Our barrel-fermented lambic project is underway! The two-day brew day took place on Dec. 26th & 27th. It was a hell of a lot of work considering our system can only put out about 12 gal of wort at a time, which meant we needed to brew at least six 10-gallon batches over 2 days to fill our 60 gallon chardonnay barrel. The actual procedure deviated slightly from our original brew plan. During our first attempt at batch #1, after we doughed in the wheat at 140 F, it promptly burned on the bottom of the pot when we were raising it to boiling. So, rather than having to sit there and stir constantly for an hour as the wheat boiled, we just got our water to boiling, doughed in the wheat, brought it back to a low boil, then let it rest for 30 min. This seemed to work pretty well, as the resulting liquid was very gummy and starchy, and we got excellent conversion in the subsequent mash.
Crushing the grains. The wheat was a real pain and seized up the drill many times. We eventually had to open the mill gap and double crush.
Below I have detailed the specs on each batch, but here is a general run-down on our whole procedure for a single batch:
1) Bring 8 gal water to a boil. Dough in 8 lbs of raw wheat, 1.5 lbs of the US 2-row, and 1 lb of rice hulls (glad we had these on hand as our runoff got a bit sticky). Return to a boil over low heat and constant stirring. Rest 30 min.
2) Add boiled wheat mixture to mash tun. Mix in 1.5 gal of cold water and 12.5 lbs 2-row. By doing this we usually hit a sacch temp of 155-165 F (high, yes, but our extraction efficiency remained very high). Rest 90-120 min.
3) Lauter, batch sparge with a total 6 gal water (2 rounds of 3 gal, resting 15 min). Sparge water was hot, about 200-210 F.
4) 60 min boil, chill, whirlpool 10 min, siphon into barrel.
We wound up with approx. 65 gal of wort at an estimated 1.059. Eight gallons are currently fermenting in buckets as we didn't want to overfill the barrel during primary fermentation.
Batch 1:
Hit ~150 F on mash-in, used 1 gal boiling water to get mash temp to 160 F.
Preboil: 14.5 gal @ 1.051, mash efficiency 93%
Post boil: 13.3 gal @ 1.053, cast ~12 gal, brewhouse eff ~80%
Batch 2:
Hit 160 F spot-on in mash
Preboil: 14 gal @ 1.051, mash eff 91%
Post boil: 11.8 gal @ 1.060, cast ~10 gal (left about 2 gal of trub in pot, next wort went on top), brewhouse eff ~75%
Batch 3:
Hit 158 F in mash
Preboil: 15.25 (some was from prev batch) @ 1.055, subtracting prev wort, mash eff was around 95%
Post boil: 14.2 gal @ 1.060, cast ~13 gal, brewhouse eff ~99% (this was high from previous wort being left behind, if you average the last two batches, each had a brewhouse eff of about 87%)
Batch 4:
Mash came in a bit high at 160-165 F
Preboil: 14 gal @ 1.050, mash eff 89%
Post boil: 11.5 gal @ 1.058, cast ~10.5 gal, brewhouse eff ~77%
Batch 5:
Mash came in a bit high at 165-170, cooled with a bit of cold water. Mash lasted about 2 hr
Preboil: 13.25 gal @ 1.056, mash eff 93%
Post boil: 11.75 gal @ 1.061, cast ~10.5 gal, brewhouse eff ~81%
Batch 6:
Only had 6 lbs 5 oz of wheat and 11.75 lbs of barley. Used only 6 gal for sparge. Hit 160 F in mash.
Preboil: 11.5 gal @ 1.055, mash eff 97% (awesome!)
Post boil: 11.25 gal, forgot to take grav reading but estimate is 1.056. cast out about 8 gal into two buckets, brewhouse eff ~69%
Summary:
| total preboil volume | 82.5 gal |
| overall preboil gravity | 1.053 |
| overall mash efficiency | 91% |
| total postboil volume | 73.8 gal |
| overall postboil gravity | 1.058 |
| total wort produced | 64.5 gal |
| barrel starting gravity | 1.058 |
| overall brewhouse efficiency | 79% |
inoculation schedule:
12/26, 11:30 pm: pitched 3 packs US-05 into approx 35 gal wort
12/27, 9:30 pm: pitched 2 packs US-05 into barrel (approx 57 gal currently in barrel), and split one pack of US-05 between the two buckets which contained 5.5 gal and 3 gal of wort. Also pitched into the barrel: 2 packs Wyeast lambic blend, 1 pack Wyeast Pediococcus, 1 pack Wyeast B. bruxellensis, 1 pack Wyeast B. lambicus,
Also pitched the following dregs:
1 750 ml Cantillon Classic Gueuze
2 375 ml Cantillon Iris
2 375 ml Allagash Gargamel
2 750 ml Cantillon Grand Cru
1 750 ml Lindemans Cuvee Renee
3 375 ml Girardin 1882 Black Label Gueuze
2 375 ml Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus
1 750 ml Drie Fonteinen Oude Gueuze
1 375 ml Drie Fonteinen Doesjel
UPDATE:
- First tasting (8 months old)
- Second tasting (24 months old)
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