Sour Occur

Two times per year my homebrewing club host an activity that we call Mash Occur.  The activity is basically a big club meeting plus some guys brings their brewing setup for a brewday.  For this MO I decided to brew a sour beer, and for yeast I used the dregs from a bunch of sours beers that we sampled during the day.  My main goal with this beer is to make it very sour so that I can use it to adjust the acidity in my future blends.  It was really great to sample so many sours in one session. 
Here's the breakdown of the sours we saved the dregs from:

photo by Paul

Jolly Pumpkin La Roja
Boon Kreik
Cascade Noyaux
Alésia Servoise Gauloise
Boquébière Hildegard
Berliner Kindl Weisse
Dunham Saison Rustique
Saison Dupont Veille Provision
Rodenbach Grand Cru
Orval
Schoune Lambic Fruit de la Passion
+ a dozens or so of homebrewed sours

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size: 12.00 gal
Total Grain: 23.00 lbs
Estimated OG: 1.054
SRM: 3.3
IBU: 0 IBU
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grains
65.2% (15 lbs) - Pilsner
26.1% (6 lbs) - Wheat
8.7% (2 lbs) - Oats

Hops
3.00 oz Debittered Hops @ FWH

Yeasts
WY5335 - Lactobacillus  
WLP655 - Belgian Sour Mix (one year old vial)
+ Dregs from 20+ bottles 

for 3 days then added:

The Yeast Bay - Saison/Brettanomyces Blend

Mash Schedule
Sacch Rest - 60 min @ 157F

Notes
05/23/15: Brew day
OG = 1.055
12 gallons

Berliner Weisse #2

Brewed my second Berliner Weisse and for this one I upped the amount of acid malt, boosted the grain bill a little bit and also added a handful of grains to the fermentor.

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size (Gal): 6.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 8.75
Estimated OG: 1.042
Anticipated SRM: 2.9
Anticipated IBU: 2.1 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 0 Minutes

Grains
45.7% (4 lbs) - Pilsner
45.7% (4 lbs) - Wheat
8.6% (0.75 lbs) - Acid malt

Hops
1.00 oz Spalter (2.00%) @ Mash Hop

Yeast
WY5335 - Lactobacillus + raw grains
Safale S-05

Mash Schedule
Sacch Rest - 60 min @ 149F

Notes
03/13/15: Brew day
OG = 1.037

Flanders Red 3.0

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size (Gal): 12.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 24.00
Estimated OG: 1.055
Anticipated SRM: 14.1
Anticipated IBU: 6.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grains
25.0% (6 lbs) - 2 Row
25.0% (6 lbs) - Vienna
25.0% (6 lbs) - Munich
8.3% (2 lbs) - Abbey Malt
8.3% (2 lbs) - Flaked Corn
4.2% (1 lbs) - Caramunich III
4.2% (1 lbs) - Cara 160

Hops
2.00 oz Saaz (2.00%) @ 90 min

Yeast
WY3068 - Weihenstephan (for 3 days then added Roeselare)
WY3763 - Roeselare (3rd Gen)

Mash Schedule
Sacch Rest - 60 min @ 158F

Notes
03/07/15: Brew day
OG = 1.056
12 gallons

Berliner Weisse #1

With summer just around the corner, I need to have a couple of low abv beers and Bernier Weisse is the ultimate summer quencher beer in my opinion.  This one will be the first of a series of Berliner Weisse I'll brew wwith slight variations for each brew.

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size (Gal): 6.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 7.75
Estimated OG: 1.036
Anticipated SRM: 2.7
Anticipated IBU: 2.2 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 0 Minutes

Grains
48.4% (3.75 lbs) - Pilsner
45.2% (3.50 lbs) - Wheat
6.5% (0.50 lbs) - Acid malt

Hops
1.00 oz Saaz (2.00%) @ Mash Hop

Yeast
WY5335 - Lactobacillus (for 5 days then added wlp090)
Safale S-05

Mash Schedule
Sacch Rest - 60 min @ 149F

Notes
03/07/15: Brew day
6.25 gallons
OG = 1.033

Funky Belgian Porter

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size (Gal): 6.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 15.75
Estimated OG: 1.073
Anticipated SRM: 37.7
Anticipated IBU: 12.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grains
44.4% (7 lbs) - Maris Otter
31.7% (5 lbs) - Munich II
6.3% (1 lbs) - Abbey malt
6.3% (1 lbs) - Carawheat
4.0% (10 oz) - Special B
4.0% (10 oz) - Chocolate wheat
2.4% (6 oz) - Black malt
0.8% (2 oz) - Carafa special II

Hops
1.50 oz Styrian Goldings(3.00%) @ FWH
1.50 oz Debittered(0.00%) @ FWH

Yeast
WY3203 - De Bom Sour Blend

Mash Schedule
Sacch Rest - 60 min @ 158F

Notes
08/03/14: Brew day

Fly sparge with 170F water
Collected 6 gallons

Veille brune

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size (Gal): 6.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 14.75
Estimated OG: 1.069
Anticipated SRM: 20.8
Anticipated IBU: 13.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grains
47.5% (7 lbs) - Maris Otter
33.9% (5 lbs) - Munich II
6.8% (1 lbs) - Abbey Malt
6.8% (1 lbs) - Carawheat
4.2% (10 oz) - Special B
0.8% (2 oz) - Carafa Special II

Hops
1.50 oz Styrian Goldings(3.00%) @ FWH
1.50 oz Debittered(0.00%) @ FWH

Yeast
WY3209 - Oud Bruin Blend

Mash Schedule
Sacch Rest - 60 min @ 158F

Notes
08/03/14: Brew day

Fly sparge with 170F water
Collected 6 gallons

Lambic 3.0

Last year around this time I brewed my first Lambic (v1.0).  I brewed it using a turbid mash, fermented it with Wyeast Lambic Blend and added dregs of various bottles of Lambics over the year for a more diverse microbe flora and flavour complexity.  I also brewed another one a few months ago using Steve Piatz’s extract recipe, which became my Lambic v2.0

Last week I bottled 2.5 gallons of v1.0 straight.  An additional 2.5 gallons was racked over 4 pounds of local strawberries that I picked last summer. This batch will mature for another six months before bottling. I also kept one gallon of v1.0 with the intention of aging it for another year, then blending it with some of v2.0 and v3.0 to make a Gueuze.

For this year’s version, I stayed with the typical Lambic grist which consists of about 60% malted barley and 40% raw wheat.  It was brewed using a turbid mash again, debittered hops and boiled for three hours. 

For the yeast and bugs, I used the slurry from v1.0 and a fresh pack of 3278. The fresh pack probably wasn’t necessary, but I would rather be safe than sorry, especially since I will be waiting a minimum of 12 months before processing it. 

I will end with a quote that can be found hanging at the Cantillon brewery that I really like.  For wild ales, this couldn’t be more true!

“Le temps ne respecte pas ce qui se fait sans lui. » which translate to « Time does not respect what is made without it.”

Recipe Specifications

Batch Size (Gal): 12.00

Total Grain (Lbs): 23.00

Estimated OG: 1.053

Anticipated SRM: 3.9

Anticipated IBU: 0.0 IBU

Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %

Wort Boil Time: 180 Minutes

Grains

60.9% (14 lbs) - Pils

39.1% (9 lbs) - Raw Wheat

Hops

8.00 oz Debittered Hops @ 180 min

Yeast

WY3278 Lambic Blend + slurry from v1.0

Mash Schedule

Acid Rest - 15 min @ 113F

Protein Rest - 15 min @ 126F

     -transferred 1.5 gallon to kettle #2 and heated to 190F

Sacc Rest - 45 min @ 149F 

     -transferred 2 gallon to kettle #2 and heated to 190F

Sacc Rest  - 30 min @ 162F 

Sparge about 4 gallons to kettle #1

Added kettle #2 to mash to acheive mash out temps rest

Mash Out Rest - 20 min @ 172F

Notes

04/21/14: Brew day

Fly sparge with 190F water

Collected 12 gallons

OG = 1.051