14 Jul
2003
14 Jul
'03
11:35 p.m.
Thanks a lot Steve, and congratulations. I was hoping to have something
drinkable within a year's time though.
What if I leave out some of the strains that cause sourness? Would that
leave it less sour, less dry, and perhaps require less aging? If I did
this, would I then end up with something that didn't taste at all like
a lambic, or would I care?
I wouldn't try to take shortcuts except that I'm living in a townhouse
and have enough carboys in my living room as it is.
By the way, leaving it out overnight to cool sounds pretty scary. Has
this ever caused you problems? How would I tell if I had some uninvited
guests in my wort?
-Shawn
On Saturday, July 12, 2003, at 10:37 AM, Steve Piatz wrote:
Shawn M. Johnson writes:
Steve,
Would you have a good framboise recipe you could share with me? I'm
thinking I should try my first lambic now that raspberries are coming
into season. I want to stay away from anything too sour, my wife
wouldn't drink it otherwise. She loves Lindemans framboise. I'm still
using extract by the way.
Thanks a lot. You can count on me to share it at a meeting.
Feel free to reply to the list.
-Shawn
The recipe is pretty simple though it will take a few years
until it is ready to drink.
I make my lambics with extract since the malt isn't a dominate
part of the flavor or aroma. Almost all the standard brewing
techniques are ignored here.
The following is the recipe for the straight lambic that took
silver in Nationals this June. This batch was brewed on Feb.
19, 1999 and was ready for competition this spring. To get a
Framboise you just add the raspberries later.
6.5 gallons of water
3# Munton's Dry Wheat extract
3# Munton's Dry Light extract
100 grams of malto-dextrine powder
1 tbs Fermax yeast nutrient
120 grams of very old hops (no hop aroma or flavor)
Boil for 90 minutes, SG is approximately 1.057
Run the hot wort into a plastic bucket fermenter and leave
without the lid overnight to cool.
The next day place the cover on the fermenter, wait another day
and pitch some dry ale yeast (variety won't matter). After a
couple of weeks add the Brettanomyces strain, the Pedio and
the Lacto. Leave the fermenter alone for several years other
than to make sure the airlock has water in it. After a year or
two you can add the fruit if you want a fruit lambic - for
Framboise you will need at least 10 (15 or more would be
better) pounds of berries.
To minimize the sediment in the bottles you can rack the beer
to a different fermenter the day before bottling - I don't
bother. The only time I rack after the wort goes into the
bucket is to transfer the finished beer to the bottling
bucket. For bottling I add a package of dry yeast along with
the priming sugar just to have something to generate
carbonation - it doesn't always work even then.
The resultant beer will be pretty sour and dry. If you want a
sweet beer you need a lot of extra work since the organisms in
the lambic will eat just about any type of sugar. I think to
get sweet lambics like Lindemans you would have to pasturize
the beer after sweeting and bottling - that is something I have
never tried. Details on pasturization aren't in the
homebrewing books but books like Kunze or De Clerck will cover
it. It will require heating the bottled beer to somewhere
around 160 - 180 F for 10 or 15 minutes after you let the
carbonation develop. Remember to let the beer carbonate before
you pasturize.
Note, any of the local homebrew shops can order the Brett,
Pedio, and Lacto. cultures for you from Wyeast or perhaps White
Labs. An alternative is to have them order Wyeast Lambic
Blend, I have a batch going the started with the Wyeast Blend
but don't know how it will turn out.
--
Steve Piatz piatz(a)cray.com
Cray Inc. 651-605-9049
1340 Mendota Heights Road
Mendota Heights, MN 55120