Barrel Fill 2020 (Flanders Red) – FINAL RECIPE
Here’s the same recipe that has been brewed multiple years and has won multiple awards (not saying we can’t tweak this year):
All Grain Recipe
Submitted By: jonbrown
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Style: Flanders Red Ale (17B)
Boil Size: 6.52 gal
Style Guide: BJCP 2008
Color: 15.7 SRM
Equipment: Pot and Cooler ( 5 Gal/19 L) – All Grain
Bitterness: 23.7 IBUs
Boil Time: 60 min
Est OG: 1.057 (14.0° P)
Mash Profile: Single Infusion (154F), Medium Body, No Mash Out
Est FG: 1.014 SG (3.7° P)
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage
ABV: 5.6%
Ingredients
Amount Name Type #
4 lbs 8.0 oz Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 1
1 lbs 8.0 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 2
2 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 3
1 lbs Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 4
8.0 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 5
8.0 oz Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 6
1 lbs Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 7
1.5 oz Hallertauer [4.8%] – Boil 60 min Hops 8
Yeast: Abbey Ale or Roeselare Ake Blend (WYeast 3763)
I’m using the roeselare yeast as well. We can take the cake from a few roeselare batches and dump it in to start. That should help to keep it going.
One option for the bugs is to not pitch anything. I’m fermenting with the Roeselare blend, which has saccharomyces, brettanomyces, pediococcus & lactobacillus, all the ingredients to yield a quality Flanders Red. It’s probably better if at least a few of us are using Roeselare. Can everyone chime in here to let me know what you’re fermenting with – Roeselare, French Saison, or something else? If it’s just me doing the mixed ferm, we will probably need to pitch more goodies when we fill the barrel.
As I mentioned in the e-mail, I can’t find ECY products (Bug Farm or Bug County) in stock. They might be shut down because of nCOV-19. John Spicer directed me to a Milk the Funk post that lists many potential alternatives. If you have time, check out the list and let me know what you think would be good. Here’s the link: http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Mixed_Cultures#East_Coast_Yeast
Milk the Funk is a treasure trove of info on “alternative” fermentation! .
Last year’s version was fantastic. I’m absolutely fine with keeping the recipe the same.
Question about yeast/bugs – we will need some combination of people primarying with both, correct? I have some glass, and can do bugs if needed. We just need to sort this out soon.
Also, I will plan on brewing more than the 5-gal I signed up for, but from Keith’s email we’re quite a bit short, so if other can do this we might be able to get close to full.
I know several members have brewed the Flanders, so maybe they can chime in on how many of us need to use Roeselare vs Abbey. I’m planning to do Roeselare this year.
Last year the club bought Bug Farm and it was pitched on the fill day. I’ll get the Bug Farm ordered.
We really need to fill completely to avoid this getting too acetic from too much O2.
I did Abbey last year.
I don’t have an understanding on the yeast strategy for this (if there is one). Hoping someone else can weigh-in.
I looked at the Flanders recipe in Brewing Classic Styles and the recommended yeast/bugs is Roeselare, which has all the goods (sacch, brett, pedio, lacto). Then just let them sit for a year or more to develop flavor. So I guess it would be okay if all of us used Roeselare and then we can toss in a vial of Bug Farm during the fill. Seems that the Bug Farm is added to give the beer a certain je ne sais quoi. Even when sacch, brett, bugs are all added together, the sacch probably eats most of the simple sugars very quickly, then the brett & bugs take their sweet time eating the more complex sugars that the sacch can’t ferment. It seems like one strategy brewers sometimes use is to mash relatively hot to preserve some dextrins, do primary with sacch, then toss in brett & bugs for a long secondary. This limits the amount of sour/funk/etc character from the brett/bugs since they have no access to simple sugars in this scenario.
I’ve never brewed this one, but I can’t wait to do it this year! In past years brewers have done primary with either of the yeast (Abbey) or yeast/bug (Roeselare) blends above and then we’ve dumped more bugs into the barrel. Last year the barrel added bugs were East Coast Yeast ECY01 “Bug Farm” and a bottle of bugs from Country Boy (procured by Ryan H) I believe.