Chill Haze: Batch 9: Red Flanders

I've been a big fan of sours for a few years now, but up until recently, hadn't considered brewing one of my own. I had previously made a Brett B. stout that turned out very good, so I decided I would try stepping up to a full-on sour with bacteria and all.

Dueling brew stoves.

When I was brainstorming what I wanted to brew, I remembered how much I loved both New Belgium's La Folie and The Bruery's Oude Tart, and knew I just had to brew a flanders red.

After talking to a fellow homebrewer, Adam, who had made a very good homebrewed flanders red and getting his recipe and feedback, I was on my way.

The recipe I used was a modified version of Jamil Z.'s recipe, but I bumped up the specialty grains by 20% per Adam's suggestion so that the bacteria and Brett would have more food. I also pitched the blend directly into primary, as Jamil's recipe suggests doing a clean primary and then souring in secondary, but this apparently creates a very restrained sourness that I wasn't looking for. I also substituted the wheat malt for flaked corn, which is similar to what Rodenbach uses in their beers. I will also be oaking and fruiting it later on.

I made a trip to the homebrew shop and was all set to brew last Saturday, but they were out some of the things I needed. I ended up having the owner order my the Wyeast 3763 Roeselare Blend and a 6 gallon Better Bottle that I can dedicate to sours. They came in the following Thursday so I moved the brew day to that coming Saturday.

I found out my buddy Rick was planning on brewing the same day, and figured that since it's always nice to have company that we would do a brew day together. I loaded up my car with my equipment and ingredients and drove over to Rick's.

Mashing in at 156°F.

I started my mash around 10AM and was able to sparge and get to a boil about an hour and a half later. Both me and Rick ended up having efficiency problems - he ended up nearly 20 points below his target FG and I came in on target but with only 4.5 gallons of wort. I figured that rather than top off I'd just go with it, so I went ahead and aerated and pitched my yeast at 60°F. I plan on fermenting at 65° and ramping up to 80° over the course of a week or so.

Afterwards I will transfer to secondary and let it bulk age and continue souring for at least 8 months, adding oak staves and some sour cherries once the gravity stabilizes (probably in ~6 months from what I have been reading).

Flanders Red
Recipe Overview

Date Brewed: 4 Feb 2012
Selected Style: 17B-Sour Ale-Flanders Red Ale

Target Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.050 SG Actual Pre-Boil Gravity: -No Record-
Target OG: 1.054 SG
Actual OG: 1.054 SG
Target FG: 1.012

Target ABV: 5.9%
Target ABW: 4.6 %
Target IBU (using Tinseth): 12.8 IBU
Target Color (using Morey): 15.3 SRM
Target Fermentation Temp: 65 degF

Fermentables
Ingredient Amount % MCU When
German Vienna Malt 5.00 lb 33.8 % 2.9 In Mash/Steeped
Belgian Pilsen Malt 4.50 lb 30.4 % 1.2 In Mash/Steeped
German Munich Malt 3.00 lb 20.3 % 2.7 In Mash/Steeped
Belgian Special B 0.65 lb 4.4 % 15.7 In Mash/Steeped
Belgian Aromatic Malt 0.58 lb 3.9 % 1.8 In Mash/Steeped
German CaraMunich III 0.58 lb 3.9 % 5.5 In Mash/Steeped
US Flaked Corn/Maize 0.50 lb 3.4 % 0.1 In Mash/Steeped

Hops
Variety Alpha Amount IBU Form When
German Crystal 3.5 % 1.01 oz 10.8 Loose Whole Hops 90 Min From End

Yeast
Wyeast 3763-Roselare Belgian Blend

Mash Schedule
Mash Type: Full Mash
Rest at: 156 degF
Duration: 60 min

Water Profile: Brussels (BE)
Mash pH: 5.2
pH Adjusted with: Five Star 5.2

Here are some more pics from the brewday: