Flanders Red 2010


 


 



Flag of Flanders



It has been just over a year since I brewed a Flanders Red in October of 2010, and I decided to bottle 3 gallons as a "young" beer and split out 2 gallons for blending next October with a beer I will brew in the next week or so.  Last year I used WLP 028, Edinburgh Ale yeast in primary and Wyeast 3763, Roeselare blend in secondary, finally pitching a rehydrated pack of Muntons Ale yeast at bottling. I was interested to see if the Muntons would have the legs to stand up to the acidity and considered using champagne yeast, but it carbonated just fine. The grain bill of this Flanders is based on Jamil Zainasheff's 2004 NHC recipe from the AHA website, however, I made the beer much stronger than style guidelines to accentuate the vineous wine-like character of the beer. This year I plan to use a different grain bill, shooting for a lower ABV, as well as my homemade Lambic yeast blend.

The resulting beer is deliciously tart and wine like. It has a strong but clean sour cherry flavor and I can't imagine waiting another year to taste next year's blended beer.

 Flanders Red 2010 Recipe:



2 Gallons reserved for blending and a bottle for drinking



Specifics:

Batch Size: 5.25 gallons

OG: 1.067

FG: 1.009

SRM: 17.88

IBU: 18

Grain:

5 lbs. Vienna

4 lbs. 2-Row

3 lbs. Munich 10L

.5 lbs. Red Wheat Malt

.5 lbs. Special B
.5 lbs. Belgian Aromatic

Hops:

1 oz. East Kent Golding at 60 minutes

Yeast:

WLP 028 Edinburgh in primary

Wyeast 3763 Roeselare in secondary
Munton's Ale Yeast at bottling

Notes:
Brewed 10/16/10. Drew just under 7 gallons pre-boil wort and boiled down to 5.25 gallons. Cooled and pitched WLP 028. After a week in primary, transferred and pitched Wyeast 3763. Let sit in secondary for 13 months before reyeasting with Muntons and bottling 3 gallons. Reserved 2 gallons for later blending.