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Date: 23 Jun 2006 06:26:33
From: Adam Preble
Subject: Preparing a lambic base for blending
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I'm still looking for resources towards making lambics. My plan is to
prepare a base lambic soon that I can blend over time. I want to make a
bunch of it, which means I'll have to live with it. So I have to
balance my experimentation with some conservatism.
ATM I'm particularly inspired by two articles:
http://brewery.org/library/LambicD0530.html
http://www.brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue2.6/mosher.html
The first has some good notes on plambics, and the second has some
traditional mashing techniques. I am interested in the method also
because of the mashing space I have. I'd want to make 10 gallons at a
time, which will stretch my mashing capability. That mashing process
seems to involve a protein rest, sparge, resting the sparge water, then
boiling and reintroducing such that it produces a ton of dextrines. The
final sparge is hot and long; lots of tannins should come out.
My idea for a recipe is one with an overwhelming amount of unmalted
wheat. In fact, I would prefer it didn't convert entirely--the baddies
seem to want some starch. As a rough first pass for 10 gallons:
7 lbs Pale Ale
14 lbs unmalted wheat
1 lb Crystal 80L
I don't want a wit lambic thing going on, so I'm throwing in some
crystal. However, I don't want to darken it too much; that should give
me more flexibility when blending. I can always make the blend beer
darker if needed.
Hops would be 8 ounces of vintage saaz. It would be pitched all at the
start of the boil and boiled for more than an hour.
I haven't picked a culture yet. I plan to ferment in a food grade
garbage can, perhaps with a gasket to help seal it over time. I'd
ferment wide open for a week and then seal it off. I'd add some oak
chips. Looking at the capacity of these cans, I might make a second
batch of this a week later and toss it in. In that case, the lid will
be off for two full weeks.
I don't know about water conditioning, but there are some notes out
there on what kind of water to use. My water tends to make lighter
beers fine, but I want to make sure the baddies have all the nutrients
they'll need.
Words of advice? If you point me to the plambic archives, please pass
along a working link. ;) Also, I am trying to get a lambic book out of
the library here. For some reason, they have one, but the circulation
desk closed before I could check it out. It's supposedly heartily
recommended.
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Date: 22 Jun 2006 23:32:53
From: (East Bay) Phil
Subject: Re: Preparing a lambic base for blending
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> Words of advice? If you point me to the plambic archives, please pass
> along a working link. ;) Also, I am trying to get a lambic book out of
> the library here. For some reason, they have one, but the circulation
> desk closed before I could check it out. It's supposedly heartily
> recommended.
plambic@neap.net is the current mailing list - not terribly active.
P
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Date: 24 Jun 2006 06:34:22
From: Adam Preble
Subject: Re: Preparing a lambic base for blending
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(East Bay) Phil wrote:
> plambic@neap.net is the current mailing list - not terribly active.
>
I think I caught that list, and I was afraid that'd be the case. All I
saw were archives for March and June, and I managed to skim through it
all in 10 minutes. All I gather from it is there are some issues
getting starters at the moment.
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Date: 25 Jun 2006 09:44:39
From: (East Bay) Phil
Subject: Re: Preparing a lambic base for blending
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> I think I caught that list, and I was afraid that'd be the case. All I
> saw were archives for March and June, and I managed to skim through it
> all in 10 minutes. All I gather from it is there are some issues
> getting starters at the moment.
The older archives go back some time. Still, it's not a popular style
to brew and therefore a slow list. Go ahead and post to it and you'll
most assuredly get a response. Raj is very helpful.
And yes, the thought of Roeselare going away has frightened some.
Phil
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