Getting Sour

For the last several months, I’ve really been getting into the sour beers. The first sour I brewed was a Berliner Weisse that I brewed over the summer. With the Berliner Weisse under my belt, it was time for something a little more advanced, a pseudo Lambic (or pLambic). I plan to leave it alone in my fermenting room for 9 to 12 months. After that,
I plan to do three things:
1. bottle a few to drink as straight lambic
2. add fruit to two or three gallons for a fruit lambic
3. bulk age the remainder with the intent of blending with lambic made in future years to make gueuze

I’ll decide the type of fruit after I taste the Lambic and determine what will complement it. I’ll now have to commit to making a batch of Lambic each fall – it’s a tough life.
Brew Date: 10/7/2011
Beer Number: B21
Beer Name: pLambic 2011
Type: Lambic
Primary Fermenter: 6 gal. glass carboy (?? days)
Secondary Fermenter: ?
Volume: 5+ gal into fermenter
OG: 1.060 (target of 1.054)
FG: ????
Expected IBU: 4
Expected SRM: 3


Ingredients:
7 lbs. Weyerman Pilsner Malt
4.6 lbs. flaked wheat
.5 lb. rice hulls
5 g. Hallertauer pellet hops (3.9% AA) 85 min.
7 g. Mt. Hood pellet hops (5.2% AA) 60 min.

Step by Step Process:
Bacteria Starter (10/7/2011)

1. Collected final runnings from B21 and boiled for 15 minutes


2. Cooled and transferred 900 ml into 2L Erlenmeyer flask


3. pitched vail of WLP655 – Belgian Sour Mix I
   
   Wort


4. Crushed grain in Barley Crusher


5. Heated 15 qts. strike water to @168F and poured into mash tun


6. Added grains to tun and stirred – temp. settled at @150F at top of mash


7. mashed @ 1.5 hrs, ending mash temp. in middle of grain bed was 149F


8. Recirculated @ 2 qts.


9. Opened valve slowly and then wide open and drained into kettle


10. While draining, fired burner and set heat on low.


11. When empty, filled with 3 gals. of 190F water, stirred mash, recirculated and drained


12. When empty, filled with 3 gals. of 190F water, stirred mash, recirculated and drained


13. Collected a total of @ 7.75 gal. wort


14. Brought to a boil


15. Pitched 5g Hallertauer hops at 85 min. and 7g. Mt. Hood hops at 60 min.


16. Using wort chiller, cooled to below 120F in @ 15 minutes


17. Covered kettle and allowed to cool overnight (inside on stove)


18. Transferred to sanitized carboy


19. Pitched entire bacteria starter at 70F (no visible activity in starter but starter smelled very sour/funky)


20. @ 36 hours, krausen was evident