a little while back I decided it was time to rack cabrillo II onto cherries and oak.

• primary fermentation had been chugging along for close to four months, and since my first batch‘s ten months on fruit and wood imparted plenty of cherry and vanilla notes, I figured it was time to act.
• this time around I went with around 116oz of tart cherries (likely closer to 100oz after separating the juice/water) and 1.5 oz of toasted french oak.  the initial batch of cabrillo’s 2.5 oz of oak initially dominated the beer with intense vanilla and took a few months to tone down, so I’m hoping the lower amount and shorter exposure complements the final product while allowing the cherries to shine a little more.

after racking cabrillo II, I decided to rack blanc onto the lees, oak, and remaining cherry pomace in cabrillo II’s primary fermenter.

• I figured the bugs from cabrillo had already proven themselves as reliable and could only add more complexity to blanc.  since blanc was fermented in three separate containers, I also had a feeling that the three portions would need to be blended together in order to achieve a more consistent final product.  to test this theory, I compared samples from each fermenter during racking:
• blanc A (3 gallon better bottle):
• visible pellicle during fermentation
• funky, sour aroma
• aggressively sour body and finish
• FG: 6 brix
• blanc B (sealed corny keg under slight CO2 pressure):
• no pellicle visible upon opening
• burst of bretty diaper upon opening keg
• strong brett/funky nose with hint of fruit
• more fruity sourness with a dry, bretty finish (not as acidic as A)
• FG: 7 brix
• blanc C (sealed corny keg under slight CO2 pressure):
• fruity brett aroma
• acidic, fruity sourness
• clean, bretty finish
• FG: 7 brix
• based on my observations, it seems that the additional oxygen allowed in by the better bottle increased both attenuation as well as perceptible sourness in the beer.  I should note that both the aroma and the taste of the better bottle-fermented portion seemed similar to my sanke keg-fermented sours (each of which had significant headspace in the keg).  since brett is anerobic, it seems that it thrived in the pressurized CO2 environment provided by the sealed corny kegs.

as a side note, after perusing some articles on homebrewtalk and the BBB I have come to the realization that the initial buttered-popcorn-jellybean flavor that initially dominated cabrillo I in the bottle was likely diacetyl produced by pediococcus, accentuated with vanilla imparted by the oak.

• after checking my notes, it seems I didn’t notice any buttery flavors out of the fermenter, but after a few weeks in the bottle the flavor was dominant.  it seems that the pedio kicked out a lot of diacetyl upon bottling (maybe due to oxygen exposure during the bottling process?) and that the brettanomyces still in suspension cleaned up most of the diacetyl while in the bottle (I still can taste a fleeting note of sweet butter every now and again while pouring cabrillo I on draft, but it is hard to find in the bottles).
• the lesson here? if the diacetyl was noticeable in the fermenter I would have likely waited it out while the brett cleaned up, but it is nice to know that the brett can still perform cleanup in the bottle/keg if need be.

last weekend I packed up the truck and drove out to lake casitas for the annual southern california homebrewers festival.

• the weeks leading up to the event were full of hype – thousands of homebrewers and hundreds of taps were to convene at an idyllic location for an eleven-hour pouring session.  I was a little apprehensive at first, but by the time the smoke cleared late saturday night, it was clear the festival had delivered in spades.
• a great variety of beers were on draft all day, from awesome gruits and tasty barrel-aged projects to jalapeno stouts and truly “herbal” pale ales.  there were also tons of unique meads, oude geuzes and bruins, and satisfying riffs on IPAs (this was in addition to a six-year flight of SN bigfoot, a three-year flight of la folie, and a bottle of unibroue 11 anniversary, amongst many others, that were circulated back at camp).
• after sampling dozens of beers over the hours I realized I had barely scratched the surface of what was offered, but plenty of  food, hydration, and pacing left me in good shape on sunday morning.  pacific gravity organized a great camp site and the weather was great all weekend, which made for an awesome experience.  I’m already looking forward to next year!
• the flickr set of additional photos can be found HERE.

as mentioned last week, after bottling vizcaino, my latest pipeline beer, I reformulated the recipe and strategy for the second batch in order to optimize desired characteristics in the beer (namely, complex funk and sourness).

• specifically, I changed up the recipe by adding some wheat and reducing simple fermentables and IBUs, as follows (11gal recipe):

• 26.00 lb	Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM)	Grain	78.79 %
  5.00 lb	Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM)	Grain	15.15 %
  3.00 oz	Saaz [1.00 %] (90 min)	Hops	4.0 IBU
  2.00 lb	Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM)	Sugar	6.06 %

• I also mashed at 154 and boiled down from 13 gallons in 90 minutes.  a boil over and fast sparge left me with an OG of 1.084, which at first was a bit disappointing (I had shot for 1.091) until I realized that if my fermentation goes as planned the final product will be anywhere from 10.5-11%abv.  I’m planning on racking onto apricots after six months (at which point in time I may rack the next batch of banning onto the yeast cake) and bottling/kegging after another six.
• as for yeast, after much thought I pitched a second-generation slurry of ECY01 bugfarm blend VI that I had stepped up in about 800mL of starter wort over the course of a couple of days.  since the blend supposedly contains multiple varieties of saison yeast, I decided to forgo any other additions.  after about 12 hours the blend had attacked the wort and had the airlock aggressively churning.  I love this stuff!

last thursday I headed over to culver city for the pacific gravity april meeting.

• the keg of the month style was scottish/irish/english ales, and although I considered entering my “cascadian small beer” as a dark mild, I ended up chilling a variety of sour offerings to pour out during the meeting.  after seeing how quickly my ’10 lambic went to work on some apricots, I hoped my unblended lambic bottles would have some carbonation, so I brought one along to find out.  I was stoked to see a considerable amount of effervescence when I poured out some samples, and the carbonation really brought out the fruit and sourness of the beer, which was nicely complemented by some assertive funk.  I’m interested to see how this beer evolves over the next few years, and will periodically dust off a bottle (at least once every six months) to document the progression.

I also managed to set aside some time to bottle the next beer in my funky/sour pipeline – vizcaino.

• vizcaino was somewhat of an afterthought – I had already brewed a golden strong and had set aside a gallon of wort to step up a vial of WLP655, but after bottling a few bottles of the unfunked expression (which actually scored quite well in a comp), I decided to combine the fermented out golden strong with the sour starter on top of 1.5oz of french toasted oak and a few pounds of local wildflower honey, along with some temptation dregs.
• however, from a souring standpoint, I was entering the game with a few strikes – I had hopped the golden strong to over 30 IBUs, mashed pretty low, and had fermented with an attenuative strain (WLP570).  I also had pitched my bugs when the beer was at 1.02, at which point it was already at an abv of 7.1%, and the honey I added was easily fermentable as a simple sugar.
• despite the aforementioned microbial adversity, the not-completely-exhausted gravity worked in my favor, and after a few months a decent pellicle had formed.  at bottling I noticed a downplayed sour aroma with hints of fruit and floral elements, and a sample I poured out had some smooth vanilla oak and funky subtleties that I hope will come out with carbonation (I primed the keg and bottles following my methods with cabrillo).
• however, vizcaino II will be reworked for a more assertive sourness as follows – it will have a lower hopping rate (under 10 IBUs, likely under 5), a higher mash temp (low to mid 150s F), and a little extra wheat (1-2 #s) for body.  I’m also planning on pitching ECY09 abbaye and ECY01 bugfarm slurries simultaneously to give the bugs a head start, and will likely rack onto apricots, peaches, or another light stone fruit at a later date.

last saturday AP and I headed out to strand brewing’s tap room grand opening to get a glimpse of the progression of the brewing scene here in socal.

• after running into friends from naja’s, select beer, and other local spots, we settled in to some pours of white sand double IPA and their beach house amber.  our lunch-time arrival kept our sampling to a minimum, but we got to inspect the brewing and serving premises and meet rich, one of the guys behing strand.
• located in a business park, with huge fermenters and a minimalistic, tasteful layout, strand brewing’s tap room was a welcome reminder of many breweries found in the pacific northwest and san diego.  hopefully this is a sign of things to come for the area – drink local!

sunday was greek easter, so AP and I loaded up some food and libations and headed to the park.

• last year’s keg came dangerously close to getting kicked, so this year called for both a corny of my light saison and one of the monster brew saison that I dry-hopped in secondary.  the wyeast 3711 french saison yeast I pitched into the monster brew finished nice and dry, and really helped accentuate the rye and the earthy/spicy tettnanger hops I tossed in post-fermentation.
• after the smoke cleared, around seven gallons of homebrew had been extinguished by the thirsty easter crowd.  I’m gonna have to start specifically planning for this event in advance next time!

after topping up my lambic solera barrel with a gallon or two of my turbid mash lambic, I had a couple of gallons left over to mess around with.

• remembering that I had harvested and frozen some local apricots from last season, I chopped them up, tossed them in a three-gallon fermenter, and racked a little over two gallons of lambic onto them.
• my inspiration came from cantillon’s excellent fou’ foune, an apricot lambic that has become impossible to find around these parts.  I debated including the pits of the fruit in the fermenter, as they are supposed to impart a more intense apricot flavor, but after reading some articles about cyanide (read the comments!) I decided against it.  I’m planning on keeping the lambic on the fruit from six months to a year, based on my schedule and the results of occasional tastings.

on another note, after dropping off a couple bottles of my winter saison in culver city for a homebrew competition, AP and I continued north to agoura hills and ladyface ale companie.

• in addition to a great bar and even better outdoor patio, ladyface has a comprehensive tap list, with great guest taps and numerous in-house brews.  after running through a sampler flight of all their offerings, standouts included their chesebro IPA on cask and their russian lullaby imperial stout.  I enjoyed their barrel-aged trebuchet as well, especially sitting outside on a hot day, but I felt as though something was missing from the beer (it felt a little one-dimensional and light, with a very slight sourness).
• I found out later that the fermentation was intentionally limited to lacto to avoid any “barnyard” character, which I find a little confusing for a farmhouse beer.  also, the beer was close to 9% and the lacto was likely added after primary fermentation, which also seems odd to me, since lacto has trouble after around a 7% abv environment.  despite these small critiques, ladyface definitely delivered an enjoyable experience, and I look forward to returning the next time I am in the area.

last sunday I waxed another batch of bottles before tucking them away for long-term storage.  however, this time around I encountered a few issues with the results.

• my original idea was to color-code bottle wax by year for easy reference, so I switched up from last year’s green wax to a different brand of gray polymer wax I had purchased in bulk.  the new wax provided a thicker coat on the bottle than previous attempts, which provided results similar to commercial examples I had seen from commerical breweries such as deschutes.
• bottling went smoothly for the most part, but I found myself repeatedly refilling my dip can since the viscous wax allowed for a fewer number of bottles to be dipped per batch.  for my last batch I loaded up the can with twice the amount of wax I usually use (3″ diameter X 3″ height vs. my usual 1.5″ height) and subsequently waited about twice as long for the wax to melt.  this larger amount of stored heat energy appeared to compromise the integrity of some of my “large” 29mm bottle caps.
• more specifically, three large mouth capped bottles of cabrillo displayed a small leak after waxing, one bottle mouth cracked from the heat, and another large cap failed completely, shooting off of the top of the bottle despite the wax reinforcement.
• that being said, I also waxed all of my winter saison bottles (in standard bombers and caps) with a smaller batch of heated polymer wax, and as of this moment, none are symptomatic.  therefore, I would advise dipping a trial bottle before proceeding with any new polymer wax or cap configuration so as to avoid potentially compromising your brews.

as a result of my waxing incident, I was left with three bottles (two liters) of fresh cabrillo that were threatened with a drain pour.  inspired by armand’s reaction to the drie fonteinen disaster, I decided to ice concentrate the beer to create an “eis sour.”

• after reviewing posts from the mad fermentationist and homebrewtalk, I poured the beer into plastic bottles and froze them overnight in the freezer.  the next day I ran the ice and leftover liquid into a strainer, with a bowl placed underneath.
• however, instead of waiting for the beer/ice chips to run clear, I removed the ice mixture as soon as the flow of liquid stalled at around 30 seconds or so, such that none of the ice could melt and dilute the resulting liquid (this made for a much less efficient process with hopefully more concentrated results).  I repeated this process a second time, and ended up with a little over 12 oz. of viscous, aromatic runnings.  based on volume observations and rough guesstimates, the final product should be around 20% abv, with a tasting profile as follows:
• jurassic beach (eis cuvee de cabrillo)
• aroma: huge vanilla oak, clean sourness, dense cherry
• appearance: dark hazy brown, opaque in bottle
• taste: syrupy, intense tongue-coating sourness and oak; warm finish hits you in your chest
• overall: sour works well in this format, but 2-3oz. is plenty here

in other news, the solera is going strong (maybe a bit too strong – see pic below), and I celebrated the completion of my latest side project with a pour of my newly-tapped kolsch-turned-saison, which turned out surprisingly well and made for a great lighter, more approachable version of the style.

last weekend AP and I headed up north to seal the deal on a barrel for my lambic solera project.

• we drove north of santa barbara to quality wine barrels in arroyo grande where we picked up a neutral barrel.  the seguin moreau french oak bordeaux barrel had been previously filled with cabernet sauvignon at both bridlewood winery and lucas and lewellen.  the barrel was steam cleaned and leak tested just prior to our arrival, and drained upside-down in the back of my truck on the drive back to SB.  the staff at quality wine barrels was friendly and patient, and their prices were more than fair – I walked out with a clean barrel, two-barrel steel rack, and bung for around eighty bucks.

after purging the drained barrel with CO2 and plugging it up, we left the hotel room and headed out on our bikes to explore downtown santa barbara.

• our first stop was the tasting room at telegraph brewing, where a draft flight was followed with pours of their fantastic los padres saison and rye XPA.  AP was a big fan of their white ale as well.  before we headed out we grabbed a bottle of their obscura cacao for the road.
• in addition to nabbing some awesome mexican, sandwiches, and seafood, and checking out some quirky local shops, we also swung by union ale, where sixteen ounce pours of surf brewing’s south swell DIPA and firestones’ 15 made for an early night.

on sunday afternoon, after fighting a serious rainstorm back down the coast, it was finally time to fill the barrel.

• after rinsing the barrel once with hot water (making sure the hot water came in contact with the entirely of the barrel interior), I then rinsed the barrel with cold filtered water and let it drain for around fifteen minutes.  AP and I then lugged the beast downstairs, where I purged it again with a healthy dose of CO2 and filled it up, leaving about five gallons of headspace for krausen from the ongoing fermentation of my last two batches.  fermentation ramped up as soon as all the wort was in the barrel, and soon my airlock was shaking like a weight valve on an old pressure cooker.
• with 106 lbs. of grain, 1.5 lbs. of aged hops, and over 24 hrs. of labor invested, the lambic solera barrel is definitely the crown jewel of my fermentation room.  hopefully the micro-oxygenation and cellobiose feeding it provides will be good to my yeast, bugs, and wort!

this past saturday I managed to crawl back out to the garage and brew the remaining 30 gallons needed to fill my upcoming lambic solera barrel.

• my recipe remained the same, and I managed to add the unmalted wheat component to the main mash without resulting in a stuck sparge during both of the last two brews by adding 2-3 handfuls of rice hulls to the unmalted mini-mash before adding it to the main mash, resting 3-5 minutes, and then backflushing the mash tun with boiling water before attempting to vorlauf and start the fly sparge.  this resulted in a consistent OG of 1.047 for the last two batches, and an average OG for all four of the combined batches of 1.047.
• in anticipation of this brew day, I had previously kegged my first (turbid mash) lambic for future blending (and to open up a fermenter), and I pitched a liter of slurry from the old cake into each of the two new batches to kick off fermentation.  the hard part is over – now I just need to nab a barrel (stay tuned)!

last thursday I also headed over to culver city for the march PG meeting.

• the style of the month was split between stouts and sour ales, so I brought along a keg of cuvee de cabrillo, which had recently carbed up and passed quality control.  even though I had the only sour there, it was a crowd favorite and I took home homebrew keg of the month honors for the second month in a row!  member feedback was very promising and helped validate the long wait (14 months) to enjoy this brew.  I just hope the other batches in my sour lineup fare as well…

last weekend marked the start of my most ambitious homebrew undertaking yet – the procurement and filling of a 60-gallon solera barrel.

• since my usual batch size is around 10-13 gallons on a good day, cranking out over 60 gallons of wort appeared *challenging* at first.  however, after some significant research and planning, I decided to suck it up and commit to two 30 gallon brew days.  however, I couldn’t bring myself to engage in a full turbid mash for each session after remembering the significant amount of time associated with the procedure in previous brews.  luckily, I came across jim liddil’s lambic brew page, which proposed some promising turbid mash alternatives for extracting useful dextrins and starches from an unmalted wheat component of the grain bill.  after some number crunching, my final recipe and procedure included the following:
• GRAIN BILL (15.5 gal wort, 80% efficiency)

16lb belgian pils malt
8 lb american wheat malt
2.5lb unmalted white wheat berries
6 oz aged organic saaz hops (75-90 min*)

• PROCEDURE

-mash 15lbs, 9oz of the pils and the 8lbs of the malted wheat (change up the mash temp for each of the 4 batches – 152F, 153F, 154F, and 155F)
-mash 7oz of the pils and the 2.5 lbs of unmalted wheat at 150F for 30 mins, then add a gallon of boiling water and boil the mixture for 15 mins.
-add the unmalted wheat mash and liquid to the main mash, stir, and sparge with 180+F water (60-75 mins)
-end up with 18 gals of wort (13 in keggle, 5 in turkey fryer), boil for 60-90 mins until 3 gals boiled off (2 in keggle, 1 in fryer)
-chill and pitch yeast – do not aerate

• some notes from my first of two brewdays – one gallon of water at 161F will result in a mash temp of 150 for the raw wheat and pils (I did the mash on the stovetop).  each of the four batches have a different mash temp to vary the sugar chains available to the yeast and bugs over the years.  adding the viscous unmalted mash to the main mash may result in a stuck sparge (it did for me) – pump hot water through the dip tube to help clear out the pickup and add plenty of rice hulls.
• after my first mash stuck upon adding the unmalted malt mash, I decided to put just the wort from the unmalted mash into the main mash tun the second time around.  there was no stuck sparge as a result, but my OG took a small hit (batch 1 OG: 1.049/batch 2 OG: 1.046).  I’m debating whether to risk another stuck mash to get an improved efficiency for my last 2 batches, or to just dump the unmalted wort directly into the brew kettle and bypass the mash tun altogether.
• after cooling the wort overnight, I pitched 2 vials of ECY bugfarm VI into the first batch and pitched a variety pack of roselare, lambic blend, and sour mix I into the second batch.  within 24 hours both batches were chugging away, and by this afternoon krausen had blown out the top of both fermenters.  I’m halfway there!

to celebrate the start of the solera project, AP and I headed over to eagle rock for some great food and killer beers.

• our first stop was the oinkster, where some killer house-cured pastrami and pulled pork balanced out pours of craftsman’s poppyfields pale.  our next stop was, of course, eagle rock brewery, where we took care of tasters ranging from solidarity to deuce and red velvet.  our last stop of the afternoon was verdugo bar, which graced us with pours of john john hazelnut, speedway stout, la folie, odyssey, and ta henket.  yikes!

I also managed to get in a review of my long-anticipated cuvee de cabrillo after a couple months in the bottle:

• style: strong sour
• appearance: good carbonation, healthy initial head that turns to light lacing, dark amber/maple syrup color, transparent when held to light
• aroma: sour cherry with slight earthiness in back, belgian yeast notes evident upon swirling
• taste: strong tongue-coating sourness with cherries close behind, sweet vanilla oak finish
• comments: at 11% I am amazed that this is so sour and also drinks so well.  the medium toast french oak imparts a sweet vanilla note that was overwhelming when the beer was fresh in the bottle and not carbed (it tasted like buttered popcorn jellybeans), but this has faded into a pleasing vanilla finish with age and carbonation.  this one was a ton of work, but the results were worth it.