There is a pretty solid layer of white scum on the top of the gallon we siphoned off. You guys will have to check it out on Labor Day up at Graford.

Speaking of Labor Day up at Graford, we will have the first official club tasting of the Flanders on Labor Day. RH, if you can get the labels ready we will also distribute the bottles to be taken home.

I am anxious to taste the first edition as well as we will take a sampling of Flanders #2

Edition #1 was sampled and the feedback was positive. There was a good balance between the sour, the oak and the brett characteristics of the beer. I will label the bottles and divide them up to be given to BH and RH.

How many do we want to keep back for competition purposes? I am thinking 8. 2 for COC and 6 for two separate competitions.

Thoughts????

Although this is off of the Flanders discussion, I have been doing some reading and thinking and wanted to pose this question. Any of you guys interested in going for a straight lambic or even a fruit lambic?

Given that the first edition flanders turned out well, and also considering that at least for the next 8 to 9 months if not longer we have the use of Graford, what about brewing a straight lambic or a fruit lambic? I have a 6.5 gallon carboy I could sacrifice for it.

Thoughts???

I think 8 or 9 holdbacks for comp should be plenty... it still has some time to age, so we have time to decide where to place them.

As for a straight lambic, I'm game for trying it.... when did you have in mind? I could go with either the straight version or with a cherry perhaps. Might want to see what sorts of appropriate fruits are coming into season.

-M-

I have been doing a little bit of research into the ideas of blended lambics, gueze, and fruit lambics. All kinds of ideas, methods, recipes and thoughts one way or another. It seems that some of the common elements are as follows:

1. Simple Grain bill, sometimes all extract, usually a portion of wheat along with some malto-dextrin for some unfermentable sugars to give the bugs something to munch on.

2. Aged hops -- whole leaf hops, variety doesn't seem to matter, so long as they are a year or more old and they are all added at the beginning of the boil

3. Yeast/bugs -- opinions are all over the place here. Some recipes add a neutral yeast to ferment, cut fermentation short or have maltodextrin in the boil and then hit it with anywhere from bugs floating in the house, to a variety of strains to control the outcome.

I have thought about the idea of doing the blending thing on this, and we might could, but honestly, I am leaning towards the fruit lambic direction. Reason being, is that if we were to start this thing in the next 4 months. We can let it sit with the bugs till the fruit we want to use with it comes into season. You guys have any thoughts?

In the mean time, I am going to see about cobbling together an all grain recipe for this.

So I have put together a preliminary grain bill. Yeast and the question of hops is still to be discussed, but what do you think about the following:

7.5 lbs. Belgian Pilsner Malt
4.5 lbs. Wheat Malt
.5 lb Carapils
8 oz Maltodextrin

The grain bill is fairly simple, but I don't think we are really looking for complexity in the grains, more in the profile that the bugs will give to it. I put in the maltodextrin because if we hit it with an ale yeast first and then go to bugs, the bugs will eat the maltodextrin and the yeast will not. We may still leave the maltodextrin in there as an added something for the bugs to eat even if we go with straight bugs.

Thoughts on the grain bill? Or thoughts on hops or bugs?

Seems like a pretty good place to start. What kind of OG are we looking for? Looks like we're probably in the low to mid 6's. A lot of the character here comes from the bugs and the yeast, so we might start with a basic belgian strain off the bat, then add a different strain along with the bugs later on. Depends on how much fermentable sugar is left before we doctor it. Could be a good chance to give Bastogne a try, though it's a strong fermenter so the dextrine will be important to make sure there's something left for the bugs.

I would be up for giving the Bastogne a try. Then we might want to hit it with the bugs and fruit later on. I am thinking we go for a mild Brett character and a good sour character to it.

Thought it might be good to post some tasting notes based upon our tasting of this last weekend.

Color is brownish red with a very clear appearance and nice level of carbonation.

There is some brett and sour in the nose along with a little bit of oak.

The taste has little if any brett with a pleasant amount of sourness and a little bit of oak. The body was very light, not quite thin, but very light.

This was very tasty, although I think all agreed that there was a need for a bit more body as well as a bit more brett and sour to the beer. Also there was mention made about having a bit more brett in the flavor. It will be interesting to see how edtion 2 will turn out. It is still with a sizeable pellicle on it.

It's been awhile since I have posted about edition #1 of the Flanders. So I thought I would post some of the feedback from round one of NHC.

"Nice beer, mostly a balance between brett and sour. Could use slightly more malt and more sourness to fill out the impact. The cherry character is good, but a bit more complexity would make it even better."

"Good overall, nice balance of malt and sour, a bit more complex malt fruitiness might increase interest. Try using Briess Extra Special (adjust others to keep color). Allow to finish/clear a bit more; watch O2 during aging to control vinegar (ok now but on edge)"

Overall Score of 36
Beer advanced to Mini BOS