pLambic Tasting

Well, it's been 10 months since I made the pLambic and I tasted it extensively the other day. Basically it's pleasantly tart but not puckingly sour, and some versions have a dry finish which seems like funk/brett/wild yeast. The best version so far is the 5 gallon plastic bucket, it has fantastic aroma and very pleasant taste, a bit more sour than the glass carboy. The 1gallon glass carboy is the most sour, in that one I put no wyeast lambic blend, only contributions from the bug jar. The 1G has a very faint and not great aroma, and the finish is lacking. Much more acid though. The 5G glass is decent, not as sour, and not as delicate. Probably for fruit later.

Blending 1G Glass with 5G glass makes it better. A little 1G glass with 5G plastic makes it pretty good too, but finish is weird.

New RIS

Brewed an "improved" version of the Russian Imperial Stout yesterday. Dropped the Special B (too much raisin/prune), upped the oats to 2lbs (from 1lb), put the mash at a regular 152 or so, and didn't boil for almost 5 hrs.

My efficiency was really bad and so I ended up using 5.5lbs of molasses instead of 2lbs that I planned on. Ended up with 11.5G of 1.107 wort, which is what I wanted. I think next time better batch sparge calulations would help with efficiency - too much water, 2nd sparge was 8G first 5-6G etc. I spilled a lot on the ground so I would have had even more volume. Bump up grain bill for the lower efficiency.

Recipe was:
27 lbs Golden Promise
6 lbs Munich
5.5 lbs Molasses
3 lbs Roasted Barley
2lbs Oats (Quaker not instant)
1.5 lbs Chocolate malt
1 lb Wheat Malt
1 lb Black Wheat Malt
1 lb Debittered Black Malt
1 lb Crystal 60

3 oz Centennial 90 mins
1 oz Mt. Hood 90 mins
1 oz Fuggle 90 mins
2 oz Centennial 20 mins
1 oz Centennial 5 mins

Irish Moss

It's in plastic now, still lagging 'cause it's cold in the basement (59-60) 12 hrs later. It'll ferment out in plastic and then I'll rack it to glass for a few months and then rack it again onto oak cubes + Maker's Mark.