The Plan

Shortly after I started homebrewing a couple years ago, I quickly became interested in wild beers, especially lambics. Not only are they utterly unique in how they are brewed, but their aromas and flavors are just out of this world.

So, the logical step is to try brewing one. This idea came about during the great Sour Hour of 2008 (where a bunch of us got together and sampled some of the world's best sour beers), when all five of us (Matt, Tommy, Eric, Brian, and I) realized that, not only do we love to brew, but we love the funk.

Our plan is to brew a pseudo-lambic. We are not going to try an ambient ferment with 60 gallons of beer, so rather we are going to do a controlled inocculation using a variety of bugs. Right now we are planning to pitch 6 packs of US-05, 2 packs of Wyeast lambic blend, 1 pack Wyeast B. bruxellensis, 1 pack Wyeast B. lambicus, and 1 pack Wyeast Pediococcus. We plan to supplement this with the dregs from several bottles of Cantillon and Drie Fonteinen for biodiversity. In my opinion those are the best lambic breweries around and it seems like people have gotten good results using their bugs. Because we are not attempting an ambient fermentation, we are going to use low-alpha Strisselspalt hops rather than aged (also I couldn't find aged hops).

The Two-Day Brew-Day is shaping up to start Dec. 26th at my brother's house in Massachusetts (he has the basement where the barrel will live). We are planning to use the Wyeast mash for unmalted wheat with a sacch rest of 158-160 F to ensure lots of dextrins (=bug food). We are shooting for six 10-gallon batches over two days. I am leaning toward US 2-row over Belgian Pils for its higher protein content and stronger enzymatic potential (important for converting raw wheat). We are going with 36% raw wheat on this one in hopes that we will get a nice, starchy wort for all the bugs to munch over the next 2-3 years. Here is a recipe for a 10 gallon run:

14 lbs US 2-row
8 lbs raw unmalted wheat
3 oz Strisselspalt (2.5% aa) @ 60 min

x 6

anticipated OG 1.057
anticipated FG ~1.001 (around 7% abv)
14 IBUs


Comments would be most appreciated, I'd like to avoid making 60 gallons of malt vinegar if possible.