Too good to be Tru??

[bazookazilla]

I received a book of clone recipes as a Christmas gift. It contains a recipe for a Rodenbach Grand Cru clone. It says to ferment for one week with Wyeast Belgian Lambic Blend yeast, rack to secondary and add wood chips and finish fermentation, prime and bottle. It also says that it will be ready one month after carbonating. Is this realistic?? I have never brewed any type of sour beer before but this seems very, very fast compared to the other recipes I've looked at. I have shied away from the recipes because of the time they need to condition; I'm not patient enough to wait. But if this might work in 2-3 months I will probably give it a try.

[spiderwrangler]

Which book?

[bazookazilla]

e
Clonebrews 2nd Edition
Recipes for 200 Commercial Beers

[TheDarkSide]

Most likely it is too good to be true since Rodenbach Grand Cru is a blended beer, 33% new/67% old.

[bazookazilla]

Is it possible that wouldn't recognize a big difference? I AM NOT very familiar with sour beers as they are way expensive for my budget, but I have enjoyed the few that I have had. I do realize that I am a novice when it comes to drinking/evaluating this style. If I were to brew this recipe, what would anyone suggest is the minimum time for such a beer to condition??

[spiderwrangler]

I'm not a fan of any of the Szamatulski books... mostly based on the way they write their hop additions in their recipes. Any other recipe would be written as:

1 oz Horizon 60 min
1 oz Cascade 20 min
2 oz Cascade 10 min
2 oz Cascade 0 min

In their books, they would write it more like:

1 oz Horizon, boil for 40 minutes.
1 oz Cascade, boil for 10 minutes.
2 oz Cascade, boil for 10 minutes, turn off heat. Add 2 oz Cascade.

While this MAY be more approachable to people used to reading recipes, it's not the convention for beer recipes, and irritates me. Minor, but it irks me and makes me question the rest of what they have to say.

I refuse to stock them at the shop. If someone wants the book, they need to special order it. I can't speak to the accuracy of any of their recipes, as I haven't brewed them, but while I don't think it will clone the beer you're looking to make, it may be worth trying.

[hoodie]

I have that book but have never used it. The information seems dated and the accuracy of the recipe's is questionable, though close perhaps. If it were me, I would start with the recipe for Flander's Red from Brewing Classic Styles. On another note, there is another clone book coming out in a few weeks that Denny Conn contributed to, http://www.amazon.com/Craft-Beer-Homebr ... OOB4ONJP6I

[brewinhard]

No it is not a reasonable time frame for either the wyeast or white lab sour blends to reach a proper acidity level. Think more of like 10-16 mos for a beer to be ready with these commercial strains. As good as they are they are still a bit tame especially when using the first generation.