Cereal mashing for a lambic? (vs Turbid mashing)

[Mr. No-Tip]

So a mate and I have had a 100l barrel of lambic going for just over 12 months now. The 9 month old results made it to nats as a Straight Lambic and a Framboise, placing as the latter (Both under Steve's name. )

The original 100l was made of 50l that was turbid mashed and 50l that was cereal mashed.

My understanding of turbid mashing is that it locks a proportion of the mash as starches (or at least very long chain sugars) so that the yeast won't touch them, leaving it up to the bugs. My understanding of cereal mashing is the opposite - that it releases the starches from the unmalted wheat (or rice/corn/potato/whatever) to become fermentable.

Today I am brewing a 50l topup for the barrel. My intention was to cereal mash a high proportion of the UM wheat and a bit of the pils malt, and then also turbid mash. As it happens, I am having an absolute ******* of a brew day...among other things (leaking caustic, broken mash paddle, forgetting i was brewing a double batch and mashing in with a single batch of water) I managed to burn the BIABag during my cereal mash, having knocked the collander on its side during mashin....so the idea is off. Just a normal turbid mash.

But the whole thing got me thinking. Does a ceral mash have a place in lambic brewing? I did it initially 12 months ago because I read about it in a lambic context, but the cereals and turbids seems at odds - cereal to unlock the starches in the UM wheat to make fermentable, and turbid to lock those starches in place.

What do you all think?

 

[mje1980]

I'm a sour beer noob but if you wanted to add starches, could you use a biab bag or large hop bag to add some oats or maize
To your brew kettle, let sit at gelatinisation temp for 20 mins, then pull the bag and boil as normal? The proper turbid mash looks like a major pain in the arse!. I hope to brew one when my oud bruin is done. Will be a while though haha.