Tag Archives: Recipes

Brewday recap: Lambic #1 (pLambic) with Turbid Mash

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Last weekend, on MLKJr day, I brewed my first lambic. Technically it was a pseudo-lambic (or pLambic) because I pitched a culture rather than letting nature inoculate the wort.

east-coast-yeast-bugfarm-5-starterThere are many ways to get a souring culture, one of the most common is to buy a bottle of lambic beer that isn’t pasturized, and grow up a culture from the bottle dregs. I went a different route, largely due to the overwhelming popularity of the results. I bought a pitch from East Coast Yeast of Al’s BugFarm 5 (the 2011 variant) and made a starter.

Making a pLambic isn’t necessarally super hard, you can do a regular infusion mash and just pitch a mixed culture to make a sour beer, but after reading Wild Brews and nagging Michael Tonsmeire. for advice on a number of occasions leading up to brewday, I decided to make it in as traditional a manner as possible, which most importantly includes a turbid mash.

If you want to know all there is to know about a turbid mash, I’d recommend you read Michael Tonsmeire’s article, and then proceed to Wild Brews. In a nutshell though, it’s a specific mash process that leaves a significant portion of the starches from your cereal grains as they are, which sets them aside to be food for the non-brewer’s yeast to tear apart and eat over the 1-3 year fermentation cycle. A traditional mash breaks them down into simpler sugars, so that brewer’s yeast can easily convert them to alcohol and other by-products.

OK. So, I was a little anxious about the turbid mash, because it was a deviation from the process that I know so well, so I referred to Michael Tonsmeire’s website, Wild Brews, and a third article by the Cult of the Biohazard Lambic Brewers in order to make myself a spreadsheet, outlining the various infusions and runoffs. I was able to move through these steps on brewday fairly flawlessly, with the exception that there’s one step towards the end, where it would be handy to have a third pot and second burner. Oh well, minor delay. If you want to know what steps I followed, read Michael Tonsmeire’s article, he has the same steps all laid out with photos.

lambic-pre-boil-volumeThe boil is where this really becomes a drag. Due to the high volume of water used in the mash process, you end up with a 9-10 gallon pre-boil volume, which can take a really long time to boil down. I have a Bayou Country propane burner, and it took me about 4 hours to get to my final volume.

aged-whole-leaf-challenger-hopsHop selection is also of concern when making a pLambic — you don’t want to use high-alpha hops for bittering, even if you only use enough to hit your 20 or so IBUs — you want to use low-alpha hops that have ideally been aged a few years to have even less bittering power. I used 4 year old Challenger hops, that I calculated to be at 2.7%AA. And as the books say, yes, they do smell like cheesy, smelly feet. I put them in the boil early to make sure that I blasted out all the smell and flavor.

bugfarm-lambic-primary-fermentationFermentation was fairly mellow, and it seemed to finish it’s primary phase in 4 days. The krausen has now fallen, and I’m sure the secondary microorganisms are now taking over the show. I’ll post some followup photos here as things change, I know it’s going to be a long process.

Recipe: 2012 Lambic #1
Style: 17D-Sour Ale-Straight (Unblended) Lambic

Wort Volume Before Boil: 10.50 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 6.25 US gals
Volume Transferred: 5.50 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.032 SG
Expected OG: 1.053 SG
Expected FG: 1.015 SG
Expected ABV: 5.0 %
Expected IBU (using Daniels): 19.2
Expected Color: 3.9 SRM
Mash Efficiency: 98.0 %

Fermentables
UK Pale Ale Malt 6lb 12oz (71.1 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Flaked Soft Red Wheat 2lb 12oz (28.9 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
UK Challenger (2.7 % alpha) 2.00 oz Loose Whole Hops used All Of Boil

Yeast: East Coast Yeast ECY01 – BugFarm 5

Mash Type: Turbid Mash

Recent Recipes, Fall 2010

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Imperial Stout 2010It occurred to me this weekend that it’s been a while since I’ve posted recipes. This fall has been a little strange, as I’m trying a lot of new recipes out, either massive variations on an old recipe, or something I’ve never tried before.

First up is the Imperial Stout that’s on tap. It’s a variation on last year’s, with a large percentage of the base malt swapped out for Munich. I also used Crystal hops for finishing rather than Centennial. This was a 3-gallon recipe.

Recipe Overview

Fermentables
US 2-Row Malt 7.00 lb (54.9 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Munich Malt 4.00 lb (31.4 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Caramel 60L Malt 0.75 lb (5.9 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Chocolate Malt 0.75 lb (5.9 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Roasted Barley 0.25 lb (2.0 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
German Hallertauer Magnum (11.0 % alpha) 0.50 oz Loose Pellet Hops used First Wort Hopped
UK Golding (5.5 % alpha) 1.64 oz Loose Pellet Hops used 20 Min From End
US Crystal (3.5 % alpha) 1.18 oz Loose Pellet Hops used 20 Min From End

Yeast: Wyeast 1318-London Ale III

Next up was my take on Tasty McDole’s Janet Brown ale, an “Indian Brown Ale”. Mine was 100% Cascade in the mash and boil, with Centennial for dry-hops, along with some other grain substitutions and simplification. This was a 5-gallon recipe. Oh, and a side note, this hasn’t been kegged yet, but just from what I can see so far, this is a dark beer. Next time I’ll cut the chocolate malt in half.

Recipe Overview

Fermentables

UK Pale Ale Malt 9.00 lb (61.0 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Munich Malt 3.00 lb (20.3 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Wheat Malt 1.00 lb (6.8 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Dark Crystal 1.00 lb (6.8 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Chocolate Malt 0.75 lb (5.1 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Cascade (4.5 % alpha) 2.00 oz Loose Pellet Hops used In Mash
US Cascade (4.5 % alpha) 2.00 oz Loose Pellet Hops used First Wort Hopped
US Cascade (4.5 % alpha) 2.00 oz Loose Pellet Hops used 10 Min From End
US Cascade (4.5 % alpha) 2.00 oz Loose Pellet Hops used At turn off
US Centennial (8.5 % alpha) 2.00 oz Loose Pellet Hops used Dry-Hopped

Yeast: Wyeast 1318-London Ale III

Last was a big pale ale, an imperial pale ale, if you will. Low IBUs, but big hop flavor and body. This is my first recipe using Victory malt, I’m really hoping it gives me that crackery-biscuity flavor I like so much. This was a 5-gallon recipe.

Fermentables
UK Pale Ale Malt 9.00 lb (65.5 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Munich Malt 4.00 lb (29.1 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Victory Malt 0.75 lb (5.5 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Centennial (8.5 % alpha) 0.75 oz Loose Pellet Hops used First Wort Hopped
US Centennial (8.5 % alpha) 2.00 oz Loose Pellet Hops used Dry-Hopped

Yeast: Wyeast Pac-Man

Book Review: Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher

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Radical BrewingRadical Brewing by Randy Mosher is a very interesting book to say the least. I first had the opportunity to flip through this book shortly after switching to all-grain brewing, and I found the book a bit difficult to approach at that time. I was reading a lot of new books, and I was very process oriented at the time, and I found this book, which is packed full of information and ideas, to be a bit overwhelming. A recent discussion with Erik Lars Myers of Mystery Brewing prompted me to give the book another pass.

I was surprised to find upon opening the book for the second time, that there is a whole introductory section for beginning brewers, and some pretty solid advice at that. Little tidbits that would have helped me a long time ago, like the fact that liquid extract goes stale faster than dry extract. (Who would have expected that?) Mosher walks the novice brewer through the process of the first batch, and provides simple steps that any beginning brewer can take to drastically improve their finished product beyond the kits that many homebrew shops sell.

Mosher doesn’t dwell on the beginner’s process long though, and moves on into all-grain brewing, and then into what constitutes the bulk of the book, recipes, historical beers, different styles, and a seemingly never-ending catalog of ideas and methods to make your beers just a little different from the traditional recipe. This, along with several charts and indices of herbs, spices hops, grains and other adjuncts, along with flavor and aroma descriptions, are some of the most valuable assets contained within the pages of Radical Brewing.

Mosher also gives ample coverage to the more popular variations on brewing: basic styles, lagers, belgians, over-the-top big beers, alternative grain beers, spiced beers, even fruit and honey brews. There’s very little that’s not covered in Radical Brewing in some way, shape or form. You’ll likely find yourself with a book full of bookmarks to come back to when you’re ready to do that [insert beer type here].

Radical Brewing is an extremely dense book at over 300 pages, there’s a lot of information. It may seem a little overwhelming at first, but take your time. If you’re an experienced brewer, pick it up and flip the book open anywhere. You’re likely to find something that piques your interest, and gives you a little inspiration that you’ll be grateful for.