23B Flanders Red Ale
Flanders Red – Barrel Project 2024
Grain bill
| Gladfield Vienna Malt | 2.25 kg | 30.1% |
| Gladfield Munich Malt | 2 kg | 26.8% |
| Gladfield Pilsner Malt | 1.5 kg | 20.1% |
| Unmalted Wheat | 0.8 kg | 10.7% |
| Gladfield Aurora Malt | 0.36 kg | 4.8% |
| Gladfield Redback Malt | 0.36 kg | 4.8% |
| Special B | 0.2 kg | 2.7% |
Hop schedule
| Hop | 90 min |
|---|---|
| Pacific Gem | 11g |
Yeast
| Wild Culture - Baby Grand | Barrel inoculation (250L shared oak barrel) |
Water additions
| Calcium Chloride | 1.5 g |
Tasting notes
2025-12-21
About This Beer
The Flanders Red Barrel Project is a Valley Brewers brew club collaboration. Ten brewers each contribute 23L of wort into a shared 250L oak barrel on a yearly cycle: on barrel day each brewer retrieves their portion of the previous year’s finished beer and replenishes with fresh wort.
The barrel is inoculated with the Baby Grand wild culture — originally captured on Kapiti Island by North End Brewery, who named it after their commercial Baby Grand Sour Red Ale. The culture is maintained collectively by Valley Brewers (Lower Hutt) and North End Brewery (Waikanae).
This was my first entry into the barrel project. The wort was brewed on 30 November 2024 and transferred to the barrel on 1 December 2024. After approximately 12 months conditioning, the finished beer was retrieved on barrel day, 21 December 2025.
The Wort
The recipe is built for long barrel conditioning with mixed cultures: Vienna and Munich Malt for depth and colour, Gladfield Pilsner as the clean backbone, unmalted wheat for protein structure and body, Aurora and Redback Malt for fruit and toffee character, and a small Special B addition for deep dark fruit and colour. The hop rate is minimal — 11g Pacific Gem at 90 minutes — providing just enough bittering to discourage spoilage while leaving the environment hospitable for the barrel culture.
Brew Day
Step mash — the first time using this approach. Protein rest at 54°C for 30 minutes, ramped to 69.5°C for a 60-minute saccharification rest, then ramped to 80°C and held 10 minutes for mash out. Post-boil wort transferred into a sanitised cube, then transferred to the shared barrel on barrel day, 1 December 2024. OG 1.067 with 23L into the barrel.
The Result
Retrieved at barrel day on 21 December 2025 after 12 months conditioning. Deep red, funky, malty, with a smooth sourness. Tasted side-by-side with North End Brewing’s Baby Grand Sour Red Ale — the comparison was very close, with only slight differences that were hard to articulate. Judged better than the 2023 fill on direct comparison at the same event.
The first entry into the barrel project delivered exactly what Flanders Red conditioning in a shared wild-culture barrel should produce.
Note FG and ABV are esitmated not measured.