Gueuze... or how I learned to stop worrying, and embrace disaster...

Pretty much the gold standard by many definitions

Gueuze

One of my fav though not a traditional example

One word that gets many a beer geek frothing at the mouth. Gueuze is a beer native to the Senne Valley of Belgium. It is made by blending three different batches of beer from three different years. (This is a real crude definition for the full rabbit hole experience you can go HERE) Gueuze is a sour beer that can age for decades once it has been packaged. Many beer geeks build their entire cellars around different brands and vintages of the beer. This beer has seen a resurgance  in the last couple of years, and I would claim its popularity is at an all time high. and not likely to fade at any time in the near future.

Year one batch going into carboy for three years of aging

So what does that have to do with this post. A couple of years ago I decided to make the foray into brewing my interpretation of this classic and wonderful style of beer. So I laid out a plan. I would brew 5 gallons once every year and then after the third year was sufficiently aged I would blend the three batches to make a close approximation of Gueuze. I decided to use a traditional recipe, utilize my normal brewing process, and rely upon mixed cultures from professional yeast labs rather than spontaneous fermentation as is used in Belgium.

So in November of 2014 I got it started. I knew I needed a healthy culture of micro-organisms so I brewed a small extract batch and used a vial of White Labs Belgian sour mix to ferment it. I then brewed my Lambic style wort in January of 2015 and used the yeast from the starter batch to sour the new beer. Success! Year one batch in the books. I decided to stay on this schedule for the next two years getting me to my three years of beer to blend and make my Gueuze!

Year two!

Fast forward a few months and it is November of 2015. Started the same process. Brewed the extract batch, and pitched the White Labs mix. Then in January of 2016 I brewed the second batch of Lambic style wort. Allowed that batch to ferment then added the harvested yeast from the extract to sour the second batch of beer. Again, success! Year two in the books. Now nothing to do but wait...

Then it happened. over the weekend, I opened the closet in which the carboys are stored and smelled beer. I didn't investigate too closely. Then the next day I noticed it again and looked closer. The airlock that seals the carboy was knocked off. This is bad! If this beer with this mix of micro-organisms gets too much oxygen the beer can be spoiled and potentially turn into Vinegar. My stomach dropped, and my head started spinning. What to do? I resealed the carboy using the airlock. Now comes the hard part. I hadn't planned on opening that carboy for two years to avoid allowing Oxygen to get in and possibly spoil the batch. But, now the carboy has been open for at least one to two days. I didn't take a sample before resealing. And I have begun trying to figure out what to do. 

As it sits now I have thought of three options.
Number one: Do nothing. Continue with the carboy sealed for the next two years, brew next years wort on the same timeline and then when that batch is ready open the three carboys to create the blend. The problem here is that if this 2016 batch is spoiled then I do not know it until then and I can not make my Gueuze in 2018. So that would be three years wasted.

Number two: Take a sample of this batch in a couple of weeks and evaluate if it is potentially spoiled. If it is spoiled then dump it and begin the process again. This would move my Gueuze to 2019 at the earliest and I would have a hard time waiting.

Number three:
Last option. In an effort to be more ambitious with the project I brewed a larger amount of Lambic style wort for 2016. My intent was to use a different mix of yeast makers cultures to see how it would compare to the White Labs mix. So I took approximately three gallons of the extra and put it in a smaller carboy with a hand selected mix of organisms from two different Yeast Laboratories. I could dump the main five gallons and use this smaller amount in it's place when the final batch is ready to blend. A couple of problems here are the second year may be tremendously different from Batch 1, and 3. Another problem is I only have three gallons of year two then and may limit my total volume of Gueuze to make after year three is ready.

So there we are. I have pretty much ruled out option one. Number three is in the lead right now, as with the exception of the different yeast mix, it is the option that keeps me on track to my target.If in the meantime if anyone has suggestions I am open to the comments below. Until then I will just have to do my best to not be down on myself about it and enjoy some Commercial Gueuze whenever possible! Cheers!