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PG 257 of Sparrow’s Wild Brews The “Cara 20 (Dingemans)” is Belgian Caravienne - noted so on packaging. *** DON’T USE THIS FOR MASTER RECIPE *** *** I didn’t have enough Aromatic Malt - 1/2# instead of 1#. Substituting Crystal 40. Color is’t terrible (a little darker) but it will be sweeter and less malty. *** 2020-12-06: Brewday: Notice recipe change above - unfortunate. Also had another Blichmann cable fail. Heating HLT via ON/OFF and analog temp guage. It’s fine. Sparge water starting out around 180°F but it drops by the time it reaches the MT. Went fine after that except I only pumped 5G- into the fermenter so I topped off with another half gallon. Resulting OG was 1.053, two points low. 2020-12-07: 1130: No activity. No surprise based on the lack of swelling in yesterday’s two yeast packets. Fingers crossed. Carboy temp is 69.8°F. I think I can lower the temp in here a couple of degrees to 66°F. 2030: Just a tiny bit of krausen on top and pressure n the airlock, but fermentation has begun. temp slightly down to 68.6°F. 2020-12-08: 0900: Active fermentation at 69°F. Half to 3/4” of krausen. All is well. 1600: Carboy at 70.4°F and getting a little exothermic. Lowered ambient temp two degrees to 64°F. 2020-12-09: 1000: Fermentaytion has slowed just a little but the temp has dropped to 66.4°F. As I want the temp at 68°F I have raised the ambient two degrees to 66°F. 2020-12-10: Carboy at 68°F, bubbling slowed, and krausen dropped. 2020-12-15: Slow fermentation continues and SG has dropped to 1.021. I have a PET “Better Bottle” carboy sanitized but I am now thinking better of it. Primary fermentation can continue. Stories online suggest that PET will and will not work for extended fermentation. My first Flanders was in glas and came out great. My second was in wood and was exsessively acidic. I want and extended aging and I will do it in glass. I have also pulled out a 1.5 oz piece of Red Oak charrd on one side. I will oven heat it to remove issues and put it in the carboy for aging. First, I need to free up glass 5G secondary carboy. 2020-12-19: Racking to secondary today. Secondary contains a 1.5oz piece of one side charred local red oak that I baked for an hour at 250°F to kill any bugs. There was still slow bubbling going on but we are clearly ready for secondary based on near steady gravity, very much slowed bubbling, Brettanomyces and other c=bacteria in the blend, and passage of time. Dropped ambient temp to 64°F while the carboy was at 68.8 °F. Will move the carboy to the floor for an even cooler environment. I pulled a pint from the end of the racking and measured my gravity. Strangely I received 8.4 Brix for an adjusted gravity of 1.027, an increase, and a significant one at that (6 points). I measured it twice fro the same sample being careful to pull from the top on the second measurement. No explenation - I just record what I see. It will be interesting to see what the next sample claims. 2021-11-22: Racking to Balcones barrel. Last use of barrel was for Quad batch 83. Refractometer read 6.6 giving a SG of 1.009. ABV would be about 5.8% here. Note that this already had some wood in secodary, a single chunk of local oak 5/8x5/8x9” or so, but it has impacted flavor minimally, if at all. Flavor is light, thin, almost sweet, with only the faintest tartness, and includes the distinct Flanders Red flavor at low levels. 2022-01-16: Rcking from the Balcones barrel to keg #14. Refractometer gives 7.1 Brix for a rise in gravity to 1.013. Maybe alcohol evaporates off? That would imply, I believe, that the ABV calculation should be good using this FG. Taste is tart but good. Nothing off tasting. Only a little Flanders flavor though at this point, and that is after 406 days fermenting and aging. Not sure what chilling and carbonating will do, plus time awaiting a spot in the keezer. 2022-04-03: Tapped in house on tap #2.