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Gonna Try A Lambic
I don't have much experience with Lambics. But the few I have had I loved. I have ingredient on order but have a few questions.
5# wheat DME
1# un-malted wheat
1oz Target hops
4# Raspberry puree
Wyeast Belgian Lambic Blend
Wyeast Belgian Witbier Blend
Is it best to add all fruit in the primary. Or would it be better to half it? Should I add all 4#'a in the primary and order another 4#'s for the secondary?? Should I add one yeast in the primary and one in the secondary?? Or both at the same time.
i would add half to the boil. this way you will get some of the pectins in the fruit to come out into the wort. i have seen recipes for Lambics and other beer with fruit in it and they all call for the fruit to be added all at once to the primary. but all the recipes that i looked at also had an amount of pectin enzyme that was to be added also.
i am about to embark on a berry wheat. i have been pondering whether of not to add fruit to my boil or my primary or both. i have decided to add one third the total weight of my fruit to the boil and the other two thirds to my primary. i am also going to add a 750 ML bottle of blackberry liqueur half way through my boil.
good luck with the two yeasts. i bought two yeasts for my last beer but only used one. guess i got scarred or thought it wouldnt do anything. would pitching yeast into the secondary give a higher alcohol content?
Well, I have read up as best I could on the various strains of yeast found in the Lambic brewing areas of Belgium. So I got the two typs to get a better range of yeasts. I think I'll try the 1/3's idea on the fruit. 1/3 in the boil, 1/3 in the primary and 1/3 in the secondary. At least boiling some of the fruit will help lower the pH of the wort which is optimal for the yeast I want to use.
As for the yeasts. I think I'll just add both at the same time. Adding seperately, I wasn't hoping to raise the ABV. Just to have some on hand to finish off the brew in case it stalls out.
Now, as of my latest research last night, I am not even sure about bothering with a secondary. All the lit I could find on Lambics lean toward leaving everything in the primary for at least a year. I am thinking of a 3 month primary. Then a 3 month secondary. Then 24 hours befor I rac to the bottleing bucket with a 5oz DME primer and a fresh shot of yeast to help it carb up. Then say, 3 months in the bottle before I crack one open. I'll bottle 2 one liter bottles and give them a shot at the 2 and 3 year mark. If my initial 9 month trial is good thne I plan on having a Lambic brewing at all times.
I will attempt to atrificially age my hops in the oven. Then boil them in 1g of water for an hour before hand. Mash the grains in a seperate 2g's and then combine them and add my DME. Hopefully this will mute the hops character.
I have limited experience with Lambics, but have been doing some research on this style as I would also like to attempt brewing one. From what I've read, it is best to ferment the beer with your normal brewing yeast strain (in your case the Witbier blend). Once you transfer to a secondary fermenter add the Lambic blend and age for 1-2 years. The Wyeast Lambic blend seems to contain a couple Brettanomyces strains and some lactic acid bacteria (most likely lactobacillus), both of which will continue to slowly ferment in the secondary and use up remaining sugars that the Saccharomyces couldn't. The Lambic blend will throw off a lot of beautifully strange flavors but you don't want them to be overwhelming, so adding them to the secondary fermenter will help to restrain them.
Either way, it will probably be a while before we hear anything from you about this beer but keep us updated. Cheers!
Don't be afraid of the pellicle!
Here's the final bill.
Artificially aged 1oz Perle & 1oz Target. Baked at 250 for one hour then boiled for two hours and strained keeping the water.
mashed 1# un-malted pale wheat & 10oz Munich 10deg and sparged.
Combine the hop water, wort & DME then bring to boil for 1 hour.
@ 30min left add 1.5# puree raspberries
Flame out, chill, rack into fermenter add 1.5# puree raspberries
pitch Wit yeast
primary for 3 months
rack to secondary onto 3# puree raspberries and pitch Lambic yeast.
secondary 6 months
bottle & age 3 months
EDIT:
on second thought I won't be boiling the fruit. Fruit will all go in secondary with Lambic yeast. I will ferment like a normal brew with the Wit blend. But only for a month. Will secondary for 8 months and bottle condition for 3.
OG = 1.046
will shoot another gravity when I rack onto the fruit in secondary.
brewskinewbski wrote:
EDIT:
on second thought I won't be boiling the fruit. Fruit will all go in secondary with Lambic yeast. I will ferment like a normal brew with the Wit blend. But only for a month. Will secondary for 8 months and bottle condition for 3.
Good save.
I agree with 1n1n3mg on the approach. My reading into this style is a two stage fermentation approach. And in this case, you'll actually be doing a second fermenation in secondary. How novel!
Here are a few things I have learned from research and from brewing and aging a few lambics. I found the best result from yeast is when you pitch your "normal" yeast first, let it ferment out, and then add in your "bugs" in secondary. For fruit, I like to first freeze it, and then steep in 150 degree F water for 15 min. I freeze it for a few days to help break up the cell walls (better extraction of fruit flavors IMO) and the steeping helps to pasteurize it. Not boiling the fruit helps keep the fruit flavor and aroma strong. I do my primary in glass for 7 days, then rack on to the the fruit for a secondary in a plastic bucket. The plastic bucket acts much like wooden barrel as far as oxygen permeation. A little bit of air for the bugs is a good thing, and so is letting it age out a bit on a little bit of a yeast cake (like what you get from a secondary). As the yeast die they release some compounds that help the brett and lacto keep going.
I bulk age my lambics in secondary for 3 or so months and then bottled and age some more. My current Cherry lambic is just over a year old and it just keeps getting better!