Kriek Recipe

[Malnourished]

1. Perth can't be warmer than the Payottenland. The coldest part of your house would be best.

2. A cork bung sounds reasonable. Raj Apte's data (which was used in Wild Brews) can be found here.

3. Unsolicited advice I know, but I think you should reconsider the SO4 - pitch the Lambic Blend direct - and the racking - the bugs benefit from having the dormant yeast cells around.

I know I've posted this before but here's a great post from Raj Apte on the now defunct (again!) Lambic Digest - apologies for the formatting. It's how I plan to do my next p-lambic, if I ever get motivated again.

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 10:22:49 -0700 (PDT)
From: Raj B Apte <raj_apte at yahoo.com>
Subject: plambic inoculation

Bill asks about plambic inoculation.

Bill, I think both your options are wrong. When the wort is
boiled, force cool to 50C. You can pitch a tiny amount
(20%) of your plambic mixed starter or just a handfull of
grain at this point. Allow to slowly cool from 50C, maybe
over 12 hours or more. The longer the time between 40 and
50 the 'cleaner' the final taste will be. If you can
measure pH, hold between 40 and 50 until pH delines to 4.5,
then let chill. Once cooled to 25C or less, rack to
fermentation/aging vessel (I do the cooling and first pitch
in kettle). The trub should be left in the cooling tun
(kettle). Then pitch the plambic mixed starter. Wyeast's is
sufficient, you don't need anything else. It starts slowly.
Be careful about oxygenation--do it gently if at all. I
transfer it with splashing and that's it, no airstone.

The brew will live in the fermentation vessel for at least
a year, if not more. Consider HDPE or wood to allow some
oxygen in, or glass to make a more lactic brew. Don't
consider adding fruit until 8 months, though 18 might be
better. The fermentation should be slow and cool. Maybe
12-15C for several weeks. If using wood, replace airlock
with stopper when it starts sucking. If using plastic or
glass, the airlock is fine for the duration. When it gets
warm, it will bubble more.

You didn't say how you would mash, but do concentrate on
making an unfermentable wort. The simplest is infusion at
68C-70C, all the way to the full turbid mash (its on the
web somewhere). If you use a normal wort, you may not
develop enough sourness.

good luck,
raj

 

[chillamacgilla73]

1. Perth can't be warmer than the Payottenland. The coldest part of your house would be best.

2. A cork bung sounds reasonable. Raj Apte's data (which was used in Wild Brews) can be found here.

3. Unsolicited advice I know, but I think you should reconsider the SO4 - pitch the Lambic Blend direct - and the racking - the bugs benefit from having the dormant yeast cells around.

I know I've posted this before but here's a great post from Raj Apte on the now defunct (again!) Lambic Digest - apologies for the formatting. It's how I plan to do my next p-lambic, if I ever get motivated again.

Thanks very much Malnourished for the info - I am flying blind and need to undertake serious research in the next 2 weeks. I will look into the S04 situation.
:beer:

 

[Malnourished]

I will look into the S04 situation.

I did exactly what you propose (S-04 and racking) several years ago and the results weren't great. The major problem was that it never soured appreciably, but the other 'wildness' never really hit the heights either.

If you haven't read Wild Brews, Lambic, and the Liddil Lambic Lesson I'd strongly recommend doing so. There's also a fair bit of info on the Babblebelt homebrew board.

And if you can't be bothered doing that just do what Apte suggests. The guy knows what he's doing.

 

[voota]

I've transferred my pLambic to other fermenters now... bottled 5 litres blended with 20% 4 week old plambic, another 5 litres went onto 1.5kg of frozen raspberries, another 5 litres was bottled with priming sugar.
As for the taste (from the glass fermenter), its pretty decent... sourness is moderate/low and the funk is also a bit restrained... perhaps there is some form of ropiness thats a bit strange.
I also brewed another lambic the other day with, debittered hops (thanks kook), 1.5 yr old powells pils malt, tf torrified and a 3 year old wyeast Lambic blend ($2 at G&G), didnt even step up the yeast... just threw it in and 4 hours later at a temperature of about 13deg, fermentation kicked in hard and fast. Who knows how it will turn out?
Good fun plambic brewing is...

 

[LovesToBrew]

I have a picture of my last kriek, turned out quite nice:

 

[chillamacgilla73]

3 year old wyeast Lambic blend ($2 at G&G)

Similarly, I threw a 2 year old lambic blend from TWOC without ramping up onto Asher n my turbid mashed pLambic and it kicked off without a problem...Well, it wasn't as fast to get going as Ashers and I got nervous that the blend may have been out of balance and took some funky gunky ooze off Ashers brew and innoculated mine!

Silly question, but how did you find the IBU's on the debittered hops? Our pLambic tastes a little high in the IBU's department..

 

[voota]

Silly question, but how did you find the IBU's on the debittered hops? Our pLambic tastes a little high in the IBU's department..

Not such a silly question, I was thinking the same the other day after trying my new plambic... there is definitely some bitterness in there. The hops direct website where kook got them from states 0% aa, so I was just going off that info.

'goes downstairs to chew on some debittered hops'

They have a bit of bitterness in them i think, the packet says 0% aa. I also tried the lambic again and the bitterness is not as heavy as I remember, I dont think its going to be a problem for me.

 

[kook]

I've dropped hopsdirect an email to ask about the debittered hops AA% and bitterness issues. I'm curious as I want to use them soon.