So I’ve been reading a lot on this and asking one of my pro brewing buddies about how to approach this and have been getting conflicting results.
I am doing the La Folie clone from BYO.
http://byo.com/belgian-lambic-and-sour- ... olie-clone
but I am going to use the Wyeast Roeselare yeast. But most recipes I read say to use like a safale 5 to primary ferment, rack to a secondary and add the “bug” yeast. My buddy says just use two of the Roeselare’s right from the start. But then I would be worried about the beer sitting on all the dead yeast for 18 months. (maybe this isn’t an issue with all the bugs in there, idk). So first question. should I do a clean primary ferment and then add the Roeselare or just add the Roeselare from the start.
If I do just add the Roeselare from the start should I rack to a secondary when the grravity gets where I want it to be?
Next Oaking… I plan on doing the french oak soaked in burgundy but when should I add it. In my experience 1 month of contact time is plenty to get a good flavor. So do I do that right at the beginning of the secondary (if I rack it off) or wait till the last month it is in the secondary. (also how fast does the pellicle (sp) form? if I wait too long then I may not be able to add the oak. Also don’t want it to get trapped.
Lots of questions I know. Thanks for any experienced input.
I’m by no means an expert on this topic (I have one Flanders read sitting at eight months and one Brown at four) but this is what I think and did.
Pitch the Roselare right off the bat by itself. It has regular sacc strains in it that will get the job done. There are also a lot of people out there who will claim that Roselare by itself is not enough for them and will pitch dregs of other nonpasterized sours to up the complexity. I used Jolly Pumpkin’s La Roja for this because at that six month mark but probably should have done it right off the bat. After that I debated for a long time what to in terms of racking off the yeastcake and opted to leave it on there for six months. Why six months I don’t know but that is what I did. Mostly racked it at that point so I could brew the brown and just pitch it on the yeastcake. As of right now it’s sitting downstairs getting tasty on some oak which I had soaked before putting in. Don’t remember how much I put in there but it wasn’t a lot, didn’t want the oak to dominate it.
I looked online and talked with my brewer friend and this is what I came up with as a plan. I pitched one pack of the Roeselare right away. Also pitched the dregs off an Odell Meddler. I’m gonna let it sit on that for about a month. Then rack to a secondary, add the second yeast pack and also then oak with 1 oz french medium soaked in burgundy (for one month). I’ll leave it in the secondary for the 17 more months give or take. I’ll brew up another beer to then put on that original yeast cake, something lighter maybe, and let it sit on that for 18 months also while pitching random dregs I’m sure. Amazingly La Folie came out in my city last night also but I’ve read that the bombers are now flash pasteurized and they use a different Belgian yeast for bottle conditioning so the dregs will be no good out of it.
