Beer Forum

We've got a Flanders Red that is finished, and I will soon have some oak cubes coated with WYeast Roeselare yeasts and bugs. I wonder if I could brew a Flanders Brown-ish style beer by utilizing these oak cubes. I thought I'd ferment with a neutral ale yeast and then toss the cubes in about 4-5 days after fermentation starts.

Anyone try something like this? What about using the dregs at the bottom of the Flanders Red to sour up this next beer?

MikeB wrote:We've got a Flanders Red that is finished, and I will soon have some oak cubes coated with WYeast Roeselare yeasts and bugs. I wonder if I could brew a Flanders Brown-ish style beer by utilizing these oak cubes. I thought I'd ferment with a neutral ale yeast and then toss the cubes in about 4-5 days after fermentation starts.

Anyone try something like this? What about using the dregs at the bottom of the Flanders Red to sour up this next beer?

Yes and no, I know of times when people refill a barrel and not add any bugs because the barrel had previously been incolulated with bugs. This would be the same thing only on a smaller scale.

Are they Vinnie's cubes? Did Tom give them to you?



hehehe - I said "Vinnies Cubes"...

Nope not playing with Vinnie's cubes. These are just some oak cubes that I pressure cooked and then threw into a beer that had WYeast's Roeselare (#3763) pitched into it. I figure they've picked up a mixture of bugs and yeast that might add some sourness and complexity to a big brown ale.

From what I've read Rodenbach uses 10% sour beer to inoculate a fermenter after they've rebuilt it. The only problem I see with what you are proposing is that you don't know how much bugs you're adding. It could be way underpitched. I think the beer would get there eventually, but it might just take longer.

Now if you took the cubes and a 1/2 gallon of sour beer, added another ounce of cubes for flavor, you might be right on target...... or maybe not.

I think you would be just fine providing you transfer the cubes to your flanders brown fairly quickly after racking the finished sour beer. Ideally from one fermenter to another. If you don't have this ability, then you could carefully rinse the cubes in distilled or pre-boiled and chilled water and add the cubes to a small amount of starter wort to wake them up again before pitching the starter and cubes both into the brown. You can even add 1/4 cup of trub/slurry to the fermenter to help kickstart the sourness.