After getting set up to sour, I started my first project - a funkified brown ale. The idea was to brew a standard brown ale fermented clean, then split the batch into 4 different 3 gallon carboys and pitch brett from different sources. My hope for this one was massively funky "barnyard" brett character - some incidental sourness would be okay, but wasn't something I was targeting. Other than that, there were a few other objectives for this batch:
1) Kick off the souring program with a beer that
- has a (relatively) quick turn around - looking for 4-6 months instead of 12+.
- can stay clean until it's in glass (i.e., a sacch primary)
2) Learn how different strains of brett (and possibly pitch rates) impact the beer
3) Provide a potential opportunity to start blending
1) Kick off the souring program with a beer that
- has a (relatively) quick turn around - looking for 4-6 months instead of 12+.
- can stay clean until it's in glass (i.e., a sacch primary)
2) Learn how different strains of brett (and possibly pitch rates) impact the beer
3) Provide a potential opportunity to start blending
I chose to use a recipe I'd brewed once in the past with success, which was (again) based on a recipe from homebrewtalk.
Recipe:
Batch Size: 14 Gallons
Planned OG:1.054 (Actual = 1.057)
Planned IBU: 24
Planned Efficiency: 68% (Actual = 72%)
FG: 1.006? (Actual = 1.017 after primary)
Grain:
23# Maris Otter
2# 8oz Crystal 60
2# 8oz Flaked Oats
1# 6oz Victory
10oz Chocolate Malt
Hops:
2.0 oz Fuggles (4.2 AA) @ 60min
0.5 oz EKG (5.7 AA) @ 60min
2.5 oz EKG (5.7 AA) @ 15min
Extras:
Irish moss @ 15
Yeast:
Wyeast 1728 (Scottish Ale, Gen 2) - 4L starter made on Dec 4 targeting 750 billion cells (which includes 100 billion for future starters)
Water:
Target Profile (ppm)
Recipe:
Batch Size: 14 Gallons
Planned OG:1.054 (Actual = 1.057)
Planned IBU: 24
Planned Efficiency: 68% (Actual = 72%)
FG: 1.006? (Actual = 1.017 after primary)
Grain:
23# Maris Otter
2# 8oz Crystal 60
2# 8oz Flaked Oats
1# 6oz Victory
10oz Chocolate Malt
Hops:
2.0 oz Fuggles (4.2 AA) @ 60min
0.5 oz EKG (5.7 AA) @ 60min
2.5 oz EKG (5.7 AA) @ 15min
Extras:
Irish moss @ 15
Yeast:
Wyeast 1728 (Scottish Ale, Gen 2) - 4L starter made on Dec 4 targeting 750 billion cells (which includes 100 billion for future starters)
Water:
Target Profile (ppm)
Salt Additions (gram/gallon):
Brewed on December 6th, everything went smoothly. Mashed at 156*F for 60 minutes before a standard 60 minute boil. Chilled to ~90* with my immersion chiller before transferring into two primary fermenters. Placed both into my chest freezer and waited for the temp to drop to 60* before pitching the yeast and oxygenating with pure O2 for 45 seconds each.
Saw signs of fermentation 12 hours later with vigorous fermentation after 24 hours. After the bubbling airlock slowed I stepped up the temperature to 68* for 2 days, and then slowly ramped down to 35* over 4 days. Two weeks after brewday (the 20th) I transferred out of the primaries and into glass secondaries. This is where the fun begins!
The funkiness I was after was mostly inspired by two beers: A seriously funky brett-brown I had at Avondale (If it had a unique name, I don't remember it) and St. Arnold's Bishop's Barrel #2 with Brett. Both had a very similar (and very "loud") "classic" brett flavor profile that I absolutely loved. I've since learned the source of that flavor was likely Brett Drie (aka Dekkera bruxellensis) which is a strain originally isolated from Drie Fonteinen (A Belgian brewery near Brussels). Unfortunately, the only way to purchase this strain (that I'm aware of anyway) is to buy a huge commercial level pitch from BSI, which is more than I'm willing to invest since I only need about 10% of their smallest offering. Fortunately, I've got a Belgian friend who makes several trips home each year. He was willing to pick up a bunch of bottles of Belgian Gueuze on his last trip and bring them back to the states for me.
The dregs from several of these will be used in future projects, but the focus for this post is the two bottles on the left of of Drie Fonteinen - I pitched the dregs from one bottle directly into fermenter #1. Obviously that bottle had a very small amount of the strain I'm after, and ha some other stuff I'm not exactly after. I'm interested to see where that single bottle takes me.
Beyond that strain, I was open to experiment. A quick search revealed that WLP653 (Brett Lambicus) yields "high intensity brett character", so a full vial of that strain was pitched into fermenter #2. My local homebrew shop was willing to snag a vial of The Yeast Bay's Amalgamation for me, so a full vial of that made its way into fermenter #3.
For the fourth and final fermenter, I went with more bottle dregs of brett beers I had on hand. This included dregs from a 1+ year old bottle of The Commons' Flemmish Kiss (which was a fantastic beer, btw. I opened this one on the same night as the 3F as well as a couple Jester King beers - all were delicious, but the Flemish Kiss was hands down my favorite) as well as a ~9 month old bottle of Orval. Hopefully those weren't too old and had some surviving cells.
Overall, I'm really excited to see what I can learn from this project. As I write this it's been over 2 months since I pitched the brett strains, so a sample is in order soon. All four airlocks have had visible signs of re-fermentation, so I know something has happened. I'll pull samples soon and measure gravity - once it's been the same for a month+ I'll taste each and decide to blend or not. And of course I'll have a post that outlines what I've found once it's all said and done (hopefully I'll get on that quicker than I did this post).
Beyond that strain, I was open to experiment. A quick search revealed that WLP653 (Brett Lambicus) yields "high intensity brett character", so a full vial of that strain was pitched into fermenter #2. My local homebrew shop was willing to snag a vial of The Yeast Bay's Amalgamation for me, so a full vial of that made its way into fermenter #3.
For the fourth and final fermenter, I went with more bottle dregs of brett beers I had on hand. This included dregs from a 1+ year old bottle of The Commons' Flemmish Kiss (which was a fantastic beer, btw. I opened this one on the same night as the 3F as well as a couple Jester King beers - all were delicious, but the Flemish Kiss was hands down my favorite) as well as a ~9 month old bottle of Orval. Hopefully those weren't too old and had some surviving cells.
Overall, I'm really excited to see what I can learn from this project. As I write this it's been over 2 months since I pitched the brett strains, so a sample is in order soon. All four airlocks have had visible signs of re-fermentation, so I know something has happened. I'll pull samples soon and measure gravity - once it's been the same for a month+ I'll taste each and decide to blend or not. And of course I'll have a post that outlines what I've found once it's all said and done (hopefully I'll get on that quicker than I did this post).