When I ordered grain for my last marathon brewing session, I committed to not brewing again until the spring. I have the itch so I put together some stuff to brew in 2 weeks and ordered the grain today.
Christmas Porter is a rebrew of my porter / stout that was made last Fall in which I added 20 ounces of Starbucks Espresso to the keg. I drank Hair of the Dog Cherry Adam on 3 occasions in Portland and I want more of it. I hope this one comes out okay. Finally, a straight unblended Lambic that I’ll leave out in the open air. Above 32 but below 40ish is when Cantillon told me it is ideal to brew their beer so that’s what I’ going to do. We’ll see how my first spontaneous beer comes out.
for your lambic: Mike Tonsmire and others have shown that you tend to get poor results leaving your carboy/wort out in the ambient air. A lot of breweries that do this, HF included, throw the wort over a large surface area and are also ultimately putting the wort in barrels that have seen established cultures.
Instead, home brewers have had great results leaving a small series of starters out in the ambient air. Then, growing up a larger starter (as well as being able to discard bad ones). Throw an airlock on it after a while to deprive any mold of oxygen. Also, throw one near your carboys. Sometimes, that (and fruit trees) are the best place. The temperature is probably pretty good for you right now as well. Good Luck
Thank you for linking to the article! Very useful info there and I may mimic that one.
I tend to write things down that are being planned and then start reading and researching so your comment is certainly in the right direction.
HFS, to my knowledge just moved the fermenter outside with the top off it over night..or maybe it was the mash tun. But only Shaun knows for sure how those 2011 spontaneous beers were crafted :)
I did buy an extra Roselare pack just in case the spontaneous doesn’t take off. Do you think a starter overnight outside is good enough? Or should I leave it out all week?
just put the hot wort outside until it cools. I did a few 250ml starters in growlers covered in cheese cloth. As the wort cools, it will suck air into the starter as it contracts. Then, I put aluminum on the growler O/N. Then went to an airlock. Let the starter go for a good week or so and step up after you see activity. Don’t taste the starter: just go by smell. You need a low pH & alcohol or else you are susceptible to bad critters proliferating in your starter. They should die once you get fermentation going. You will probably toss a few starters of them that have mold or that smell bad. Hopefully you get one that smells lactic or lemony. Try a lot of different places around your property and put one next to your brewing rig as well.
HFS built a coolship in the attic. Its tiny, like the one Vinnie has at Russian River. Of course, they can get away with not pitching a starter since they are enriched for brewing flora and they are tossing the wort in barrels that should contain flora from previous batches.
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2011/04/ambient-spontaneous-yeast-starters.html