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60 gallon Turbid Mash Lambic brewday
As some of you may know, last year me and a few guys brewed up a 60 gallon Russian River Consecration inspired Flanders Red. After a year in the bugged barrel we transferred it to kegs to finish out and bottled a few cases to be able to drink some now. So the Flanders came out and we had to fill the barrel at the same time so we decided to go all out again and brew a lambic - turbid mash style.
So, what's a turbid mash? Well, a usual lambic grain bill consist of raw wheat and malted barley as a result of a law created in 1420 that insisted Belgian brewers had to use wheat in their grist to increase the quality of their beers. And then in 1559 a ratio was set at 6 parts wheat to 10 parts barley.
In 1822 the Dutch government taxed the Belgian breweries in relation to the size of their mash tuns. Consequently, the breweries started using smaller tuns and created a mashing process that utilized the small volume they had to work with while still creating a wort full of dextrines and starches. These starches are what creates a milky, hazy and cloudy wort.
For a 10 gallon share we each used 10 pounds of Best Pilsner and 7.75 pounds of Best raw wheat.This is the mash schedule we followed. It’s a combination of the schedule in Wild Brews and BYO but modified to accompany our set ups.
Dough in with 2.5 gallons of water to hit 113F. Rest for 10 min.
Add boiling water at .5 qt/lb to hit 126F. Rest for 5 min.
Draw off 2 pints and add to a heated pot. Maintain 190F temperature.
Add boiling water at .65 qt/lb to hit 149F. Rest for 30 min.
Draw off 2 gallons of wort and add to heated pot.
Add boiling water at 1.25 qt/lb to hit 162F. Rest for 20 min.
Drain the mash tun completely into the heated pot.
Add 2.5 gallons of the turbid wort to mash to hit 167F. Rest for 20 min.
Drain and add to boil kettle.
Sparge with 190F water until preboil volume is reached.
The Ingredients
Hmm... think that's going to be enough rice hulls?
Mashing In... That's what I call a thick mash...
A couple pics of drawing off the turbid portions of the mash. We first followed some suggestions from the book by inserting a colander and siphoning or scooping out the wort. Then someone discovered they were able to drain the wort through their mash tun which resulted in very nice milky, debris free wort. It could best be described as looking like coffee milk.
Pulling from the community turbid pot that was kept at 190F for the last infusion.
Bottling some of the Consecration from last year.
Cleaning out the barrel from the last batch including all 30 pounds of currents to prep for the lambic.
We ended up with about 90 gallons preboil and boiled in 3 kettles.
Kettle 1: 35.5 gallons; 1.043
Kettle 2: 18 gallons; 1.044
Kettle 3: 34.5 gallons; 1.021
I forget how long it took but I think it was something like 8 hours to boil this all down to about 60 gallons so we could end up with a gravity around 1.055. All in all, it was one very long but kick ass brew day.
Keep ya posted...
WOW, that is awesome. Great write-up and great pics. I can hardly wrap my mind around 60 gallon brewdays.
So how was the flanders red? And how long does a lambic take? Usually at least a year, right?
Its actually more of an Imperial Flanders Red and its good but needs more time. It's sitting somewhere in the low 1.020's and has a very Sweet Tart kind of sourness. In time it will become more sour and dry out a bit. I have 5 gallons in a keg and 5 gallons in bottles. I brought a bottle to a bar tonight to share with the owner and bartenders and its good and was well received but its still flat.
Like the Consecration inpspired Flanders, the lambic is going to take a while. A year, maybe; but probably two. There's talk about getting another barrel or two so we can start doing some blending. We're fortunate enough to have a connection to a winery in Connecticut who will give us a used wine barrel in great condition for nothing.
very cool, but don't you guys have anything better to do? Ha ha.
you should bring one of those to the brew day baby, i'm sure it will be great.
wish i could get something like that going...im jealous! good luck with the lambic; I have a four year old lambic and i swear its just hitting its peak.
Until a bottle of either one of these beers shows up at a brew day (or in my beer fridge, hint hint) I am going to assume this is just a really well put together photoshop session!
Ah, ya caught me! I really stole these pics off some guys blog.
Oh and I wouldn't dream of showing up at the next brew day without a bottle of the Flanders. Hopefully it'll be carbed up by the time the next one rolls around.
Sounds freakin awesome Marc!
Never done a turbid mash before, but is there a reason for the sparge water being 190 degrees? Won't that pull tannins? Or is it 190 out of the HLT and 170 when it hits the bed?
thirsty wrote:
Never done a turbid mash before, but is there a reason for the sparge water being 190 degrees? Won't that pull tannins? Or is it 190 out of the HLT and 170 when it hits the bed?
That's not a typo and yes it will pull tannins.
Taken straight from Wild Brews:
"A turbid mash will have poor conversion of sugars, and a hotter than normal sparge will help to wash out remaining dextrins and unconverted starches. The higher temperature will also leach considerable tannins from the mash, something found undesirable in other beers. The tannins will precipitate out or break down over the long period of fermentation and do not contribute to a noticeable astringency in the resulting beer."
FirePitBrew wrote:
"A turbid mash will have poor conversion of sugars, and a hotter than normal sparge will help to wash out remaining dextrins and unconverted starches. The higher temperature will also leach considerable tannins from the mash, something found undesirable in other beers. The tannins will precipitate out or break down over the long period of fermentation and do not contribute to a noticeable astringency in the resulting beer."
no shit? love new knowledge!
..... And knowing is half the battle. G.I. Joe
ID
Great job, FPB! Glad to see you guys keepin' that barrel alive and well! Say hi to the SSBC guys for me! Cheers!
Just keepin' this updated. I didn't get to try it but a sample was drawn as the barrel was topped off. From what I was told the gravity was 1.014 and quite bland.
Just glancing through the threads, and I found this again. have you tasted it recently? or is this under lock and key, like the final scene in Raiders of the lost Arc.
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