Solera Project

If you read through a few of my posts, it's probably pretty apparent that I love sour beers. A recent article on homebrewtalk.com peaked my interest in trying something I hadn't tried before, a solera project. The basic idea is you sour age a beer in some kind of vessel, then you pull off a portion and replace that portion with fresh young beer. You repeat this process about once a year or so and you end up with a (hopefully) complex blend of various aged sour beer. Traditionally the vessel used for this was an oak barrel, but in the HBT article the author suggests using a sanke keg. A friend of mine offered up a sanke keg that had been sitting in his garage for years, so I jumped at the opportunity.

I brewed 10 gallons of lambic back in May of 2014 for Big Brew Day and I figured I'd use five gallons of it for the initial fill of the solera. The rest will come from another 10 gallon batch, 5 gallons of which will be fermented with a brettanomyces strain cultured from Crooked Stave St. Bretta and the other five with Roeselare. The base beer will be similar to the lambic recipe but with a few tweaks.

I decided to build a cart for the keg so I could easily move it if needed. I figured this would:

1. Make it easier on my back when I did have to move it.
2. Help to not disturb the pellicle or stir up sediment when I had to move it.
3. The added height will help when it's time to rack to a corny keg or bottling bucket.
4. I just need an excuse for a welding project every once in a while.

The cart is pretty simple, four legs, crossbars up top to support the weight of the filled keg and more down below to provide some structural support. Oh and casters of course so it's easy to move. 

For the keg itself I simply removed the spear, then fitted the neck with a #11 drilled stopper. The stopper fits perfectly and creates an airtight seal without having to modify the keg; simple, cheap, and should work just fine.

I'll store the solera in my basement utility room where it stays around 68F year round.

That's about all there is to it...except for brewing the beer of course.

Here's the recipe as I brewed it today:

7.0# Rahr Pale Malt
3.0# Dingemans Pilsner
3.0# Best Malz Chit Malt
6.0 Flaked Wheat
3.0 Pale Wheat Malt
168g Aged Hops (60 min)
Yeast Nutrient
St. Bretta dregs (for 1st 5 gallons)
Roeselare (for 2nd 5 gallons)

Mash at 149F for 20 minutes. Raise to 158F for 20 minutes.
90 minute boil
Ferment at 68F

Update 1/21/2015

Everything went fine during the brew session. I pitched the Roeselare without aerating while the brett half was aerated. The Roeselare half showed signs of fermentation within the first six hours while the brett half took about 36 hours to show signs of fermentation. If all goes well I'll be racking these beers into the solera in 2-3 weeks.

Update 1/26/2015

Both halves are progressing nicely. In the pic below, Roeselare is on the right and St. Bretta dregs are on the left. It might be hard to tell in the photo, but the Roeselare seems to have a lot more yeast and bugs in suspension, so it's a few shades lighter in color.

Update 2/1/2015
Activity has dropped off quite a bit in both, but there's a lot of yeast in suspension, so I'll probably be waiting at least another week before racking to the solera. 

Update 2/7/2015

The Solera is filled! I brewed another beer today so I figured since I was doing beer-related activities, I might as well fill the Solera. The St. Bretta version had dropped fairly clear. The Roeselare version was still a bit cloudy but activity seemed to have stopped. Before filling, I boiled some water in the Solera to make sure only the intended bugs were present. Now we wait a year and keep our fingers crossed.

Update 2/8/2015
Forgot to mention, I tossed in a few oak cubes from Flanders Red #3 to innoculate the beers with additional cultures.

Update 2/10/2016
Pulled a sample tonight and it's a pretty nice beer. Sourness is solid but it doesn't feel like it's melting the enamel off your teeth. I'll probably pull the first five gallons off this beer soon and put it on fruit.

Update 6/25/2016
I racked the first pull from the Solera into a keg last night. This will be named Solera Release #1. It's been sitting on 6.75lbs of red raspberries since April 12th. I'll force carb then probably bottle off the keg as I wasn't really planning on keeping it on tap. Raspberry character is fairly strong, but you can still pick up the character of the base beer. I didn't take a pH reading, but I'll do that soon. Just a guess, but I'd probably put it around 3.4. It's pretty tasty, so I'm happy with the first iteration off the Solera.

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Dark Saison 2014

I ran to one of my local brew shops the other day to pick up some gas tubing for an upgrade I'm working on (nitro teaser) and I figured I'd pick up one of Wyeast's PC offerings for the quarter. I decided to go with 3726 Farmhouse and brew up a dark saison of sorts. Wyeast's desscription is as follows:

Wyeast 3726-PC Farmhouse Ale™
Beer Styles: Saison, Biere de Garde, Belgian Blonde Ale, Belgian Pale Ale, Belgian Golden Strong Ale
Profile: This strain produces complex esters balanced with earthy/spicy notes. Slightly tart and dry with a peppery finish. A perfect strain for farmhouse ales and saisons.
Alc. Tolerance           12% ABV
Flocculation              medium
Attenuation               74-79%
Temp. Range             70-84°F (21-29°C)

I'm using a fairly simple grain bill on this brew but I am incorporating some concord grape juice into this recipe. I'm hoping it will add some fruity complexity, but I have to admit I've never brewed with grape juice. Winemakers kind of frown on concord grapes, so I'm kind of rolling the dice on this one. This beer is probably going to turn out awesome...or gross. I'll get some tannins from the grape juice so I'm using debittered malt to try to get color while minimizing any perceived astringency. I've also never used Nelson Sauvin hops, but they are supposed to contribute grape and berry flavors. Here's the recipe as I'm making it:

7.0# Dingmans Pilsner Malt
1.0# Simpsons Golden Naked Oats
6.0 oz Castle De-bittered Malt
4.0 oz Crystal 10
1.0# D-180 Belgian Candi Syrup (0 min)
35g US Goldings (60 Min)
14g Nelson Sauvin (10 min)
2.5g chamomile (5 min)
14g Nelson Sauvin (Whirlpool)
Whirfloc
Yeast Nutrient

96oz of Welch's Farmers Pick Concorde Grape Juice (preservative free) added halfway through fermentation (gravity should be around 1.031).

Mash at 148F, 90 minute boil, start fermentation at 68F then raise temps to 80F over several days.

Update 12/2/2014

Gravity had dropped to almost 1.020 by the time I got home from work today. I was hoping to catch it around 1.030. The krausen is still about two inches deep so I went ahead and carefully added the grape juice.

Update 12/3/2014

Fermentation is very active after adding the juice. It had slowed a bit before adding the grape juice yesterday.

Update 1/7/2015
I pulled a little sample today. This beer is very fruity with a definite concord grape aroma. The flavor is much more subdued. It's not horrible but I can't quite decide if I like it. I'm going to try to get it bottled this weekend so I'll see how it is once it's carb'd up.

Update 3/27/2015
I entered this in a club competition (Category 23 - Specialty Beer) and it scored well. I tend to be my own worst critic. Knowing that this beer has Concord grape juice in it, I can easily identify it in both the flavor and aroma, but going in blind (I described it as a dark saison on fruit), nobody else seemed to be able to identify the fruitiness came from Concord grapes. It's a good easy drinker, but I get a jammy/jelly component. If I did it again I'd cut back on the juice a little bit.

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Baltic Porter - Red Wine Barrel Project

Today I'm brewing a Baltic Porter that's going to spend some time in a red wine barrel. One of my friends from my homebrew club (ZZ HOPS) acquired the barrel and asked for some help filling it. Projects like these are the kinds of fun things that result from participating in a homebrew club.

Here's a link to the original recipe and below is the way I brewed it (adjusted for my system efficiency and available ingredients).

8.5 # Avangard German Munich I
5.375 # Dingemans Pilsner Malt
6 oz Crisp Pale Chocolate Malt
6 oz Crisp Chocolate Malt
6 oz Dingemans Cara 45
6 oz Dingemans Special B
42.5g Magnum (60 min)
28.3g EKG (5 min)
0.5 Whirlfloc
0.5t Yeast Nutrient
WLP001 California Ale Yeast

Mash at 152F, 90 min boil, ferment at 65F

Brewing Notes
No real issues to speak of. My gravity came in a couple points low at 1.088; target was 1.091. My mill jammed as I was milling my grain for this batch. I took it apart and expected to find a pebble. I wasn't able to find the source of the jam and I ran it through for a second crush without any issues. I chilled down to about 70F then transferred to the fermenter and placed it in the ferm chamber set to 65F. I'll let it chill overnight then pitch the yeast.

Update 3/3/2015
We had a club meeting over the weekend and tried a sample from the barrel. It seems the barrel may have been infected with some brett. Unfortunately this beer won't turn out as intended, but in my opinion it does have a pleasant brett character, so I'm interested to see how it evolves. I didn't pick up on much if any sourness, so I don't know that there's any lacto or pedio in it. One disappointing thing, this beer had some nice chocolate notes going into the barrel and that seems to be reduced substantially.

Update 4/17/2016
We ended up pitching Roeselare into the barrel after realizing it definitely had a wild yeast infection. We'll be pulling this beer out of the barrel in about a month.

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Chitty Bang Bang - Oud Bruin

I needed to use up my Wyeast PC Oud Bruin blend so today I brewed up an Oud Bruin-ish beer. I like my Oud Bruins a bit more tart than the classic style guidelines. This style should be tart but not as much as a Flanders Red and they should have a fairly substantial malty backbone. This particular blend is supposed to allow the malt character to shine in the finished beer so I'm anxious to taste the results. As usual, I'm using aged hops in this beer. The recipe as I brewed it:

3 lbs 8.0 oz Crisp Maris Otter
3 lbs 8.0 oz Pilsner Malt
2 lbs 8.0 oz Munich Dark
1 lbs 8.0 oz Chit Malt
10.0 oz Aromatic Malt
8.0 oz Pale Wheat
8.0 oz Special B
1.0 oz Midnight Wheat
1.0 oz Debittered Aged Hops (60.0 min)
PC Oud Bruin Blend (Wyeast #3209)
Yeast Nutrient
Whirlfloc

Mash at 156F for 50 min, 90 minute boil, ferment at 80F.

Brewing Notes
No issues. Hit target O.G. of 1.074 spot on. I whirlpooled down to 80F then transferred to a Better Bottle and pitched the blend. No aeration on this one.

Update 1/7/2015
I pulled a sample of this today. There's something a little off in this one. I'm going to rack it to secondary this weekend to get it off the yeast cake and give it some time to age a bit.

Update 1/20/2015

I racked this onto the yeast cake of the 2013 Oud Bruin Experiment over the past weekend. When I tasted it back on the 7th, it seemed like there was some autolysis issues in the beer. I'm hoping the brett in the yeast cake will clean things up a bit. I'll give this beer a few months before I try it again. 

Update 1/26/2014

There's definitely some activity in this beer. A bit of a krausen has formed and I'm getting a "glug" in the airlock every few minutes.

Update 4/7/2015

Pulled a sample tonight. I'm glad to say the hints of burnt rubber band (autolysis notes) are totally gone and it has a nice sourness level. The sourness level is towards the high end for the style...probably more along the lines of a Flanders Red than an Oud Bruin. ThIs is likely due to the additional cultures that were added via the 2013 Oud Bruin yeast cake causing it to dry out a bit more than the 3209 would have done on its own. I'm just glad this beer has been salvaged because it was a borderline dumper when I racked it.

Update 6/2/2015
I pulled a sample last night and I'm really liking this beer. The sourness is noticeable, but it's not too crazy. It has a lot of dark fruit character and really seems ready to drink right now. I may go ahead and package this beer in a couple weeks.

Update 6/28/2015
I went ahead and bottled this one yesterday.

Update 8/9/2015
The Beehive Brew-Off wrapped up today. This beer took bronze. I decided to enter it in 28B Mixed Fermentation Sour Beer as an American Sour Brown. Based on my experience, I knew judges wouldn't accept this as an Oud Bruin (too sour). I'm glad there's finally an American Sour category that is more tolerant of some of the more sour beers.

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Sour Rye

I recently brewed a Russian River Consecration clone as part of a club barrel project. Our club voted on a few different styles and the Consecration clone won out. We're only a couple weeks away from racking this beer into the barrel on a whole bunch of zante currants...which also means we're two weeks away from kegging our Tart of Darkness clone! But I digress.

One of the other styles that was in the running was a sour rye beer. I thought this sounded really interesting and I had some Wyeast sour blends on hand, so I decided to try my hand at a sour rye beer. I guess you could say Sour in the Rye from The Bruery is the inspiration for this beer, but this really isn't intended to be a clone attempt.

Like wheat, rye malt is huskless and has a reputation causing stuck mashes when used in large proportions, so I'd strongly advise, don't skip the rice hulls. I'm also using the chit malt again (as in Super Juice Solution). Here's the recipe as I made it today:

4.0 # Muntons Pearl Malt
4.0 # Weyermann Rye Malt
1.25 # Best Malz Chit Malt
0.5 # Weyermann Vienna
6.0 oz Weyermann Dark Munich
3.0 oz Briess Black Patent
1.0 # Rice Hulls
28g Aged hops (60 min)
Wyeast Yeast Nutrient
0.5 Whirlfloc
Wyeast 3203 De Bom Sour Blend

Mash at 150F for 45 minutes. 90 minute boil. Ferment at 80F then ramp up to 85F over a few days.

Do not aerate before pitching sour blend. Wyeast does recommend measured aeration after reaching about 80% of expected attenuation.

Brewing Notes:
No issues to speak of. I hit the target gravity of 1.057 spot on. Currently sitting at a cozy 80F in the fermenter.

Update 1/7/2015
Pulled a sample today. Aroma was very acidic, but the flavor was mildly acidic. I'm going to rack this to secondary this weekend to get it off the yeast cake and age it a bit longer.

Update 1/21/2015

Since the sourness level is so low, I decided to rack this onto a portion of the yeast cake from Flanders Red #3. I'm hoping the additional bugs will increase the sourness level. 

Update 4/7/2015

Pulled a sample tonight and the flavor is finally catching up to the aroma. I think I might let this go another month but it's pretty drinkable as is.

Update 6/2/2015
This beer is definitely tart now. The sourness level is getting close to some,of my Flanders Reds. I think I'll be packaging this beer in a couple weeks. I really like the way it has turned out. I'm not picking out a ton of rye character (e.g. spicy), but it's a really nice beer. I have a bottle of 2015 Sour in the Rye that I'm going,to share with friends at GABF this year, so I'll bring a bottle of this along and do a side by side comparison.

Update 7/22/2015

Recently got a pH meter, so I decided to check the pH of this beer. After knocking out a bit of CO2, it's reading 2.92...that's a pretty sour beer! Embrace the Funk lists the pH of a bunch of commercial sour beers (http://embracethefunk.com/ph-readings-of-commercial-beers/). Reviewing the list, none have a pH quite this low; 3.06 for New Belgium Bottle Works 10th Anniversary is the lowest as of 7/22/2015. I'm going to start taking readings on all of my sours, so we'll see if I need to start targeting something closer to the low 3's so that people don't feel like the enamel is melting off their teeth.

Update 8/9/2015
The Beehive Brew-Off wrapped up today. This beer took silver for 34A Clone Beer. I already had an entry in 28B Mixed Fermentation, otherwise it would have gone there. I was afraid judges would shy away from the high acidity; they did comment on it but they said they enjoyed it.

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