Hi hi!
New brewer here! First post, been lurking here and other places reading and digesting for the better part of 4-5 months now in preparation.
Plan to brew my first batch of lambic-style beer this weekend. Going to be making 15 gallons in two boils what feels like a fairly big batch, so cheers to being probably overly ambitious but also trying to keep things simple with just an extract recipe. Attempting a variant inspired from the tried-and-true AmandaK's extract lambic recipe, honestly no idea what to expect it'll turn out but hopefully decent and maybe I'll learn things.
Love to get some of your thoughts/advice from the experienced brewers. I'll try to keep updating this thread over time as stuff progresses and add some photos.
Recipe for 15 gallons (Which I'm splitting evenly into 2 boils):
6 lb Briess Golden Light DME + 3 lb Muntons Plain Light DME
9 lb Muntons Plain Wheat DME
12 oz Maltodextrin
---------
Hops: 6oz Aged Yakima Valley Lambic hop pellets (split into 2 batches):
---------
Yeast + Bugs:
Safale-05 (1 or 2 packets? Maybe some bread yeast? -- See note)
WLP653 - Brettanomyces Lambicus
WLP672 - Lactobacillus Brevis
+ a variety of dregs (Cuvee Renee, Ommegang, Wicked Weed, Paradox and/or others... saved some dregs but also depends what I decide to open this weekend & when I move to secondary)
---------
Have a 10 gallon kettle so I plan to split the boil into two batches.
-Primary in a 20 gallon HDPE-2 Food Safe barrel (used to contain beer clarifier!... although I'm told it had a liner and I've thoroughly rinsed and oxi-cleaned it multiple times so /shrug)
-Secondary into a 15 gallon HDPE-2 Food Safe barrel... probably add some oak.
Pitching plan... and inviting opinions:
Will be curious to see how the yeast activity heats up 15 gallons, will be monitoring temps to see if I need any interventions to lower (or raise) temps. Normally I'd keep it in our basement but instead it'll be in our (partially-condtioned) garage to avoid the need to move 15 gallons up or down flights of stairs if we sell our house and move (which is risk in the near future). The less I have to move 130lb of fermenting beer the better but will be keeping an eye on it. Might spur me into converting m
Background on my yeast + bugs selection:
Was looking for but couldn't find wyeast lambic blend in any of the 3 homebrew shops within 2 hours (round trip) from me but I could find and grabbed some of the (likely) base components (no one had pedio in stock.)
But now that I have these vials need to use them! ...for science!
Future plans:
I have a second 15 gallon barrel that I plan to actually follow do AmandaK's recpie in and will get some wyeast lambic blend shipped.
For 15 gallons think 1x vial of wyeast3278 will be appropriate or should I be looking to double up or supplement in any fashion? Assuming it's good as is for something this size and a starter just promotes more sacch and throws balance out of whack anyway, which is probably what happens as soon as I pitch it regardless so I'll probably not worry too much about that.
Also I'll probably NOT use the cake from the first batch for the second batch just to keep both of these brews more distinct so I can compare one against the other. That being said is there any worthwhile way of saving yeast cake that isn't too involved for a beginner like me, otherwise I won't worry about it.
With some luck I'll have 30 gallons of lambic aging properly to start a mixed ferment pipeline for drinking/continuous aging/fruiting/blending over years to come. I'll likely be picking up some more food safe barrels and PET carboys down the line as I start siphoning beer out of the 15 gallon containers to drink/blend/fruit/etc.
I'll probably look to add 10-20 gallons to the pipeline annually depending on usage/gifting/competitions/my tastes/etc.
New brewer here! First post, been lurking here and other places reading and digesting for the better part of 4-5 months now in preparation.
Plan to brew my first batch of lambic-style beer this weekend. Going to be making 15 gallons in two boils what feels like a fairly big batch, so cheers to being probably overly ambitious but also trying to keep things simple with just an extract recipe. Attempting a variant inspired from the tried-and-true AmandaK's extract lambic recipe, honestly no idea what to expect it'll turn out but hopefully decent and maybe I'll learn things.
Love to get some of your thoughts/advice from the experienced brewers. I'll try to keep updating this thread over time as stuff progresses and add some photos.
Recipe for 15 gallons (Which I'm splitting evenly into 2 boils):
6 lb Briess Golden Light DME + 3 lb Muntons Plain Light DME
9 lb Muntons Plain Wheat DME
12 oz Maltodextrin
---------
Hops: 6oz Aged Yakima Valley Lambic hop pellets (split into 2 batches):
---------
Yeast + Bugs:
Safale-05 (1 or 2 packets? Maybe some bread yeast? -- See note)
WLP653 - Brettanomyces Lambicus
WLP672 - Lactobacillus Brevis
+ a variety of dregs (Cuvee Renee, Ommegang, Wicked Weed, Paradox and/or others... saved some dregs but also depends what I decide to open this weekend & when I move to secondary)
---------
Have a 10 gallon kettle so I plan to split the boil into two batches.
-Primary in a 20 gallon HDPE-2 Food Safe barrel (used to contain beer clarifier!... although I'm told it had a liner and I've thoroughly rinsed and oxi-cleaned it multiple times so /shrug)
-Secondary into a 15 gallon HDPE-2 Food Safe barrel... probably add some oak.
Pitching plan... and inviting opinions:
- Planning to pitch all the yeast + bugs at once.... or MAYBE give the Lacto a 24 hour head start at slightly higher temperature... but I'm really hoping for Brett emphasis, not necessarily after the tart/acidity.
- Might pitch just one packet of Safale-05 in 15 gallons to promote stressing it to produce more esters for the brett to clean up later (esp since Safale-05 is a low phenols strain). Also under pitching the sachh might give the lacto more time do do work but /shrug... some worries if the sacch won't grow enough if severely under pitched and fighting with lacto.
- Also debating to either supplement with, or even to purely use, Fleischmann Bread Yeast as I'm to understand it's a PoF+ sacch strain (and can produce passable Belgian style beer on its own). Theorizing a "messy" PoF+ sacch might be great to promote emphasis of the brett characteristics down the line. Also I don't feel like driving 2 hours to pick up some other sacch PoF+ strains at this point. I want plan to brew this weekend and I have a ton of bread yeast on hand from baking.
- Regardless from my reading I have to imagine the brett + any pedio from dregs will overtime clean up anything any low attenuation or off flavors from under pitching the safale-05 and/or usage of the bread yeast... Thoughts? For science?
Will be curious to see how the yeast activity heats up 15 gallons, will be monitoring temps to see if I need any interventions to lower (or raise) temps. Normally I'd keep it in our basement but instead it'll be in our (partially-condtioned) garage to avoid the need to move 15 gallons up or down flights of stairs if we sell our house and move (which is risk in the near future). The less I have to move 130lb of fermenting beer the better but will be keeping an eye on it. Might spur me into converting m
Background on my yeast + bugs selection:
Was looking for but couldn't find wyeast lambic blend in any of the 3 homebrew shops within 2 hours (round trip) from me but I could find and grabbed some of the (likely) base components (no one had pedio in stock.)
But now that I have these vials need to use them! ...for science!
Future plans:
I have a second 15 gallon barrel that I plan to actually follow do AmandaK's recpie in and will get some wyeast lambic blend shipped.
For 15 gallons think 1x vial of wyeast3278 will be appropriate or should I be looking to double up or supplement in any fashion? Assuming it's good as is for something this size and a starter just promotes more sacch and throws balance out of whack anyway, which is probably what happens as soon as I pitch it regardless so I'll probably not worry too much about that.
Also I'll probably NOT use the cake from the first batch for the second batch just to keep both of these brews more distinct so I can compare one against the other. That being said is there any worthwhile way of saving yeast cake that isn't too involved for a beginner like me, otherwise I won't worry about it.
With some luck I'll have 30 gallons of lambic aging properly to start a mixed ferment pipeline for drinking/continuous aging/fruiting/blending over years to come. I'll likely be picking up some more food safe barrels and PET carboys down the line as I start siphoning beer out of the 15 gallon containers to drink/blend/fruit/etc.
I'll probably look to add 10-20 gallons to the pipeline annually depending on usage/gifting/competitions/my tastes/etc.
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