Friday, December 30, 2011

An update on the barrel projects

We all got together over Christmas, so its time to post an update on our two barrel projects (Flanders red and Lambic).

Flanders Red
: The Flanders red is now 1 year old and tasted so damn good that we decided to bottle it. Back in late September several of the brewers tasted this beer and they all said it wasn't very sour, but was showing promise. Something magical must have happened in the past 3 months, because now it is beautifully sour and right in-line with the acidity expected in this style. So on 12/28/2011 we bottled the entire barrel, ending up with around 49 gal bottled (nearly 10 gallons each!).


Our Flanders red, all bottled (plus 2 kegs).

The final gravity of this beer was 1.004, down from 1.006 in September. The abv is 7.3%, so a little high for the style, but we plan on aging this one for a long time. We targeted ~2.3 vols CO2 for bottle conditioning, which is relatively low and should provide a bit of a buffer in case the final gravity comes down any more. To do this we primed with 20 g sugar/gallon.

The beer is very nice: dry, oaky, and acidic. I'm going to wait till some bottles carb up for a proper review. So far this beer far surpassed my expectations and I'm thrilled to have 10 gallons of this to enjoy for years to come.

Lambic:
Our 8-month-old tasting of this beer did not impress. It was insanely bretty, completely pale and clear, and basically had no acidity. I'm very happy to report that the beer has done a complete 180 and now drinks like a real lambic. The acidity is there and roughly comparable in strength to a typical Cantillon lambic. The nose has calmed way down and the brett is far more tame and complex. And the beer has darkened up a bit and has some body. Here is a review of our 24-month sample:


Matt with the lambic.


Appearance - Golden yellow, more cloudy than before, slick and a bit oily in the glass.

Aroma - Dry white wine, light sulfur aroma. Soft, overripe lemons. Some oak. Big-time lambic funk, like the classics but a bit more intense. Almost eggy?

Taste - Bright acidity, slight diacetyl finish. Up front a bit of sweetness, like light pilsner malt, but cut right away by a bracing acidity. Could even be a touch more sour, although as it is, it is already more sour than many commercial lambics (with the exception of maybe Girardin and some Cantillon blends).

Overall - Awesome! Since our tasting in August of 2010 we have been worried about whether the acidity in this beer would ever develop. It definitely has. The aroma is way more refined than before, and the color is now correct. Surely the Pediococcus had a good summer. There is still a hint of diacetyl on the finish so it still has to clean up a bit. Also, there is a weird aroma, almost like eggs or sulfur, which wasn't there before. Perhaps this is another byproduct of the acid-producing bacteria. The mouthfeel is a lot fuller and slicker than before. Strangely, the final gravity seems to have increased by 1 point (currently 1.012, at 8 months it was 1.011). I am guessing the slipperyness (which was probably created by the Pediococcus) may be increasing the FG a bit. We'll keep an eye on the FG over the coming months to see how stable it remains. If it doesn't change at all, we'll probably bottle this one sometime in the summer.


So far I am extremely pleased by the quality of the beers coming out of our barrels. There is such a complexity from the extended aging on oak; it seems like this would be hard to replicate in a carboy.