Time for another solera update.

I’ll be brewing two batches to get enough volume for this year. I expect to need about seven and a half gallons to refill the barrel and the rest will go into a keg for top ups. I’m pulling about half of the barrel’s volume this year instead of a third. The barrel is still tasting good, but I’m worried it might be starting to go in a direction I don’t like, so I’m going to pull some extra now while it’s still tasting nice.

I filled a keg last year for top ups, and I really liked the process of topping up from the keg. Unfortunately the beer in the keg ended up not tasting great, so I’m going to dump the old keg and try again with fresh beer this year.

I’d like to modify the solera to be a bit less sour so half of this year’s beer will be fermented without any lactic bacteria, just Sacch and Brett. I’ll be using Omega’s C2C Saison blend for this.

I’ve used C2C in the past and I think it made a perfect blending beer. No really loud flavors, just a subtle and pleasantly funky beer that melded really well with other sours. (It’s nice on its own too, the white wine saison I made with it is one of my favoite funky beers so far).

Recipe

Pretty similar to last year. Notable changes:

• Back to US 2-Row instead of pils. I don’t think I can tell the different in such a complicated grain bill.
• Only using sour microbes in half of the fresh beer

Batch size:      6 gallons
Target OG:       1.060
Target FG:       1.005
Calculated IBU:  13.5
Calculated SRM:  15.6

Grain bill:
3.5 lb US 2-Row         (27%)
3.5 lb Vienna           (27%)
3.5 lb Munich           (27%)
1.0 lb White Wheat Malt (7.6%)
0.5 lb Crystal 40       (3.8%)
0.5 lb Caramunich       (3.8%)
0.5 lb Special B        (3.8%)

Mash (Batch Sparge): 159 °F @ 1.4 qts/lb

Hops:
1.0 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh @ 60 minutes

Yeast:
ECY01 Bug Farm (batch 1)
Omega C2C Saison + Brett (batch 2)

Both batches were fermented at roughly 67 °F ambient temp.

Notes

2022-01-02 - Double brew day. First mash 160, second mash 159. Pretty smooth brew day.

ECY in the first batch. OG 1.060

C2C in the second batch. OG 1.058

2022-01-05 - Despite being fresh and advertising 350B cells, the ECY half has barely fermented at all. Current gravity 1.050. I’m not sure what went wrong. This blend has been a consistent performer for me in past years.

Transferred the C2C half to a purged keg. Transferred the ECY half onto the C2C yeast. Vigorous fermentation a few hours later.

I’m not going to put the ECY half in the barrel. I’ll going to let it condition on its own and see how it goes.

I’ll brew a third batch soon for the barrel.

2022-01-15 - Brewed third batch. Fermented with Wyeast Lambic blend.

2022-01-22 - Pulled year two’s finished beer. Took ~7 gallons this year. Added all of the Wyeast portion (~5.5 gallons) to the barrel. Filled the rest of the way with the C2C portion (~2 gallons). I’ll use the remaining C2C beer for top ups.

2022-05-19 - Noticed that the keg of C2C top up beer had a dry airlock. RIP.

I was using a gas disconnect + some tubing in a bottle of starsan as an airlock. Crucially, the bottle was slightly elevated from the keg. There was a temperature shift and the pressure differential started a siphon that drained all the starsan into the keg.

I think it’s probably been dry a week or two. The beer doesn’t smell too bad yet but it might be a dumper. Transferred it into a carboy for now. Not putting any in the barrel. I’ll have to top up with something else. (Update: This has a pint of starsan in it. Why was I thinking about keeping it? Dumped.)

2022-05-19 - Topped up barrel with 2yr old keg of boring sour red ale.

2022-07-29 - Replaced airlock with one-way vented silicone bung. It will let CO2 out, but it’ll pull a vacuum rather than suck air in. It’s a bit late in the game to be trying to mitigate oxygen issues, but it can’t hurt.

2022-09-18 - Topped up from a keg of funky pale saison. I didn’t really like the red ale I used earlier in the year.

The silicone bung seems to be working as advertised. There was a significant vacuum when I pulled the bung to top the barrel. I’m kicking myself for not using one of these sooner.

Took a little sample from the barrel. It’s tasting about the same as the last top up. Not amazing, but it remains tasty.