stopper.

The same day I moved the Wild Brews to the secondary, I brewed the Jamil Z flanders with Stefin at the summer MD Brew Day club group brew. This was a 10-11G batch split between us two. I pitched the wort on the yeast cake in the primary without washing or changing vessles. I know Jamil is an advocate of fermenting in the primary with Cal Ale or some other neutral yeast then moveing to the secondary with Roselare. This is because he is not a fan of the higher acidity that is the trademark of Rodenbach Grand Cru. I disagree, and quite enjoy the elevated sourness, so I primary and secondary on the Roselare. Since this was pitched directly on the cake, this was generation 2 of the strain. The ferment started in a matter of hours, and appeared to comlete in 2-3 days.

Today, 8/29/09, I moved the Jamil Z flanders red to a secondary, again with the oak dowel. I also brewed the La Roja clone from BYO magazine. This again was pitched directly on the yeast cake left from the last batch, the third generation on the strain. I added the wort to the yeast around 10:30, I would suspect this will be bubbling like crazy in 2-3 hours due to the super high yeast cell count.

With this much flanders type beer in the basement fermenting/aging, I do not think I have a legitimate need for more flanders beers anytime soon. IT would be a shame to waste this yeast cake. I will offer this to the guys I am doing the barrel lambic with. I think the 4th gen and extreme cell count, this would be ideal to kick off the ferment of our 65G batch.

8/24/2009 - In the beginning, the french created a barrel. This barrel was sold to the fine folks at Chadds Ford Winery for the creation of some fine Chester County, PA wines. After 6 years, the winery retired the barrel, and it was purchased by myself, Alan, and Stefin for the production of a new beverage.

We bout the 65G french oak barrel to brew a lambic. Since there are only 3 of us, we came up with a rather unique (at least I never heard of this) approach to dividing the shares. Lambics are not a quickly brewed beer. Traditionally, a young beer is aged 1 year, a modorate beer is aged 2 years, and a mature beer is aged 3 years. Over time the flavors of the lambic develop and change. Our schedule is to brew 65 gallons at year 0. Year 1 we remove 50% of the young lambic and replace with new wort. The removed lambic will be split between us. Year 2, we again remove 50% of the lambic, and replace with fresh wort. Year 3, we remove all remaining lambic. There will be no barrel fruiting, we are free to fruit and blend with our own shares as seen fit.

As we add the new wort, it is expected the beer will become increasingly more sour as the bugs will develop and grow year over year. While we are blending, I would assume the year three lambic will be much more similar to a 2 year lambic, just with increased acidity. The year 3 lambic should be a fine prduce for sour beer blending projects. In all, each of us should have 35-40 gallons of finished lambic at the end of the project, enough to begin a well stocked cellar.

I think I will keep some unfruited from each "vintage" for future comparison, and blend some with local fruits. In my area there are quite a few blueberry and peach farmers.

The tentative brewday is scheduled for 10/10/09 at Stefin's place outside DC metro. The barrel will remain at his place.

Homebrewtalk.com thread: link

The working recipe is below and several barrel shots.

Lambic

A ProMash Recipe Report

BJCP Style and Style Guidelines
-------------------------------

20-A Lambic & Belgian Sour Ale, Straight Lambic-style Ale

Min OG: 1.044 Max OG: 1.056
Min IBU: 10 Max IBU: 15
Min Clr: 4 Max Clr: 15 Color in SRM, Lovibond

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal): 60.00 Wort Size (Gal): 60.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 109.09
Anticipated OG: 1.052 Plato: 12.82
Anticipated SRM: 3.2
Anticipated IBU: 14.1
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 240 Minutes

Pre-Boil Amounts
----------------

Evaporation Rate: 15.00 Percent Per Hour
Pre-Boil Wort Size: 150.00 Gal
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.021 SG 5.26 Plato

Formulas Used
-------------

Brewhouse Efficiency and Predicted Gravity based on Method #1, Potential Used.
Final Gravity Calculation Based on Points.
Hard Value of Sucrose applied. Value for recipe: 46.2100 ppppg
% Yield Type used in Gravity Prediction: Fine Grind Dry Basis.

Color Formula Used: Morey
Hop IBU Formula Used: Rager


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
70.0 76.36 lbs. Pilsener Germany 1.038 2
30.0 32.73 lbs. Wheat Unmalted Belgium 1.038 2

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops (Saaz listed, may use other low AA sub, or aged hops)

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.91 oz. Czech Saaz Whole 3.50 14.1 60 min.


Yeast
-----

WYeast 3526 Brettanomyces Lambicus (5 gallon starter batch to be pitched with barrel wort, 2 separate 5 gallon batches will get individual pitches)

Another score from Capone's. Welp... as you can see from the photo, there is a bit of carbonation in this bad boy. I intentionally poured carefully, not to stir up the large yeast slug at the bottom. Anyway, here is the review:

A - Amber with a large fluffy, lasting head. Moderately clear in the glass.

S - Spicy hop aroma and some sweetness in the background. Citrus and pineapple aroma.

T - Bitter and hoppy. Nice malt backbone, that is hidden behing the big IBUs in this beer. Not noticed is any alcohol burn or any roast.

M - I would love to know the OG and FG of this beer, it is full and sticky, but less than I would have assumed at 9%. The beer is, as you would assume from the photo, highly carbed.

D - With the high octane, I doubt you could pound through multiple bottles and be hitting curve balls in wiffle ball. I really think one bottle is the most I would want to have at a time.

Overall - Quite nice, a litle less than what I had been hoping for, but still nice. I guess it would be like a 4 out of 5.

Perhaps my favorite offering from DFH. I have had this several times in the past, and always forget how good it is. I just got a case for a recent camping trip, and it was real easy to make quick work of most of the beers. Wether it was with a burger, on the fishing boat, or around the campfire late at night, this beer seemed to compliment every aspect of the trip perfectly. It did seem to have a poetic quality since I was at a campground about a half hour from the brewery in DE. For the first time ever, I really read the label. It turns out the barley in this brew is from Delaware. I have to imagine it is grown not too far from Trap Pond, since the surrounding area if very agricultural.

A - Pours with a quickly developing head. Fizzy. In the glass it is amber/pale. The head disappears rather quickly.

S - Toasty and bready with some earthy hop presence. On a second niff, I get a nuttiness in the back.

T - Light and crisp. Nicely balanced maltiness and hop flavor. Not your typical pale ale, the hops compliment the malt nicely, and not overpowering. Much like the nose hinted, there is a toastiness and nuttiness in the flavor.

M - Light with moderate to moderate/high carbonation. Medium body, but with nice quenching power.

D - A very drinkable beer. In one day I made it through about half a case, albeit a camping day where I was not driving at all. I need to seek this beer out way more often as it really is an easy drinking pale ale, you do not have to be a hop head to fall in love with.

Pissing in a guinness can on a moving fishing boat presents two
problems. First a man needs more than one can to piss in. Two aim is
incredibly more difficult than you would possibly assume

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