Eureka, its time for another recipe. Today’s recipe is a recipe I designed to get rid of some leftover malts and to use the bugs I isolated from commercial sour beers. This recipe is the first base of my very first Solera. The Solera technique in sour brewing is a wonderful way to maintain the souring bugs over a period of time. You basically fill a wooden barrel (in my case a carboy) with fresh wort and dump some dregs/bugs in there as well. After a year or so, you remove part of the liquid and replace it with fresh wort. Then repeat the procedure a year later again. Over time, the beer gets a matured character.
I started my first Solera with a pretty basic recipe and intend to add some Stout or Porter next year to get some roasted character. Unfortunately, I do not have the space and capacity to fill a wooden barrel, I therefore used the poor man’s barrel: wooden chips.
| Recipe: | Solera One | |
| Numbers: | Volume [L] | 16 (4.2 gal) |
| Original gravity | 12.2°P | |
| Terminal gravity | N/A | |
| Color | Around 11 EBC | |
| IBU | 21 IBU | |
| ABV | N/A | |
| Grains: | Pilsner malt (4 EBC) | 2 kg |
| Cara Hell (25 EBC) | 0.25 kg | |
| Wheat malt (4 EBC) | 0.25 kg | |
| Carared | 0.6 kg | |
| Barley raw (4 EBC) | 1 kg | |
| Hops: | Hallertauer (4% AA) | 40 g and boil for 90 min |
| Yeast: | Wyeast’s | #3763 Roeselare Blend & #1581 Belgian Stout, Secondary: Dregs (see description below) |
| Water: | Burgdorf | Mash: 11 L (2.9 gal), sparge: 16 L (4.2 gal) @78°C (172°F) |
| Rest: | Mash in @50°C (122°F), 20 min @50°C (122°F), 40 min @63°C (145°F), 30 min @72°C (162°F), 10 min @ 78°C (172°F) | |
| Boil: | Total 90 min | |
| Fermentation: | Primary | 15 days @20°C (68°F) in plastic fermenter |
| Secondary | Until the carboy is filled with sediments… |
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| Maturation: | Carbonation (CO2 vol) | N/A |
| Maturation time | N/A | |
04/27/12: Brew day number 52. Crushed all the grains and rested according to the protocol. Iodine test was negative and I therefore proceeded with the sparging. Then boiled the wort for 90 min with the addition of the Hallertauer hops. After cooling the wort down to approximately 20°C (68°F), I added the yeast cake of a previous beer (#50 Folly Red) which consisted of Wyeast’s #3763 Roeselare Blend and #1581 Belgian Stout yeast. Did the primary fermentation in a plastic fermenter. I originally planned to get 20 L (5.3 gal) with a gravity of 12.2°P. Maybe the raw barley was not as efficient as planned.
Fig 1: Solera One after a month in the secondary fermenter
Anyway, I then prepared the souring mixture for the secondary fermentation: Added some Girardin Gueuze dregs, Brettanomyces isolated from the Girardin Gueuze and 3 Fonteinen Geuze and the dregs from the Les Trois Dames Oud Bruin along with 50 g of medium toasted American oak chips in an Erlenmeyer flask and left it at room temperature.
05/12/12: Transferred the beer to a glass carboy and added the souring mixture with the oak chips to the glass carboy as well. Now its time to wait…
06/18/12: Nearly a month in the secondary fermenter, a pellicle formed Fig 1). The smell is awesome: Lots of cherry, hints of sourness and some funky notes. Can’t wait to try this brew…
Eureka Brewing 