Lambic take II
Two weeks ago I started another Lambic using a similar recipe to my Cherry Lambic disaster. This time I have a good feeling. I'm using a similar recipe:
- The mash is mostly Pale malt but 25% wheat malt
- Challenger hops are put in at the beginning of the boil
- A simple dry yeast is used during the primary fermentation
This morning, I inspected the brew after two weeks. I actually thought that it had stuck, but Greg @ BrewUk encouraged me to take a few hydrometer readings. It had in fact fermented quickly. The beer tasted like a young wheat beer - not too strong in flavour. I guess this is ideal for the fruit to take over the beer in the next stage.
Last time I added the cherries at the beginning of the fermentation. This time I've waited two weeks, racked the base beer onto 4kg of frozen raspberries and added some cultures - Lactobacillus, Brettanomyces and Pediococcus. This appears to be a more common approach to a Lambic. I now have to wait 4 weeks to see what happens, but everything seems good so far. It will be another 4 weeks after that before it will be ready to drink, so one for August bank holiday.