The pLambic Attempt

For many years now I have been fascinated with the sensory explosions associated with Belgian beers. My first experience was with a bottle of Chimay Blue (the small bottle - not the reserve). I was so enraptured by the experience that I promptly set out to try as many different Belgian beers I could find. At the time, finding a Belgian beer in Australia was like trying to find a piece of hay in a stack of needles, but I did meet with limited success. Eventually, I stumbled upon a bottle of Bellevue Kriek, and found what remained my favourite indulgence for many years to come.

Finally, in March 2004, I made my first solo all-grain mash and, throwing all caution (and plenty of advice) to the wind I brewed up a pseudo-Lambic. After following some advice regarding gelatinising the raw wheat prior to mashing, I found I had absolutley no problems with the sparge. I did not have any really old hops on hand that did not smell like a Dutchmans crotch, so I settled for 120 grams of reasonably brown fuggles pellets. After inputing the aging factors, ProMash calculated an IBU of approximately 3, so I knew this wasn't going to be an issue. After a 90 minute boil, this was innoculated with a Wyeast Lambic Blend starter.

After three weeks of primary fermentation, it was racked into a 45 litre stainless cider keg to complete the long secondary. I was able to taste the batch as it aged and was fairly impressed with the flavour evolution as the months turned to years.
Finally, after nearly two and a half years in secondary, I decided it was time to complete the brew. I racked approximately 12 litres to a small glass carbouy on top of some blackberry juice concentrate (100%... none of this Ribena crap), and 20 litres onto roughly 4 kilograms of cherries and a litre of cherry juice concentrate. Both of these were innoculated with some EC-1118 yeast. I am still not sure if this was a mistake, but I didn't want to take the risk of unviable yeast and, since the 1118 is a fairly neutral beast, I thought it would not effect the flavour profile already present in the batch. The remainder of the brew was racked into two 12 litre kegs, one for dispensing and the other to blend with the kriek prior to bottling.

The straight pLambic that I tapped has all the hallmarks of a classic Lambic, albeit a tad subdued for my liking. I really think the Wyeast blend did a good job for what it is, but next time I may just get the seperate cultures and innoculate each at the correct stage. That being said however, I realise that both enteric bacteria and the kloekera strain of yeast play a fairly important part early in the fermentation, but I haven't been able to find a reliable source for these cultures anywhere - let alone locally. However, I don't believe the Wyeast blend contains these critters at any rate.

Either way, I am impressed with how this batch has turned out thus far and am keen to give it a go again. Hmm... maybe a stainless solero with oakchips - four 50 litre kegs should do the trick.

Hic,
TSD