I Am Not A Kriek
5.0 gal
3.0 lbs light dry malt extract
3.0 lbs dry wheat malt extract
0.5 lbs malto-dextrin powder
0.5 oz Hallertau Select (1.5% AA), 60 min (or 3 oz aged whole leaf hops if I can find them at my shop, probably unlikely)
Wyeast 1056 cal ale yeast
Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend
Wyeast 5733 Pediococcus Cerevisiae (maybe)
20 lbs sour cherries
Neutral oak chips (maybe)
Acid blend (maybe)
Ferment for a week with ~1.5 L starter cal ale yeast, transfer to secondary with ~2.0 L starter lambic blend, maybe add a pack of pedio. Keep it on bugs for ~6 months until cherry season, rack on top of 10 lbs sour cherries with pits, cleaned, split, and frozen. Rack off when most of fruit pulp is gone, age until dry, re-rack onto 10 more lbs sour cherries until cherry flavor high. Rack off cherries and age until dry, bottle with corn sugar (and acid blend if flavor needs a boost).
Lots of questions. I'm planning to do this in plastic buckets to keep bugs away from my carboys and to allow a little oxygenation, which I believe should hike the barnyard character a bit. Is this a good idea? Will only half an ounce of low alpha hops do a good enough job at preservation (not really worried about the ~2 IBUs it will contribute, this is aging for a while), or do I need the larger quantity of aged hops? Are 20 lbs of cherries overkill for 5 gallons? Will the bugs require a little oak (neutral chips) to give them more surface area? Does more maltodextrin up the Brett character? How anal should I be about temperature?
Advice and/or ball busting welcome.
HopJuice