Lambic Digest #0456

eZine lover (@eZine)

Published in 

Lambic Digest

 · 7 months ago

From postmaster at lance.colostate.edu Thu Sep 29 03:21:20 1994 
X-VM-v5-Data: ([t nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] 
        ["3998" "Thu" "29" "September" "1994" "00:30:28" "-0600" "subscription requests only" "lambic-request at lance.colostate.edu" nil "86" "Lambic Digest #456 (September 29, 1994)" "^From:" nil nil "9" nil nil nil nil] 
        nil) 
Received: from longs.lance.colostate.edu by goodman.itn.med.umich.edu with SMTP id AA23679 
  (5.65b/IDA-1.4.3 for spencer at hendrix.itn.med.umich.edu); Thu, 29 Sep 94 03:21:14 -0400 
Received: (daemon at localhost) by longs.lance.colostate.edu (8.6.9/8.6.5a (LANCE 1.01)) id AAA09547 for reallambic at longs.lance.colostate.edu; Thu, 29 Sep 1994 00:30:28 -0600 
Message-Id: <199409290630.AAA09547 at longs.lance.colostate.edu> 
Reply-To: lambic at lance.colostate.edu (postings only - do not send subscription requests here) 
Errors-To: lambic-request at lance.colostate.edu 
From: lambic-request at lance.colostate.edu (subscription requests only - do not post here) 
To: lambic at lance.colostate.edu 
Subject: Lambic Digest #456 (September 29, 1994) 
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 00:30:28 -0600 

 

 

 
Lambic Digest #456                             Thu 29 September 1994 

 

 
        Forum on Lambic Beers (and other Belgian beer styles) 
                Mike Sharp, Digest Coordinator 

 

 
Contents: 
  Bringing up baby:  a progress report (Todd Gierman) 

 

 
Send article submissions only to: lambic at longs.lance.colostate.edu 
Send all other administrative requests (subscribe/unsubscribe/change) to: 
     lambic-request at longs.lance.colostate.edu 
Back issues are available by mail; send empty message with subject 'HELP' to: 
     netlib at longs.lance.colostate.edu 
Phil Seitz' series on Brewing Belgian Beer is available; the index 
     from the archives lists individual topics and the complete set. 
     Start with the help message above then request the index. 
A FAQ is also available by netlib; say 'send faq from lambic' as the 
     subject or body of your message (to netlib at longs.lance.colostate.edu). 

 
---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 1994 21:52:14 -0400 (EDT) 
From: Todd Gierman <tmgierma at acpub.duke.edu> 
Subject: Bringing up baby:  a progress report 

 

 
Well, I have 15 gallons of p-lambic sitting in the big closet under the  
stairs.  Now what? 

 
The 10-month old is doing very well.  Half of the batch is sitting on 6-8  
pounds of blackberries and the other half is just sitting.  This batch  
has dropped considerably in gravity (from 1056-1004) and pH (about  
3.5-3.7).  It has cleared very nicely.  Put the blackberries into a  
3-gallon carboy and racked the p-lambic on top.  Whole blackberries float  
after a few days, and the potential danger of a blocked airlock becomes  
evident.  When parted with a clean table knife, the blackberry cake  
yeilds a nice purple froth that oozes from the wound (I know, leave it  
alone, but I can't stop fussing over it - remember those spit baths  
your mother used to give you?).  An increase in the Brett character is  
noticeable (not horsey, but very distinct).  This batch has become very  
sour.  This is good; according to the CAMRA's Good Beer Guide to Belgium  
and Holland, classic lambic or Gueuze is very sour and thin - nothing  
sweet about it.  They even chide Boon for partial filtration and  
suspected sweetening. 

 
Both the blackberry half and the straight half will be blended with  
portions of a 10-gallon split batch and bottled - yes, the "twins" are  
doing fine :-)  Both are in their post-primary stage which seemed to  
stabilize around 1020.  "Boon" has now dropped to about 1016 and  
"Cantillon" has hit 1014 (they grow up so fast, don't they?).  A  
multitude of small-volume cultures was pitched in succession over the  
course of several days.  Fermentation seemed slow and prolonged.  These  
two are still excessively turbid and have a slight tannic/phenolic flavor  
that will convince some that the blended product came from a cask.  I  
suspect that this is a product of a boiling-water sparge and a poor cold break.  I will cycle  
them through cold temperatures and add fining material to see if this  
won't clear up a little 

 
The big feat will be getting them blended and bottled.  I will have to  
guess how much carbonation the young uns will contribute and make up the  
difference with corn sugar.  The worrisome thing is that they are  
becoming quite dry and tart (well the older one anyway) and that after  
some time in the bottle, they will be downright austere - no way of  
stopping the process with Brett around.  I know that my friends and  
fellow local homebrewers will be turning away in disgust and that I could  
not comfortabley consume 15 gallons of good Cantillon, let alone bad  
Cantillon.  I guess we will be eating alot of Blackberry Gueuze  
vinaigrette on our salads next summer.  One begins to realize why Frank  
and others have turned to filtering and sweetening (C'mon, there's little  
doubt that he filters some of his products):  the hoi polloi appreciates a  
good confection.  Belle Vue anyone? 

 
Todd 

 
------------------------------ 

 

 
End of Lambic Digest 
************************ 
-------