Stupid (sexy) Flanders II

A friend of mine introduced me to sour beers a couple of years ago, thank you Richard. And, as you'll learn about me, if I like something I want to make it myself. Through some research, and the re-re-release of Wyeast's Roselare Blend, I decided to make a Flanders Red Ale. I wanted something that leaned closer to the tart than the funky side of sours. I also love the Simpsons, and thus Stupid Flanders was born. That brew was just bottled a few days ago, after a year in the secondary. I'll let you know how that one turned out in February 2014, when she's done aging. In order to use the dregs from that brew before any household bugs snuck in I brewed what was to be Stupid Flanders II the following day. Here was my recipe:

8# Vienna
1# Cara Amber
1# White Whear
0.5# Crystal 60
0.25# Special "B"

1 oz Hallertauer @ 60 min

Wyeast 3763

I mashed the grains at 158 to try to make as many unfermentable sugars as I could. I won't go into all of the technical yeast and bug info in this, but the general gist is this: in a normal beer the yeast converts all of the fermentable sugars and the unfermentable sugars add sweetness and body. In sour beers extra bugs are added that do convert those sugars, which is where the sourness comes from. So, the generally high mash temp should make for a more sour beer... I'll let ya know in 2015 for this one. I used a 90 minute boil, for added color and character. I chilled the wort to pitching temp (65 for my house), dumped about a gallon onto the dregs from Stupid Flanders 1, stirred it up to make sure I got them all, then transferred everything into the primary. The reason for the added "sexy" moniker for this brew is that I was shooting for a starting gravity of about 1055 but ended up with 1062. So I'm guessing this could be considered an Imperial Flanders Red Ale, which we can all agree is pretty sexy.

3/9/2013 - This is right after I pitched the Roselare Blend.

3/12/2013 - Full kroisen and fermenting along happily at 72*.

3/18/2013 - Last check in for a while. Because my volume was more than my sour aging 5 gallon carboy could handle, I decided to pull 0.75 gallons to be creative with at some point in the future. As you can see I added a white oak dowel to the main secondary. Oak is a traditional flavor in the Flanders Red Ale. This particular dowel was also in my previous Flanders Red, Stupid Flanders I, so I'm hoping that there are some bugs still hanging out on it. The only treatment that it got prior to being adding was a thorough rinse in hot water.