Brewed: Premier Lambic

By scot in Beer Recipes, Home Brewing on Sunday, June 9th, 2013

My second attempt at Premier Lambic via turbid mash (never done it any other way). They say you never get a second time to be the first time. True. This is more of an attempt at trying to iron out the turbid mash process (which I try to detail below and/or you can look at the first brew day for links to the sites that gave me knowledge).

The goal of multiple batches is three fold:

• More practice at trubid mash – my first go around was a little crazy (sort of like making bread for the first time). The process took forever, I felt like I made a few mistakes, and I just want to get this process done in case I run across ECY01 again in the future.
• Reusing the hard to get ECY01 – it took me over a year to get a vile of these critters. I harvested some from the initial brew day, I couldn’t let them go to waste. I had trouble getting the beer going in spite of a two liter starter.
• Have enough lambic for a playground – I don’t know if either of these lambics will worth the time and effort but, if they are, I won’t enough to have straight and some to add fruit in, possibly even some far out there fruits.

Turbid Mash:

I use the in house stove allowing me to have multiple burners and different size pots on each burner (have to do a wizard act to get them all to fit). I feel I have more control and can have each pot at a different temperature if needed.

I placed 1.5 gallons of water in a pot for the initial step. Once the water hit 146*F, it was placed in a five gallon pot for mixing with the grain (the pot is 75% full at this point, a bigger pot or stirring vessel would be better). This is such a low water to grain ratio that it would be impossible to mix in the mash tun (due to the tubing). Also, be prepared to have tired wrist or two when you thoroughly mix this together. It is stiff!

The mixture was at 113.5*F. I let this rest for 20 minutes.

Added five quarts of water for the next rest. 4 quarts were boiling while the fifth was at 155*F. This combination of water made the grain bed too hot. A lot of stirring ensued. Started a five minute rest at 140*F. I believe, in this step, you are shooting for the 133*F range.

Being my second attempt, do I have to change the name of the beer? Enjoy!

General Information:
Brew Date: Sunday, June 09, 2013
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: ECY01
Yeast Starter: 2 liter
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.00
Original Gravity: 1.052
IBU: 13.1
Color: 3.6 SRM
Boiling Time (Minutes): 120
Brewhouse Efficiency: 68%
Alcohol by Volume: 4.7%
Primary Fermentation: 365 days @68*F, including some oak chips

Grain Bill:
6.00# Pilsner
3.00# Red Wheat
0.25# Rice Hull

Mash:
Turbid Mash

Hop Bill:
1.00 ounces Saaz (3.20%) @120 minutes

Extras:
1.0 tsp Irish Moss @ 15 minutes
1.0 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 minutes

Useless Fact: Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.