Fauxlera Barrel Blends
Do you seek a more complex character in the sours you brew? The solera process might be a path to that goal. The term solera, a noun, is defined as “a system for aging Sherry and other fortified wines, in which younger wines in upper rows of casks are used to top up casks of older wines stored below in order to produce a consistently aged blend.” The literal translation is “on the ground” and is traditionally the lowest of three stacked barrels. The upper barrels, or criaderas (lit. “nursery,” but also variously referred to as scales or clases), contain increasingly younger liquids the higher they are in the stack.
The concept, which likely originated within the Iberian Peninsula for consistency in vinegar, Sherry, and Madeira production, is that a portion of the solera will be emptied and packaged, often on an annual basis, then topped up with an equal portion of liquid via gravity transfer from the criadera above, and so on until the top-most criadera is topped off with freshly fermented liquid. This ensures a blend of fermented beverage with the youngest in the top criadera and the oldest in the solera at the bottom. Therefore, no container is ever drained completely and so portions of the original fill will always be present, though in diminishing volumes.
The solera process of aging and blending liquids in wood can also be applied successfully to beer making, but on a larger and small home scale.
Traditional Solera Blending
When considering the technique, the first question may be: Why barrel age beer? The reasons are numerous. The wood character derived from the barrel can beautifully complement the beer being stored in it — some styles even require this character. The barrel also acts as a great storage vessel that soon becomes host to plentiful yeasts like Brettanomyces and bacteria that create complex characteristics that otherwise are not found in beer fermented with Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast alone.
Applying the solera process adds additional complexity to the finished beer, as it is a great way to age beer for long periods of time and be able to mitigate the sourness and/or acetic characteristics of the oldest beer with the fresher, younger beer from the criaderas above.
The solera method of barrel blending is distinct from traditional barrel blending as the solera method blends various vintages of the same barrel, resulting in a mixed-vintage blend that is continuously being added to. Combining multiple vintages of a single beer can result in a complex and nuanced blend. To assist in calculating the combined age of your solera blend, Michael Tonsmeire, author of American Sour Beers, developed a spreadsheet that calculates the age of a solera that is available here.
Beer added to the uppermost barrel can be fully fermented or can be added as wort with primary fermentation occurring in the barrel, depending on the character of the beer one is seeking. Barrel aging beer allows fermenting agents other than standard brewer’s yeast to affect the beers character. Adding beer that has already undergone primary fermentation plays differently with Brettanomyces and other alternative fermenters and, in my experience, creates a more complex final product than a 100% Brett fermentation. In addition, adding unfermented wort to a barrel can create a messy fermentation.
A Homebrew Solera (Fauxlera)
Homebrewers, who likely do not have the space or need the volumes that would result from a multiple-large barrel system, can create a solera program using a single barrel (or other vessel), a process I like to call “fauxlera.” In this system, the vessel is filled with the original brew. After some amount of time aging, a volume of aged beer is removed and topped off with a fresh portion, thereby leaving percentages, albeit ever diminishing, of each addition, in perpetuity. How often you draw off/replace an amount is up to you, and should be driven by taste, but once or twice a year seems like a reasonable goal.
Most homebrewers would likely find the volume of a standard wine barrel (59 gallons/225 L) too large — not only is it difficult to fill with most common homebrew equipment, but also difficult to consume! If you are part of a homebrew club; however, a group barrel could be a fantastic investment, as they are relatively common, generally affordable for a group-buy, and due to their size, have slow overall evaporation rates. The same cannot be said for smaller barrels, which are generally more difficult to come by (though you can buy them online, if you are willing to pay the shipping on top of the cost). Additionally, the rapid evaporation rate is a real concern, as a small barrel will lose a much higher percentage of its volume than a standard wine barrel. For me, this is a loss of about 13% of my volume per year, though the amount will depend in part on other factors like storage conditions.
It Starts with a Barrel
The type of oak and toasting and what, if anything, was previously aged in it can make a big difference to the character a barrel will impart to your beer. While the brewer can be very creative with pairing a particular barrel to a beer, some styles work better with specific barrels than others. For example, I find saison ales to pair wonderfully with French oak barrels that once contained red or white wine. Bourbon barrels, on the other hand, are made of American oak with the Bourbon imparting a distinctly different character than a wine barrel and are much better suited to imperial stouts and other big, malty styles. Additionally, the wood character that is imparted diminishes relatively quickly each time it is used. Be creative and work with what you can source.
Once you find a barrel, it will need to be inspected and conditioned. Remove the bung and take a whiff before you buy a barrel. If it does not smell good, it likely won’t make good tasting beer — certain types of molds and bacteria are very difficult, if not impossible, to eradicate. Also, the staves will have likely contracted and may not hold liquid if a barrel has sat empty for any appreciable amount of time. Some leakage usually isn’t a concern. If they have not sat dry for too long, it is easy to rehydrate the staves by filling the barrel with chlorine-free water and topping up until it is watertight. Do this outside or in a large sink/tub, as a freshly filled dry barrel will leak like something out of a cartoon! If you find an empty barrel and need to store it for a period of time before you are ready to fill it, you can stabilize and store it by adding a solution of 1 tsp. citric acid and 1.5 tsp. potassium metabisulfite per gallon (3.8 L) of hot water added to the empty barrel. Rotate the barrel occasionally and it can be stored this way indefinitely. But note that it will strip the wood character, so it is best to limit the amount of time it sits.
Once you have sourced and conditioned a barrel, long-term storage is the next consideration. This involves sourcing or constructing a cradle for your barrel to allow stable storage, ease of access, and potential mobility. Even smaller barrels are heavy when filled, so it will require a sturdy cradle. Casters are an option on cradles as long as they are adequately weight-rated. If you are going to be using more than one barrel, commercially available barrel stacking racks in metal or plastic are available. You may also need to utilize a pump to transfer pulls from the barrel.
Barrels of all sizes can be purchased online from brokers like Midwest Barrel Co., Northeast Barrel Co., and others that will come up in an Internet search. The other option is looking at local wineries, distilleries, or breweries who may have barrels they are willing to sell. I am fortunate to live in the “wine country” of Oregon’s Willamette Valley. But even here, it took me a couple years of focused searching to find a smaller oak wine barrel, with a generous dash of wheeling and dealing with a winery to sell it to me. I was fortunate to end up sourcing a 15-gallon (57-L) French oak barrel from a local winery that had been used for a test batch of Cabernet Sauvignon for $100. I love my little barrel! However, as mentioned earlier, contents in smaller barrels do evaporate more quickly and I lose approximately 2 gallons (8 L) per year. I built a cradle out of pressure-treated stock and installed casters to allow the barrel to be moved as needed over short distances, as it weighs nearly 150 pounds (68 kg) when filled. Also, consider barrel placement as well for racking out of the barrel — as mine is on the floor, I needed to purchase a self-priming, anti-gravity transfer pump as a standard racking cane will not suffice.
A Homebrew Fauxlera Example
My dear friend and brewing buddy Tom Francque and I started our homebrewing adventures together in 2017. We have slowly built our experience and our brewing system together and share a passion for quality, consistency, and innovation. Together, we decided that our locally sourced French oak barrel would nicely complement a French saison. We started engineering our recipe and decided that we did not want to rely only upon wild fermentation agents to inoculate the initial barrel fill to limit unregulated variables with some yeast laboratory-grown critters. In an effort to create the most complex beer, we also decided not to limit any potential Lactobacillus production, which contributes a rounded sourness to the beer, so we limited IBUs in the brewed saison to around 10 (that said, if you want to limit lactic tartness in your beer, you can hop your beer more heavily). Other than limiting the IBU level, we brewed a standard saison recipe (details on page 39). We decided to conduct primary fermentation in our regular fermenters rather than the barrel as we didn’t want to deal with the mess and loss from high kraüsen in the barrel.
Since we did not yet have our current 15-gallon (57-L) brew system, we ended up brewing two initial batches to fill the barrel; one of 6 gallons (23 L) in the fermenter, the other of 11 gallons (42 L). This way we could stockpile a portion in a container like a growler or Corny keg to top off the barrel and offset the evaporation. I brewed the first 6-gallon (23-L) batch of French Saison in September 2020, and then Tom and I brewed the second batch on our larger shared system in October 2020 and pitched Imperial B64 (Napoleon) yeast for primary fermentation on both batches (we hit around 1.002 final gravity on both after primary fermentation, so keep this in mind when estimating gravity and ABV). We then reserved 64 ounces (1.9 L) from each brew session in growlers equipped with airlocks to use as top-off portions. After setting aside the two growlers, we transferred the remaining saison to the barrel and added a pitch of Omega Brettanomyces claussenii and another of Imperial W15 (Suburban Brett) to dose and funkify our new barrel.
We let the barrel sit for nine months with two 64-oz./1.9-L barrel top-offs in between — yeah, a small barrel really evaporates! — by which time our occasional tastings led us to conclude that it was time to pull our first 5 gallons (19 L) to bottle. Queue fantasy sequence! That batch, and we only have a couple of bottles left, is to this day one of the best beverages I have ever had a hand in creating. The oak character, coupled with the Brett and bugs we added, was amazing. And this was from a single barrel! As homebrewers, consistency matters less, so take advantage. Your first barrel pull is going to be the goods and you don’t need a formal solera to accomplish it.
But have fun with subsequent barrel pulls! In addition to multiple straight pulls, we have now racked 5-gallon (19-L) batches into fermenters with Concord grapes (outstanding), local Mt. Hood strawberries (yum, yum, yum, yum!) and are aiming to dry hop our next pull onto New Zealand WakatuTM hops. We like to rack these 5-gallon (19-L) “special project” fills to wide-mouthed fermenters to make adding fruit (and subsequently removing fruit after racking the finished beer) easier. The bit of oxygen in the headspace is not as big an issue as it would be for a delicate, hazy IPA. And it is very cool to be able to watch the pellicle develop in a clear fermenter. Don’t fear the pellicle — it is nature’s oxygen blocker.
But what to do after that? The beer in the barrel will collectively continue to become older, which will lead to increasing sourness and acidity. In our experience, it seems that one might have to start pulling portions in ever decreasing intervals. Certainly, our barrel became progressively more sour, with vinegary, acetic acid notes, so that in last year we drained and packaged the entire barrel and topped off with 15 gallons (57-L) of fresh saison. Since the barrel was now effectively inoculated with wild yeasts and bacteria, we did not add any additional yeast as we did when we started the barrel. The “fresh” saison has aged well and is tasting amazing, and we will be pulling five gallons (19 L) onto the aforementioned WakatuTM hops soon.
Let’s chat about packaging. When you add a beer like a saison to a barrel at an already very low terminal gravity, and then age on Brett and other bugs, you will end up with a beer at or below 1.000 — as dry as can be and void of most yeast that would consume bottle-priming sugar. Re-yeasting is key. It is best to condition with a strain known to tolerate higher alcohol and low pH, which makes Champagne yeast a good choice with a neutral profile. I have found that the commonly recommended LalBrew CBC-1 cask ale yeast does not stay in suspension and, at least for us, has resulted in a few batches of under-carbonated beer. Saison-style beers, especially if fermented on fruit, really take well to a Champagne-style yeast or even a wine yeast like Red Star Premier Cuvée, with a corresponding level of effervescence. For saisons, I like to target around 3.3 volumes CO2, which should create an effervescent body with a rocky head. Use heavy Champagne-style or Belgian bottles if you are going to go this route! You could keg and force carbonate this type of beer, but bottle conditioning will allow the batches to age gracefully and be able to be tailored to the appropriate carbonation level.
The last point I want to touch on is specific to saison and other farmhouse-style beers. Be open to using the grains you have, but, as Gordon Strong so rightfully recommends, keep the original gravity low. These beers, with their diastatic-positive yeasts, create incredibly dry, low final gravity beers, and this is before they go into a barrel for aging. A 1.060 original gravity (OG) saison can turn into an 8%+ monster without batting a French eyelash. If you want to go the “super saison” route, by all means do, but know that you might be sacrificing the dry, subtle, nuanced beer that a barrel can produce.
The following recipe has been scaled to 6 gallons (23 L) into the fermenter to allow for setting aside a top-off portion to account for barrel evaporation. Adjust your recipe as needed based on your equipment profile and preferred ABV. Also, don’t be hesitant to use other ingredients (rye, oats, etc.) as this is a farmhouse style ale and takes well to ingredient swapping. Have fun, be creative, and enjoy your own fauxlera-process beer!
Solera Saison
(5.5 gallons/21 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.049 FG = 1.002
IBU = 9 SRM = 4 ABV = 6.1%
Ingredients
6.8 lbs. (3 kg) Belgian Pilsner malt
1.5 lbs. (0.68 kg) white wheat malt
8 oz. (227 g) Munich malt
8 oz. (227 g) caravienne malt
8 oz. (227 g) acidulated malt
12 oz. (340 g) dextrose (10 min.)
2.75 AAU Willamette hops (60 min.) (0.53 oz./15 g at 5.5% alpha acids)
0.5 tsp. yeast nutrient (10 min.)
0.5 tsp. Irish moss (10 min.)
Imperial Yeast B64 (Napoleon), Wyeast 3711 (French Saison),
LalBrew Belle Saison, or similar yeast
Step by Step
This recipe uses acidulated malt to correct pH to approximately 5.5. If you use another method, just add an additional 8 oz. (227 g) base malt.
For infusion mash brewers, target a mash temperature of 147–148 °F (64 °C) for 90 minutes, followed by a 10-minute mash out rest at 168 °F (76 °). For those brewers who wish to utilize a step mash, I usually aim to mash in at 131 °F (55 °C) for 15 minutes, raise the temperature to 144 °F (62 °C) and hold for 60 minutes, raise temperature to 158 °F (70 °C) for 15, and then mash out at 168 °F (76 °C) for ten minutes.
Boil the wort for 60 minutes, adding hops at the start of boil, and finings and dextrose at 10 minutes remaining.
Chill the wort to around 65 °F (18 °C). Aerate the wort well if using liquid yeast and pitch yeast. Allow temperature to free rise up to 75 °F (24 °C). Some saison yeast strains are prone to stall and so I always allow the beer to ferment for a full two weeks. Since additional conditioning will occur in the barrel; however, the beer does not necessarily have to be fully fermented.
Once the beer has completed fermentation, you should have approximately 5 gallons (19 L) to add to the barrel and 2 quarts (2 L) to set aside (I use growlers with airlocks) to top off the barrel after a few months or as needed. A keg, purged of oxygen, could also function as an excellent long-term storage solution for the top-offs.
Extract with grains option:
Replace the Pilsner, wheat, and acidulated malts with 4 lbs. (1.8 kg) Pilsner dried malt extract and 12 oz. (340 g) wheat dried malt extract. Add 1 tsp. 88% lactic acid to 7 gallons (26.5 L) of water. Add crushed grains in a bag to the water and heat to ~170 °F (77 °C). Remove grains, allowing the bag to drip over the kettle, and then bring the wort to a boil. When a boil is reached, remove kettle from heat and stir in the dried malt extracts. Once fully dissolved, turn the heat back on and bring to a boil.
Follow the remainder of the all-grain recipe instructions.
