Foraged Farmhouse

Its been nearly 10 months since I started the "minimalist lambic".  I've tasted it here and there, and unsurprisingly the beer is fairly simple.  The main flavors I get from it are barnyard funk, bitterness, and lemon rind acidity.  The barnyard flavor isn't the horse-blanket funk, but rather a softer more earthy/floral barnyard.  It reminds me more of the funk you get from brett farmhouse beers.

With that in mind, I had decided that I should run with the earthy/floral flavor and add some dandelions.  Its not my personal favorite, but thought it could add some complexity and make a nice summer sour beer for my wife.  When I went out to pick some dandelions, I noticed maple flowers blooming above me.  I had been told just the night before that these are edible, so I decided to try some.  Turns out they are pretty good.  I picked two varieties; Sugar Maple and Norway Maple.  Ironically, the Norway Maple flowers are much sweeter than the Sugar Maple's.

Sugar Maple flowers.

Norway Maple flowers.

Eating them raw is fine, but I had no idea how they would translate into a beer.  I decided to take a pinch of each and make a tea with them to get an idea of how strong the flavors would be.

Teas made with maple flowers and dandelions.

I found I preferred the flavor of the Norway maple flowers the most, but they both make pretty good tea.  I sorted out and added about 2 cups of Norway maple flowers, 1 cup of Sugar maple flowers.  The dandelion tea seemed to be a bit vegetal, which I attributed to the green bottom of the flower, so cut that part off of each and added 1/2 cup of dandelion flowers (petals?).

Bowl of ingredients ready to be added to the beer.

I also decided to add 4oz (~1 cup) of dried cranberries.  I'm not looking to pick up cranberry flavor in the end, but rather just a soft fruity note.  Also I thought it would help the color of the beer.

I'm thinking I'll give these about a month to infuse with the beer and then it'll be ready for bottling.  With any luck, it will be a nice summer beer.

Cider Keeve: Day 62

This weekend is the 2 month mark for the Cider Keeve so I wanted to check in on it, get a gravity reading, and see how it tastes/smells.  As I mentioned last time, I was anticipating a gravity of ~1.010, and at 1.008 it is going right as I hoped.

Keeved Cider at 2 months.

Now for the big question; how does it smell and taste?  To be honest, it was very hard to judge and the smell/flavor was not like any cider I've had.  The smell had this earthy, floral, and licorice combination with a hint of honey and apple skin.  It reminded me of a mead.  When I drank it, the flavor and body made me think I was drinking a mead or a wine.  My wife said it reminded her a lot of Chardonnay.  There was also a strawberry flavor and a slight tannin note.  It had a very nice tartness; not too sharp, but still pronounced.  At it's current gravity, I find it slightly thick, although if it were carbonated, it might be nice.

My biggest hope in checking in on the cider at this point was to see if the Brett was working in tandem to the Saccharo.  Based on the aroma, I would say yes.  However, it didn't translate much into the flavor...at least not at this point.  So I can't really say definitely if the Brett has been playing an active role or not.  I think it is on track for a keeve fermentation, and will just require some more time to see how flavors develop.

Since we were down checking on this, I decided to check on the Minimalist Lambic, which has been fermenting for over 7 months.  Gravity, as expected, is 1.000.  It smells pungent of typical lambic aroma.  Mostly grassy and barnyard funk.  Some hops and a slight phenol.  The taste was very interesting.  It has a very big funky/earthy/grassy flavor, but then has this lingering void, and then a hop bitterness.  The sourness is there, but not that high.  What is interesting is that its hard to call it "watery" or "one-noted", but it is definitely lacking complexity.  This isn't much of a surprise considering it is fermented with a single Brett strain where lambic traditionally has many many strains.

Minimalist Lambic: Fermentation

We had some extra lambic wort at the end of the O'so brewday, so a few of us filled up carboys to take home.  Instead of buying a lambic blend yeast, I thought I would try something new; I wanted to try fermenting the wort as simply as possible.  The 4 main players in Lambic fermentation are Saccro, Brett, Lacto, and Pedio.  Between the two bacteria strains (Lacto & Pedio), I have read that Pedio does the lion's share of creating the acidity in Lambic, so I chose that one.  When Pedio is fermenting, it gives off diacetyl, which is a buttery off flavor.  Brett however eats the diacetyl compound and therefor should always be used in conjunction with Pedio.  So, between the two yeast options (Saccro & Brett), I really don't have a choice but to use Brett, although that is what I would have picked anyway.  The strain of Brett I picked was Brett Brux, as I like the barnyard funk flavors and thought it would complement fruit additions later on should I choose to add any.

I pitched the Brett & Pedio into my 6 gallon Better Bottle full of Lambic wort on Sunday.  On Tuesday noticeable fermentation started.  Here is what it looks like:

Lambic fermentation with only Brett B & Pedio

Once the primary settles down, I'll go put this next to my pilot Lambic barrel to sit for at least a year.  I'm looking forward to watching the pellicle and potential ropy stage through this carboy.  It will be much easier to see and document than oak barrels have been.  I'm also looking forward to seeing how Marc decided to ferment his portion of lambic.