last weekend I finished up the last of my four “house” sours – cuvee de banning.

• after finishing my first “american-style” sour (cuvee de cabrillo), I decided to toss four “house” sours into my brewing pipeline, such that after a year’s time, a new year-aged sour would be available for bottling every three months.  the pipeline is filled as follows:
• cuvee de cabrillo (dark strong sour) – January
• cuvee de blanc (dark “mild” sour) – April
• cuvee de vizcaino (golden strong sour) – July
• cuvee de banning (blonde sour) – October
• as noted above, banning is a sour blond ale inspired by various recipes for russian river’s temptation.  the recipe is as follows (for 13 gals @ 80% efficiency):

• 26.00 lb	Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM)	Grain	94.55 %
  1.50 lb	White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)	Grain	5.45 %
  3.00 oz	Saaz [2.00 %] (60 min)	Hops	7.6 IBU
  0.50 oz	Saaz [2.00 %] (30 min)	Hops	1.0 IBU
  0.50 oz	Saaz [2.00 %] (5 min)	Hops	0.3 IBU

• I used some of my stash of aged hops from seven bridges for a sub-10 IBU count and pitched a starter made from a vial of white labs WLP655 and dregs from bottles of RR’s consecration, two brothers’ askew, and drie fonteinen oude geuze.  after 4-5 days, the starter had developed a healthy pellicle and was smelling pretty funky when I pitched it at 72F.
• I also had MV over and whipped up a batch of belgian blonde for his upcoming wedding, and he took home a bag of spent grains to make some dog treats.  congrats MV, and enjoy the brew!

at long last, I finally got around to brewing the lambic I had planned out weeks earlier.

• aside from a few mash temp hiccups, everything went smoothly.  due to the constant attention demanded by the turbid mash, I only managed to snap pics after the boil started.
• see below for my notes on the brew schedule and the results of the brewday (in bold):
  • LAMBIC TURBID MASH SCHEDULE (12-13 gal)
  • 15lb belgian pils (60%)
  • 10lb unmalted white wheat (40%) (+ a couple handfuls of rice hulls)
  • 1. 12lb/gal = (25lb total grist)/(2.1 gal. @143F) = 113F mash (overshot, hit 122F)
  • 2. hold 113F mash for 10 min
  • 3. add boiling water to get to 136.4F (hit 140->135 during this step)
  • 4. remove 0.57 gal. to kettle 2, heat to 176F at most
  • 5. add boiling water to get to 149F, hold for 15 min
  • 6. remove 2.27 gal. to kettle 2, keep at 176F at most
  • 7. add boiling water to get to 161.6F, hold for 20 min (hit 161)
  • 8. first runnings (2.83 gal) to boil kettle
  • 9. kettle 2 back into mash tun @ 176F = mash @~167F (kettle 2 was at 185(!), added cool water to bring it down to 173, mash at 159 when added)
  • 10. hold mash @167F for 20 min (only got up to 161, held for 20)
  • 11. vorlauf and sparge with 185F water (sparge water varied from 179->190 while backup boiling water was added)
  • 12. ~end up with 18.5 gal wort~ (ended with 19 gal)
  • 13. divide wort into keggle (13.5 gal) and turkey fryer (5 gal) (14 in keggle, 5 in fryer, added foam reducer)
  • 14. add 5.17 oz old/low AA hops to keggle @ start of boil (4.65 hops total – .5 willamette 4AA 4yr, 1.6 saaz 2.6AA 4 yr, 2.6 saaz 3.2AA 2 yr)
  • 15. boil down to ~12-13 gals* (boiled down to 12.8 gal in 2 hr 40 min)
• as you can see, hitting some of the temps proved challenging, but the boil didn’t take long at all – with the garage door closed, my system managed to boil off over 2 gallons an hour, without using the bucket heater.  I stopped the boil when I hit an OG of 12.9 brix = 1.05.
• as for bugs, I pitched a smack pack of wyeast’s roselare blend and a vial of white labs’ sour mix 1, and added dregs from a 375ml bottle of drie fonteinen oude geuze (i believe it was bottled in 2009).  I pitched at 74F.
• it took a couple of days to see some airlock activity, and the brew is chugging along nicely at the moment at around 66-68F.  expect updates in about a year…

ok, so this weekend in review is more like a week in review since AP and I met up with CB, JVG, AF, DH, and JC at la trappe on tuesday.

• although their prices made la trappe more of a special occasion destination during these recession days, their beer list was thorough (as always) and I had to resist getting some fries and mussels.
• I couldn’t resist the drie fonteinen geuze though – what an amazing, complex beverage.  picked up another bottle of it at bottle barn recently for under $15 – I can’t think of a better beer at that price point.
• later that week I dropped by CB’s to sample some of his latest brews and see how my steam/common was doing.
• CB said it had cleared up, and after a quick pour I was happy to confirm.  what can I say, it is damn tasty.
• the weekend led AP and I down to LA, where we rolled over to naja’s with AP for some fish tacos, great beers (hop 15, pliny, old chub, etc.), friendly staff, and fantastic weather.
• and on a side note, I learned a thing or two this weekend, compliments of the mad fermentationist (luckily, one of the ‘things’ was not the belgium/belgian issue).