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50% Brett Saisonyish / Brettish beer

Started by biertourist, February 07, 2015, 06:34:14 AM

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biertourist

I managed to acquire some very unique Brett cultures from a Denver 100% Brettanomyces brewer, Crooked Stave; I saved the dregs from 4 bottles and then made a starter 10 days before my scheduled brew day to grow up a good population.

I made a pretty heavily munich malt saison and pitched the French saison strain and heavily hopped it with Centennial and added 1 oz of Nelson Sauvin at flameout.

I waited for the gravity to drop down to 1.025 and then got impatient and pitched the saison starter -it smelled really, really aweful and vomity the next couple days; i dry hopped with 2 oz Centennial and 1 oz Nelson Sauvin.


Then I just let it sit another 2 weeks and it's definitely got plenty of great Brett flavor (cherry pit flavors; no barnyard funkiness as these strains don't produce the barnyard funk) (more like you get in secondary than with a 100% Brett beer).

Now it's getting carbonated and it's really got some citrusy tartness and the gravity is certainly quite low (haven't checked in a few weeks); I can't believe how happy I am with it already. It's still very cloudy and I expect it to be that way basically until I finish the keg.

If I could do it again I'd use a more intense hop variety.  I'm definitely hanging onto these Brett strains.


I've dedicated a set of keg seals, corney post and tubing to Brett and sour beers now to avoid future infections; I boil them in oxyclean, then rinse, then give a long soak with starsan.


It's a great technique to get a lot of complex flavors and some light tart acidity in only 3 weeks.


Adam

Rossa


Bubbles

Great post, thanks!

I still haven't taken the plunge on sours; hopefully this year.

biertourist

Quote from: Bubbles on February 07, 2015, 09:18:46 AM
Great post, thanks!

I still haven't taken the plunge on sours; hopefully this year.

Brett on it's own, I wouldn't consider a "sour"; "Wild" -yes, sour, not so much.

ESPECIALLY when Bret's used for 100% primary fermentations; it's surprisingly normal then.



Adam

mr hoppy

Not a fan of Orval then? It's brett in secondary and no bacteria.

biertourist

Quote from: mr hoppy on February 10, 2015, 10:18:25 PM
Not a fan of Orval then? It's brett in secondary and no bacteria.

Huh?  No I'm definitely a fan of Orval.  I just wouldn't call it a sour.  I think Orval is a great example of what I'm talking about: "bretty" flavors but not really sour at all.


Adam

biertourist

Well, this is starting to get intensely bretty now.

Probably a bit much for me, actually.  I'm going to see what others think as I realize that I'm insanely sensitive to phenolics.

I probably should've used a neutral strain as the primary strain if I was going to pitch with a 1.025 gravity.

-If I would've waited until the gravity dropped to at least 1.010, I think it would've been much more restrained, too.

I don't recommend anyone copy this recipe / process unless you really like Bret flavors.


Adam

biertourist

March 10, 2015, 05:11:38 PM #7 Last Edit: March 10, 2015, 05:31:52 PM by biertourist
I forgot to post back here. The intense Brett flavors faded and essentially dissapeared after I transferred to the keg.  It actually became VERY mellow and nice, some interesting acidity that really brought out the hop flavors and added to it. There's a mild brett note in the aftertaste but it's really quite wonderful.

The flavor fluctuations in this are kinda crazy but it eventually mellows out (week 3ish) and then stays nice.

It would be PERFECT for any citrusy hop flavors and I think some fruit peel would be awesome.  I liked it enough to enter it into the Cascade Brewers Cup and
I can't say anything until the official awards ceremony on the 22nd of March but I got my score sheets back yesterday and this beer ROCKED IT in the Belgian Specialty category at the Cascade Brewers Cup.

After the 22nd I can report back on what it won / didn't win.



Adam

biertourist

I'm definitely going to make a beer like this again but I'll use a slightly more exciting hop next time. -I think I'll add some sort of fresh citrus peel, too.

I think I might sour mash the malt too, but with my VERY soft water, I'm afraid that the pH will drop like a rock and cause conversion issues...


Adam

biertourist

Ok, it's now official.  This beer took Gold in the Belgian Ale category @ the Cascade Brewer's Cup!
39.5 so not too shabby.

I entered it as Belgian Specialty as we're still using the 2008 guidelines.

If anyone gets a hold of a beer from "Crooked Stave" in Denver, DEFINITELY keep the bottle dregs and start propogating it up as a starter make a normal starter but let it go for 7-10 days and make at least 2 steps if you're going to do a 100% Brett beer.

The accidental use of too much Munich WAS one of the things that two judges dinged me on -they both thought it would be better finishing drier and I agree; so sad I missed getting a 40 point beer by half a point and because I didn't follow my own recipe!! GRRR!

Unfortunately this competition didn't give out actual medals to the winners just certificates and prizes.... I wanted my medal... ;-(



Adam


Simon_

I thought competitions annoy the crap out of you  :)

biertourist

Quote from: Simon \_/ on March 23, 2015, 09:01:51 PM
I thought competitions annoy the crap out of you  :)

Competitions DO annoy the crap out of me (well mostly the BJCP style guidelines and methodology annoys the crap out of me) but my brew club was organizing this competition and if I was going to have to be there I was at least going to enter a beer or two.  Let's be honest a Brett beer doesn't really fit into the style guidelines so it was Belgian Specialty.

-I had a good time making fun of the beer judges at the lunch break by critiquing the tacos in a BJCP-esque manner, anyway.  "I give the tacos a 26 -Walla Walla onions (from Washington State) in a Mexican dish just isn't to style and I think there was some diacetyl in the butter on the bread."  ;-)



I'm going to ignore my desire to be creative and just brew "to style" for the year and enter a few competitions and see where it goes...  maybe it will annoy the crap out of me and I'll give it up but I'm going to try for a while anyway.


Adam