Wlp655 Belgian Sour For A Barrel Age Lambic

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Mr. No-Tip

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So I am ramping up for 100l of lambic to go in my new oak barrel. I've been doing a lot of reading on recipes and brewing techniques, but I am still a bit up in the air about fermentation.

I've read and heard advice that barrel beers work well with a primary ferment in a carboy using something neutral, then transfer into the barrel and add the bugs as fermentation dies down.

While I've read that true lambics aren't racked into secondary (accuracy?) I don't think I am wanting to do a full ferment in the barrels. Don't really want to mess around with that.

But I just realised that the yeast I am planning to use in the barrel, WLP655, contains a sach as well as the bugs. That got me thinking that I would be being a little bit wasteful to not primary ferment with that yeast. Obviously if I do a primary with the 655 I'll have to segregate that fermenter off for sours only, but that doesn't seem too bad.

Any reason why I shouldn't use the 655 right through? Should I perhaps save a vial and pitch that fresh when racking into the barrel? Or should I can this and go with a neutral yeast and pitch separate brett/lacto/whatever else to the barrel?
 
depends on how sour you want it?
 
I was kinda hoping to syphon off ~4l into a fruit filled demi in about 6 months and end up with something that could stand in the shadow of your framboise!
 
well that was a single yeast blend ie roselare. havent used the whitelab equivalent yet. so cant comment on the strain.
i just have split my ag batch thats almost as old as the frambrose that you had. its almost to the same flavour but just needs raspberries.
ive also done a single batch with just brett lambis. bloody nice.
 
btw did we have a conversation about this on club nite.
i met so many people and half didnt introduce themselves
 
No Lambic brewer uses Californian ale yeast in the Lambic, ever. You should brew with the proper yeast. If the beer ends up being too sour for your palate blend it and make some Geuze.

Also if you are ageing in a barrel I understand you will have to check the amount of beer in the barrel from time to time and top it up as it loses some beer to avoid oxidization (I have no experience with this but have read that you do lose beer through the wood).
 

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