23B Flanders Red Ale
Flanders Red – Barrel Project 2025
In fermenter OG1.067Grain 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 |
About This Beer
Second entry into the Valley Brewers barrel project, brewed and transferred on barrel day, 21 December 2025.
Ten brewers each contribute 23 L of wort into a shared 250 L oak barrel on a yearly cycle, retrieving their portion of the previous year’s beer and replenishing with fresh wort on the same day. The barrel runs on the Baby Grand wild culture, captured on Kapiti Island by North End Brewery and maintained collectively between Valley Brewers and North End. See the 2024 fill for the first entry and how it turned out.
Same recipe as 2024: Vienna and Munich for depth and colour, Pilsner as the backbone, unmalted wheat for body, Aurora and Redback for fruit and toffee, a little Special B for dark fruit, and a single minimal hop charge.
Brew day
Step mash on the BrewZilla 35L: protein rest at 54°C for 30 minutes, ramped over 15 minutes to 69.5°C for a 60-minute saccharification, then to 80°C for a 10-minute mash out. Mash pH 5.3, sparge pH 5.6. Post-boil into a sanitised cube for transport to the barrel venue, and into the shared barrel the same day.
Gravity ran high, several points above the 2024 fill off the same recipe and rig.
Barrel day
The 2024 fill came out as this one went in: 17 to 18 L retrieved and tasted alongside North End’s commercial Baby Grand. Very close, funky, deep red, good malt character and a smooth sourness. The barrel culture is producing the right result.
What is next
Conditioning in the barrel until the next barrel day in December 2026, when it comes out and the 2026 wort goes in.
FG and ABV are estimated rather than measured.