2014 Lambic

The wife and kiddos went to Charlotte to visit family for the weekend, so I knew I needed to take advantage and do some brewing.  And, boy did I!  I brewed a Lambic, a Saison and a session IPA.

The first beer I brewed was a Lambic.  This is the third Lambic I have brewed.  The first version, back in 2011, was one dimensional – all sour with no funky complexity.  The 2013 version, I’ve bottled but I haven’t tasted yet.  This year I was able to get my hands on a vial of East Coast Yeast Bug Farm.  I pitched this along with a pint of the yeast cake from last year’s lambic (WLP655 Belgian Sour Mix).  I have high hopes for this one.

 

Brew Date: 8/8/2014

Beer Number: B36

Beer Name: Lambic 2014

Type: Lambic

Primary Fermenter: 6 gal. glass carboy (?? days)

Secondary Fermenter: n/a

Volume: 5.5 gal into fermenter

OG: 1.049

FG: ?

Expected IBU: 5

Expected SRM: 4

Expected Alcohol %: ?%

Ingredients:

4 lbs., 6.4 oz. Breis US 2 Row Malt
3 lbs., 8 oz. white wheat malt
1 lb., 1.1 oz. flaked wheat
.5 lb. rice hulls
7 g. Mt. Hood pellet hops (6.0% AA) 60 min.
ECY01 BugFarm
1 qt. B32 2013 Lambic dregs
1.75 lbs. brown sugar

Step by Step Process:

ECY01 Yeast Starter (8/8/14)

1. Boiled @ 200g Pilsen DME in @2.0L water for 15 minutes
2. Transferred @ 1L to flask
3. Cooled and pitched bottle of ECY01 BugFarm
4. Covered with foil
5. No Kreusen appeard

Wort

6. Crushed grain in Barley Crusher, double-crushed wheat
7. Heated 11.75 qts. strike water to @180F and poured into mash tun
8. Allowed tun temp. to settle to 170F
9. Added grains to tun and stirred – temp. settled at @155F at top of mash
10. @30 min. temp had dropped to 153F
11. @55 min. Poured 0.9 gal. of near boiling water, which raised temp to 173F
12. Recirculated @ 2 qts.
13. Opened valve slowly and then wide open and drained into kettle
14. While draining, fired burner and set heat on medium-low.
15. When empty, filled with 2.6 gals. of near boiling water, stirred mash, recirculated and drained
16. When empty, filled with 2.6 gals. of 190F water, stirred mash, recirculated and drained
17. Collected a total of @ 7.6 gal. wort
18. Brought to a boil
19. Added 7g. Mt. Hood hops at 60 min.
20. Using wort chiller, cooled to below 100F in @ 20 minutes
21. Covered kettle and allowed to cool overnight (inside garage)
22. Gravity reading the next morning was 1.040 (target of 1.048)
23. Boiled 1 lb. 12 oz. brown sugar in 1 qt. of water and added to wort.
24. OG after sugar addition was 1.049
25. Transferred to sanitized carboy and pitched starter of ECY01 BugFarm and 1 quart of dregs from B32 2013 Lambic (harvested earlier in the day)
26. @ 24 hours, krausen was evident