At Home Solera System
TroubleShooting
Mike Biel — Kenosha, Wisconsin asks,
Can I do a solera project in a 10-gallon (38-L) barrel without bugs or am I missing the point?
Quick definition for our readers: The solera process is a type of fractional blending used to produce a diverse range of aged liquids including Sherry, vinegar, wine, whiskey, and beer. The term solera comes from solum, loosely meaning “ground” or “bedrock.” The solera system consists of multiple layers of barrels called criaderas, with each layer representing a blend component, usually a harvest year of the final blend that happens in the bottom layer of barrels. Because the barrels are at the lowest level, i.e., the ground level, of the system, they are called soleras. Etymology aside, there is absolutely nothing in the rulebook that states that your solera project must include bugs, bacteria, or funky yeast related to how some sour beer brewers operate their solera systems.
According to the books, the main reason that this system was originally developed was to improve the consistency of Sherry. By definition, Sherry must be aged for at least three years. As such, a common method for Sherry production is to annually transfer about a third of each barrel in the system. This transfer process begins at the bottom by bottling a portion of the solera and replacing by re-filling the solera with the criadera one tier up, then refilling that criadera from a level up, until the top criadera is then filled with new product.
The other rule related to your question is the number of layers and the number of barrels: No rule exists! You can indeed use the solera process using a single barrel so that every year you have a bottling of one-year product blended over the age of your solera. In practice, it does make sense to do something other than aging beer in a solera system (or single-barrel solera) because the oak characters are going to quickly fade as the solera is used for multiple bottlings. You could move aged beer into a new barrel, but if your solera system consists of only one barrel this process would put in a kink in the whole consistency idea. Whatever the master plan, the solera system is a pretty nifty method with lots of fun and interesting applications — no bugs required!
