Apricots, Lactobacillus, and Hops

As fun as it is to talk about being inspired by astrophysics, architecture, travel, and art (Nathan's dry hopped tripel inspired by Gauguin's paintings of Tahiti) the best beer ideas usually come from drinking delicious beers! The flavor concept for this batch came from a homebrewed Citra apricot sour saison that a fan (thanks Aaron!) sent me last year.

I’ve combined fruity hops and actual fruit a few times (e.g., grapefruit, Cascade, and Chinook, papaya and Citra) but never in a sour beer. With so much being added to the aroma, I didn’t want to waste the time it takes to achieve a perfectly-balanced subtly-funky mixed-fermentation sour. So I opted for a quick souring method (went on tap less than two months after brew day).

I diverted 5 gallons of wort from my Northeast IPA recipe prior to adding any bittering hops. I opted for 100% Lactobacillus followed by a big pitch of Brettanomyces. The acidity came form a package of Omega’s Lacto Blend that founder Lance Shaner sent to me a few months prior. All I can say is “wow!” I knocked out warm, and left the wort at 80F and within 24 hours the pH was already down to 3.3! The risk with a strain this aggressive is that you can over-sour if you don't monitor closely. Rather than pasteurize the wort, I simply cooled it slightly and pitched a starter of East Coast Yeast Dirty Dozen (a blend of 12 Brett strains) that Al had sent. 

Lance (who also broke the Brett Trois isn’t Brett news) has been making waves recently by claiming that Lactobacillus cultures from some labs have a not-insignificant yeast population. I’ve heard similar things from several skilled microscope-wielders over the last couple years. Once purified, Lance found that none of the Lactobacillus cultures achieved more than 11% apparent attenuation. He contends that complete attenuation (as I achieved in my 100% Lacto batch) indicates the presence of yeast (full attenuation with Lacto would necessitate production of an undrinkable amount of lactic acid - which I clearly did not achieve).

I’ve been listening to The Sour Hour, and heard Cory King from Side Project (episode 3) and Tim Clifford from Sante Adairius (episode 5) both use apricot puree for Abricot Du Fermier and West Ashley respectively (as does host Jay Goodwin for Rare Barrel's Map of the Sun). All three use (loads) of Oregon Fruit Products, but I went with three 49 oz cans of Vintner’s Harvest (9.25 lbs of fruit added to 4 gallons of beer). I hadn’t used commercial fruit puree in more than eight years years because of how painful it was to separate from the beer without losing 20% of the batch. Sad to say, my opinion isn’t changing after this batch. On a homebrew-scale, it is just so much easier to transfer off of whole or sliced fruit (which makes up for the additional work of getting the fruit into the beer). Luckily the flavor from the puree is really nice!

I waited for the fermentation on the fruit to calm down, then added two ounces each of Amarillo and Citra. It’s the same fruity combination we use for the Modern Times Fortunate Island recipe (as does Kern River for their Citra DIPA). The brightness of the Amarillo tempers Citra, which can become dank on its own. That's an IPA-level dry hopping rate, but with so much fruit it was necessary to get it to come through at all! Oddly (and thankfully), dry hopping tempers the perception of acidity for me.

The result is an intensely sour and fruit-forward beer in relatively short order. If you don’t have Dirty Dozen, something like 3711 French Saison would work well. The extra gallon of the base beer is currently sitting on the interiors from two passionfruits; no dry hops planned!

Apricot Atomic Sour

Recipe Specifics
--------------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.50
Total Grain (Lbs): 12.25
Anticipated OG: 1.052
Anticipated SRM: 3.7
Anticipated IBU: 0.00
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%
Wort Boil Time: 30 Minutes

Grain
------
81.6% - 10.00 lbs. Rahr 2-Row Brewers Malt
8.2% - 1.00 lbs. Flaked Corn (Maize)
6.1% - 0.75 lbs. Weyermann CaraPils
2.0% - 0.25 lbs. Weyermann Acidulated Malt
2.0% - 0.25 lbs. King Arthur All Purpose Flour

Hops
------
2.00 oz. Citra (Pellet, 12.00% AA) Dry Hop Secondary
2.00 oz. Amarillo (Pellet, 10.00% AA) Dry Hop Secondary

Extras
-------
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 8 min.
0.50 Whirlfloc @ 8 min.

Yeast
------
OYL-605 Omega Lactobacillus Blend
ECY34 East Coast Yeast Dirty Dozen

Water Profile
----------------
Profile: Washington, Hoppy

Mash Schedule
-----------------
Sacch Rest - 30 min @ 154F

Notes
-------
5/23/15 -  L starter of ECY Dirty Dozen and .5 L starter of Omega Lacto Blend.

Brewed 5/24/15

Note: this recipe was actually double everything listed, half was run off after 30 minutes for souring.

Mash was 3 gallons of distilled, plus 4.25 filtered DC tap. 2 tsp of 10% phosphoric acid. 6 g each CaCl and Gypsum. Mash pH = 5.33 after 5 minutes of recirculation. 1 gallon of distilled added as a cold sparge. 120 PPM chloride and 140 PPM sulfate, including mash and sparge water.

Boiled 30 minutes without hops. Ran-off 5.5 gallons at 1.052 and 90F. Added 17 g of 88% Lactic Acid to lower the pH to 4.34. Tasted ever so slightly tart. Pitched the Lacto starter. Left at 80F to sour.

5/25/15 24 hours later, already at 3.29 pH! Moved to the basement at 63F to cool for 6 hours before pitching Brett.

6/20/15 Racked 4 gallons of the sour half onto three 49 wt oz cans of Vintner's Harvest Apricot (~9.25 lbs total - 2.3 lbs/gallon). Racked the rest to a one gallon secondary. Brett is more fruity than funky at this point. At 1.008.

7/7/15 Added 2 oz each Citra and Amarillo loose to the sour/apricot portion. Flushed head space with CO2, left at 65 F.

7/14/15 Kegged. Clogged the flow-control faucet. Switched to standard Perlick. Final pH 3.19.

7/22/15 Added the meat from two passion fruits to the one gallon of remaining non-fruited beer.

8/11/15 Tasting of the apricot dry-hopped version. Wow, big acid, fruit, and fresh hoppiness. The apricot turned the sourness up more than than I expected.

10/27/15 Tasting notes for the passion fruit version. Could have added more, but it is refreshing and pleasant as is.

Sour Experiment #1 - Two Week Sour

One of the most annoying (and intimidating) aspects of brewing sour beers is how long they take to ferment. Sure there are shortcuts, like sour mashing, but rarely do the results approach the nuances of long-aged mixed-fermentation beers. One of the last things I did while I was at Modern Times in August was to taste the four versions of a beer I brewed with an experimental souring technique two weeks earlier.

Souring a beer before the alcoholic fermentation is a good idea, but a sour mash presents three major issues:

1. After souring the mash, it can be difficult to separate the wort from the spent grain.

2. Exposure to air during souring can lead to the growth of unwanted aerobic microbes that produce off-flavors.

3. Allowing the pH to drop too low can cause fermentation issues for most ale yeasts.

To remedy problem #1, I dipped into my bag of tricks and pulled out the sour worting technique I used a few years ago. After a single-infusion mash, I collected the reddish wort and heated it in the kettle to near boiling to ensure any microbes from the grain were dead. With this method the wort is drained with a standard temperature and pH, so there are no issues lautering as usual.

To address problem #2, I ran the wort through the plate chiller (aiming for 115F), and into four plastic carboys, each of which had been flushed with carbon dioxide (back at home I miss the plumbed CO2 lines at the brewery). Flushed kegs would work equally well.

To achieve the acidity, I pitched one carboy each with a starter of Wyeast Lactobacillus, a starter made from the microbes living on pale malt, a starter from the microbes living on acid malt, and a small hop-sock of crushed acid malt. For the grain starters I followed a similar protocol to the one used for that previous sour worting batch. My goal was to determine which of these microbial sources produced the best results.

To maintain the temperature in Lactobacillus’s ideal range, I placed each carboy in one of the pilot system’s vessels, filled with 120F water. At the start and end of each day for three days I removed the carboys, reheated the water, and replaced them. I also insulated the rig with blankets to help maintain temperature. Usually they'd be down to about 100F by the time I reheated. I didn’t have room for the fourth (pale malt starter) so I left it under the blanket.

The results were surprising. After three days, the least sour of the bunch was the Wyeast Lacto, clean and pleasantly tart. The two grain-starters were next (despite the temperature difference), they were still clean, but a bit more lactic. The grain bag was the most acidic, but also had a slightly stranger aroma that was more in line with what I expect from a sour mash but luckily not as cheesy or intense. With acid production complete (pH 3.4-3.5), I boiled each in turn with a small dose of hops and yeast nutrient. During each boil I cleaned and sanitized the fermentor, refilling it with 68F wort post-boil.

To resolve problem #3, rather than fermenting with pH sensitive Saccharomyces, I opted for a 100% Brett fermentation with the BSI Brett Drie we had on hand for production brews of Neverwhere, Roraima, and Southern Lands. Brett works quickly at a pH as low as 3, and produces interesting flavors too.

My last day working in San Diego I racked each of them to a Corny keg, and shook in carbonation. The pale malt starter and the steeped acid malt were my favorites. Each had a nice acidity with a pleasant Brett character. I had skipped boiling the Wyeast Lacto portion and the result was a subtle raw graininess similar to what I taste in my no-boil Berliner weisses. The acid malt starter had an unpleasant aroma not present before the Brett fermentation, just sort of rough. With that interesting range of characters, we decided to blend the three we liked to make 15 gallons of beer to serve at the Tasting Room Grand Opening.

Reviews were mostly positive on Untappd, "I'm not one for sour beets, but this is fantastic! Tickles the taste buds in the back of your mouth in just the right way." - Stephanie P. "Had it 3 times so far might get another" - Heather H. Both included pictures of the finished beer as well, something I never got to see for myself!

I had a beer at GABF from TRiNiTY Brewing (7 Day Sour) that used a similar technique, but fermented with a mixture of Brett strains post-kettle-souring. The result was terrifically funky, and brightly acidic. I think I’ll have to try something similar, integrating a strain like Brett Drie/Trois which ferments quickly, with others that produce more classic Brett aromatics.

Brettanomyces nanus - 100% and Bottle Conditioned Beers

Here are the final tasting notes from the first round of the “new” Brett species from East Coast Yeast. Today’s tasting is of two beers fermented with Brettanomyces nanus, a strain originally isolated from a bottled beer from Kalmar, Sweden. One batch was a saison, which received the strain at bottling, while the other was fermented with B. nanus, and nothing else. As with the note I gave with the tasting notes for B. naardenensis and B. custersianus, these are just the tasting notes for one strain of what could be a very diverse species.

Al warned me about trying a primary fermentation with this one, citing poor attenuation. The strain struggled, but made it to nearly 70% apparent attenuation. While this doesn’t sound too bad, talking about attenuation alone isn’t enough to tell you how sweet a beer will taste, even holding bitterness and original gravity constant. I mashed the 100% Brett beer at 146 F for 75 minutes, generating a high proportion of simpler sugars thanks to the work of beta amylase. While these shorter sugars taste sweeter than longer sugars and dextrins, they are also easier to ferment, and thus tend to yield a drier tasting finished beer. However, low attenution of a highly fermentable wort will come across much sweeter compared to a beer high in dextrins that is fermented with a more attenuative strain to reach the same attenuation.

100% B. nanus

Appearance – Slightly hazy golden yellow. Leaves great lacing as the white head quickly shrinks to a wispy covering.

Smell – Big aroma, lots of fresh white grape juice. Floral-sweetness. Some faint earthiness. Not a complex aroma, but there is a lot of it.

Taste – Sweetest of the bunch thanks to only 69% apparent attenuation, but not sticky sweet. It actually goes well with the fruitiness, but the overall result is mediocre at best. The flavor might excel in a beer with a more substantial malt character, or a sweet holiday beer.

Mouthfeel – Fuller than any of the other examples in this series, with medium carbonation.

Drinkability & Notes – It’s alright, but not great. Worked much better in the mixed fermentation where the brewer’s yeast ensured complete attenuation (how the tables have turned).

B. nanus Finished Saison (Winner)

Appearance – Pours clear, and yellow. Big, dense, white head.

Smell – Nice mix of fruity-floral and funky. The funk isn’t aggressive, but it is a bit stranger than the “classic” Brett bruxellensis – hey and farmyard. It is more mousy, not unpleasant as is, but we’ll see if it increases with more time in the bottle.

Taste – Balanced, spicy (both clove and black pepper), light citrus, and some funk. The finish is dry, but not overly so. Light mineral. A good complementary flavor to the primary saison fermentation.

Mouthfeel – Firm carbonation, very light mouthfeel

Drinkability & Notes – Nice beer, interesting flavor, earthy, subtle, complementary Brett character.Yesterday my friend Nate and I brewed a "furlough" saison, adding both Brett nanus and B. naardenensis along with the primary yeast to a portion of it.

Updated Tasting Notes 11/18/15

Brettanomyces naardenensis - 100% and Bottle Conditioned Beers

Here is the second in my series of three “other” Brett species tastings (B. custersianus last week, and B. nanus next week). Brettanomyces naardenensis was originally isolated from a soda producer. The exact context is not available, but it is certainly the strangest source of a brewing microbe I’ve used. The culture I used in all of these beers came from East Coast Yeast.

This tasting is a good example of how Brett can continue to slowly change a beer in the bottle. When we tasted through all of these beer at Modern Times, the saison bottle conditioned with B. naardenensis was the least popular of the six. It was strongly “footy” as someone described the unappealing sweaty aroma. A couple months later the beer is much better, mellower, and actually pleasant!

100% B. naardenensis

Appearance – The haziest version so far. It looked clear in the bottle, so it may just be that this strain is particularly easy to accidentally rouse.

Smell – Bright indistinctly-citrusy fruit, with chemical and sweaty elements. Not entirely unpleasant, but it telegraphs “weird.”

Taste – Surprisingly tart for a 100% Brett beer. It is certainly not a full-blown sour, but tangy. Tastes lactic to me, but it is hard to be sure. Otherwise the flavor isn’t hugely exciting, although I get a bit of the strawberry that the ECY description mentions. A bit too sweet. The finish is slightly goaty

Mouthfeel – Medium body, somewhat thicker than I’d prefer. Solid carbonation.

Drinkability & Notes – Meh. An interesting result given the acidity, but not a really great beer to drink. Could do well with a more complex malt bill and some more bitterness to fight the sweetness.

Bottle Conditioned w/ B. naardenensis (Winner)

Appearance – Beautiful streaming lines of bubbles rising through the crystal clear yellow body. Solid retention and lacing from the white head.

Smell – My first impression was that the smell balanced the peppery phenolics of the saison yeast (WY3711 – French Saison) with additional fruity and phenolic from the Brett. However, when I opened a bottle of the “clean” saison (same batch, with no Brett added at bottling), it had little of the character of the version with B. naardenensis.

Taste – For how weird the 100% fermentation with this strain is, the flavor when bottle conditioned is pretty restrained. The inverse of the way things normally work. Not much fruit or classic Brett character. I know some people hate the descriptor “rustic,” but that is exactly what this beer is. The Brett provides an edge of interesting hard-to-pin-down (Spice? Mineral? Fruit?) character without getting in the way.

Mouthfeel – Thin, crisp, very good medium-high carbonation.

Drinkability & Notes – The B. naardenensis did a very nice job as a saison enhancer, boosting the character of the primary yeast without making it taste like a “Brett” saison. I'll be interested to see how this beer continues to change.

Updated Tasting Notes 11/18/15 

Brettanomyces custerianus - 100% and Bottle Conditioned Beers

Before I headed off to Modern Times for the summer, I bottled two batches that I had split three ways each. One batch featured three “new” species of Brett as the primary/sole fermentor. The other batch was the second iteration of Lomaland, which I split three ways during packaging to showcase the same three species for bottle conditioning.

All of the strains of Brett available to brewers until recently have fallen into only two species. Brettanomyces bruxellensis (including B. lambicus) and Brettanomyces anomalus (including B. claussenii). Just like ale or lager yeast, Brettanomyces species can have considerable intraspecies variation. These are simply three individual isolates of three additional Brett species (i.e., B. nanus, B. naardenensis, and B. custersianus) sent to me by Al Buck of East Coast Yeast. There is most likely strong variation within each of these species, so take them as single data points.

This mega-tasting will span three posts each covering the two beers fermented with a species. Tonight’s featured player is B. custersianus. It was originally isolated from South African bantu beer, which made from malted millet.

100% Brett custersianus (Winner)

Appearance – Golden yellow, ever so faintly foggy. Nice dense white head, good retention and lacing.

Smell – The nose has a lot of fruit, ripe or even over-ripe mango especially. There are some white grapes too. The sort of fruits that don’t quite smell bright and vibrant, bordering on being slightly weird solvent-perfume-ish.

Taste – Minimal acidity, as you’d expect in a 100% Brett beer. The flavor starts mildly fruity, but slowly fades to a more traditional Brett funk. Pretty dry beer. Not much hop character remains, and the malt adds a faint graininess, but mostly stays out of the way. Luckily no weird off-flavors.

Mouthfeel – Medium-high carbonation, causing it to slowly fizz up when I opened the bottle. Tastes about right to me for a beer like this. Medium-thin body, lightly tannic.

Drinkability & Notes – Young this beer was remarkably clean and lager-like. It reminded me of Pilsner Urquell in a weird way, even had a touch of diacetyl. Glad to report that time in the bottle really brought out some pleasant and unique flavors. Like Brett bruxellensis var. Trois/Drie, I’d expect this one to pair nicely with some fruity hops.

Saison w/ B. custersianus

Appearance – Despite being two different batches, many of the ingredients were the same. As a result this beer looks similar, maybe a touch more yellow, and a hair clearer. Head retention isn’t quite as good though.

Smell – Smells like an even-fruitier version of Wyeast 3711 French Saison (the primary yeast strain). Hints of pepper, and a little musty farmyard in the nose. The fruitiness is almost artificial, candied pear I’ll call it. Nice blend of aromatics.

Taste – Where the flavor balanced the Saccharomyces and Brettanomyces characters, in the flavor they clash. The earthy Brett muddling up the bright fruitiness. The peppery spice from the nose comes across more clove-like. Not offensive by any measure, but not particularly pleasant either.

Mouthfeel – Thin, lively, and crisp. No complaints here as far as a Brett’d saison goes.

Drinkability & Notes – I think this is a strain that works better (at least in this case) alone than it does in tandem. Its character as a secondary yeast, at least after 7 months, doesn’t take over the way more traditional Brett strains do. There are so many new Brett strains becoming available, I'm looking forward to seeing what brewers figure out works best for each one!

Updated Tasting Notes 11/18/15 

Modern Times Neverwhere - 100% Brett IPA

One of the "fun" test batches I brewed for Modern Times in between batches of Lomaland, Fortunate Islands, Black House, and Blazing Worlds, was a 100% Brett IPA. Yesterday afternoon, I got my first taste of the kegged and carbed commercial batch, Neverwhere! The result is a terrific blend of tropical fruit and pineapple from both the hops and fermentation. The brewers really nailed this one on the first go!

More information on this batch, and 100% Brett beers in general, is available on the Modern Times blog, coincidentally in a post I wrote. This summer I'll be contributing occasional posts when there is a topic I can speak on. It won't be as geeky as what I tend to post here, but hopefully it'll give me a chance to set the story straight on a few things (like how despite having Brett, Neverwhere isn't sour or funky, and shouldn't be aged!).

Wednesday we'll be repitchig the harvested Brett Drie into a malty pale ale hopped with Motueka, Cascade, and Triskel. I've never brewed with either Motueka or Triskel, but Alex and I went back and forth and hammered out a malt bill that should get a bready kick from a decent amount of dark wheat malt. We've got a 30 bbl tank dedicated to fermentations with Brett, so expect a steady stream of beers like this!

Today I cleaned thirty fermentors and kegs, and tomorrow I'll be getting the pilot system operational (more on that later). The goal is to start producing wort to grow microbes destined for the sour/barrel program. I've already got Al of East Coast Yeast, Maarten of Saccharolicious, and Nick from his yet-to-be-named community supported yeast ranching venture on the hook to send me various strains to play with. On hand, we've already got several strains of Brett that both Dmitri of BKyeast and Jason of Brew Science isolated from Cantillon. Plus two isolates that Claudio of DC Yeast Lab isolated from my DCambic! Jacob managed to obtain some killer sours with one last trading hurrah, so we'll be culturing a few of those, as well as some of my favorite batches of homebrew. Might as well run down to the homebrew store and grab a couple bends from both Wyeast and White Labs too.

Nanus, Naardenensis, and Custersianus (Three New Brett Species)

The nomenclature used to sell Brettanomyces can be confusing and can sometimes a bit misleading. Currently essentially all of the Brettanomyces strains used in brewing belong to just two species, B. anomalus and B. bruxellensis. Like Saccharomyces cerevisiae (brewer's yeast) there is a large amount of variability between different members of the same species.

Rather than using some other naming convention (e.g., origin, brewery, sensory etc.), in the case of Brett, two older species names (B. lambicus, and B. claussenii) have stuck around as strain names even though they aren’t used scientifically anymore. When you see a strain marketed as B. lambicus it is B. bruxellensis, while B. claussenii is B. anomalus. However, I think it is more helpful to talk about the individual strains. For example, Wyeast and White Labs both sell “Brettanomyces lambicus” but these two strains produce very different flavor profiles.

Notice earlier that I didn’t say that bruxellensis and anomalus are the only species of Brettanomyces? Bug guru Al Buck of East Coast Yeast has been feeding me information for my book about three other species he has obtained samples of. A few weeks ago vials of B. nanus, B. naardenensis, and B. custersianus arrived in the mail. Al’s given me a wide range of flavor descriptors for each (some more positive than others), but I wanted to try brewing with them for myself.

A few weeks ago I pitched a few drops from each vial respectively into a quarter of the bottles of Lomaland #2 saison to see how each performs as a secondary fermenter. The technique was similar to what I have done in the past to trial a variety of Brett strains. I’ve opened a few of these bottles already, and so far the Brett character has been unsurprisingly too subtle to describe.

This past Sunday I brewed 7.5 gallons of wort that I split three ways to try these strains out for primary fermentation. The recipe was very simple, sharing many similarities with both the first 100% Brett beer I brewed, and the Russian River Redemption inspired single our barrel crew soured in a red wine barrel. The small amount of acid malt was to reduce the mash pH, and to provide the Brett with lactic acid for the production of the fruit ester ethyl lactate.

The results of these two experiments should give me a decent understanding of the characteristics of these three strains. However, regardless of the results, I won’t be able to make any blanket statements about the suitability of these species for brewing. Even knowing everything about a single isolate isn’t enough to know how other isolates of the same species will behave. Hopefully I'll have the results from both trials in about two months.


100% Brett Test

Recipe Specifics
--------------------
Batch Size (Gal): 7.50 
Total Grain (Lbs): 14.00
Anticipated OG: 1.051   
Anticipated SRM: 3.3
Anticipated IBU: 21.8
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain
-------
87.5% - 12.25 lbs. German Pilsener Malt
5.4% - 0.75 lbs. German Vienna Malt
3.6% - 0.50 lbs. Acid Malt
3.6% - 0.50 lbs. German Wheat Malt

Hops
------
1.00 oz. Palisade (Pellet, 7.40% AA) @  80 min.

Extras
--------
0.75 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 10 min.
0.75 Whirlfloc @ 10 min.

Yeast
------
ECY19 B. custersianus
ECY24 B. naardenensis
ECY30 B. nanus

Water Profile
----------------
Profile: Washington, DC

Mash Schedule
-----------------
Sacch Rest - 75 min @ 146 F  

Notes
-------
Brewed 4/14/13 by myself

Collected 9 gallons of 1.044 runnings. Very clean wort, left most of the trub behind. Chilled to 70 F.

Split into three 3 gallon fermentors. Shook to aerate. Pitched ~80% of the ~2 month old ECY Bretts. Left at 60 F to ferment. Decent activity by 24 hours on Nanus and Naardenensis, Custersianus took an additional 12 hours or so.

6/5/13 Bottled all three individually. 1 5/8 oz of table sugar for Custersianus (1.008) and Nanus (1.016) with 2.25 gallons, and 1.5 oz of table sugar for Naardenensis (1.011) with 2 gallons remaining.

9/25/13 Tasting notes for the B. custersianus portion. Nicely fruity, won out over a saison finished with the same strain.

9/30/13  Tasting notes for the B. naardenensis portion. Surprising amount of acidity, but the overall flavor wasn't great. Al suggests that it gets fruitier around six months, so I'll update if things change.

10/9/13 Tasting notes for the B. nanus portion. Poor attenuation led to excessive sweetness, but the strain provided a big white grape juice nose. Interesting, but not great.

100% Brett Trois IPA Tasting

Unlike just 10 years ago, there are now a lot of American breweries and a lot of desire from us beer nerds to buy beers with unique flavors. Sadly, I think this has resulted in a number of breweries putting marketing before brewing. Releasing gimmicky beers that may convince people to buy them once “just to try it” that aren’t good enough to be purchased a second time.

I’m hoping one of the things Modern Times (shiny new website) will be known for is the sophistication of our flavor choices. You aren’t going to see any beers flavored like carrot cake. We won’t add chai tea to a Sahti just because the last syllable of the style sounds like “tea.” We also won’t be adding ingredients that sound good on the label, but aren’t noticeable in the glass. We’ll have a small pilot system, so we won’t be brewing 30 bbl (930 gallon) batches of beer that haven't been dialed in.

I’m not saying we won’t brew anything unique, weird, or controversial though. For example, I love mixing Brettanomyces and aggressive hopping. One of my biggest complaints about breweries combining sour or funky beers with aromatic hops is that many don’t do a good job. There are only two general methods that I think work. #1 Make a standard, low-hopped, sour/funky beer, let it age until the acid/ester profile is where you want it, then dry hop and serve quickly (New Belgium's Le Terroir is a great example of this method). #2 Brew a hoppy 100% Brett beer that can be packaged quickly (the New York collaborative Super Friends IPA, is my favorite of this breed). For this batch of 100% Brett Trois IPA it was less than five weeks between brewing and drinking a glass of fully carbonated, dry-hopped beer.

What makes a beer like this different than the commercial beers I poked fun at above? Well first of all it actually tastes good. I also selected ingredients with the final flavor in mind. I chose hops (Citra, Centennial, and Chinook) and a Brett strains (Trois/Drie) that have complementary flavor profiles. The resulting beer has a balance that combines characters from the wort and fermentation to give a wonderfully complex, tropical-fruit flavor.

100% Brett Trois IPA

Appearance – Deep sunny yellow beer. There is a slight haze that causes the beer to glow in the early evening sun. The moderate white head doesn’t last very long, despite the wheat malt and hops.

Smell – The nose is almost straight tropical fruit juice. Mango and pineapple especially. Not a hint of grassiness. It is really difficult to tell where the hops end and the Brett begins. There is a slight hint of doughy wheat in the background.

Taste – Similar in its fruitiness to the aroma, but rather than the sweetness you’d expect from juice, it has a balanced bitterness of an IPA with a bare hint of tartness. The light bready flavor is there in the finish. Basically no “classic” horse-blanket Brett funk, but I think the fruitiness of the Brett primary fermentation works perfectly with the Citra, Centennial, and Chinook.

Mouthfeel – Dry, and on the thin side, but no more so than many West Coast IPAs. Solid carbonation.

Drinkability & Notes – Not the most complex IPA I’ve ever tasted, but certainly one of the most unique. Perfect hoppy beer for summertime drinking: quenching, refreshing, and fruity.

100% Brett Trois IPA Recipe

Beers fermented with only Brettanomyces (as opposed to the more traditional secondary fermentation following brewer's yeast) are starting to really gain some traction. There was an initial wave of excitement in 2004-2005 when Pizza Port (Mo' Betta Bretta) and Russian River (Sanctification) released two of the first 100% Brett beers. I started this blog not much after by posting a recipe for my first 100% Brett beer, a fruity low-gravity saison.

Recently there seems to has been another wave of interest in 100% Brett beers, thanks in no small part to Chad Yakobson’s research and enthusiasm for the technique. Chad is fermenting almost all of his beers at Crooked Stave with a variety of Brett strains, most of which he has isolated from beers and wines. Rather than featuring funky Brett byproducts as the dominate flavor, he is making spiced, hoppy, and dark beers that gain fruity-complexity from the unique fermentation. It is also exciting to see the recent re-release of Mo’ Betta Bretta (I'm looking forward to trying the bottle Jacob picked up for me... assuming Peter and Tomme were joking about the pineapple, garlic, and oregano?).

The batch I brewed last weekend was inspired by one of my favorite 100% Brett beers, the 2010 New York ultra-collaborative Super Friends IPA. Brewed at Ithaca with help from the brewers of Captain Lawrence, Ommegang, Southampton, and Flying Fisher, it was hopped with Citra and fermented with BSI Brett brux var. Drie and smaller amounts of a few other strains. Bright and citrusy hops with a complementary fruity-funkiness made for a unique IPA. With the release of White Labs Brett brux Trois, their version of Brett Drie, I decided to brew something similar. Hopefully White Lab's strain has similar characteristics to the original, which was isolated from a bottle of Drie Fonteinen J&J Blauw at the behest of Adam Avery. It will be interesting to see, especially considering Chad identified two separate isolates in the BSI culture.

I played around with the hops a bit, adding some Centennial to the Citra for complementary citrus character, and a bit of Chinook to keep it from being too fruity. I liked the combination of Citra and Chinook in the second runnings American Bitter I brewed two years ago, but I wanted to reduce the resiny/grapefruit character from the Chinook. I added a half pound of acid malt after starch conversion to provide some lactic acid for the Brett to create the fruity ester ethyl lactate.

This batch was my first time using some new equipment, a HopRocket (hop back) and Therminator (plate chiller). In this setup the wort flows from the kettle, propelled by the March pump (mounted on the black tote), into the hops in the hop back, and finally through the plate chiller on the way to the fermentor. This configuration allows the hot wort to flow through whole hops before being immediately chilled. With warm (~85 F) ground water this time of year I usually rely on a pump recirculating ice water through my chiller to drop the wort the last few degrees, but this time I immersed my immersion chiller in a bucket of ice water to serve as a pre-chiller for the ground water. The wort only got down to 78 F (in just seven minutes though), a few hours in my spare fridge brought it down the rest of the way. I’ll do a more detailed write-up of my new chilling process once I make a few adjustments and get a bit more practice.

The biggest challenge of fermenting with only Brett is growing enough cells to pitch. While suggestions vary, most brewers pitch somewhere between ale and lager cell counts. I bought from White Labs, so I had to grow 3 billion cells into close to 150 billion. A two stage starter on my stir-plate at around 80 F was enough to do the job in about 10 days. The 1.5 L starter had the beer rocking by the following morning at 66 F. This morning I moved the still slowly fermenting beer out of the “cold room” and into the basement where the temperature is in the mid-70s to help the Brett finish. In another week or two I’ll dry hop the beer and get it on tap as quickly as I can.

Super 100% Brett IPA

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 13.50
Anticipated OG: 1.064
Anticipated SRM: 4.3
Anticipated IBU: 96.5
Brewhouse Efficiency: 69 %
Wort Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Grain
------
70.4% - 9.50 lbs. Canadian Pale "2-Row"
22.2% - 3.00 lbs. German Wheat Malt
3.7% - 0.50 lbs. Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt
3.7% - 0.50 lbs. Acid Malt

Hops
-----
5 ml        HopShot (Extract) @ 60 min.
1.50 oz. Centennial (Pellet, 8.50% AA) @ 60 min.
2.00 oz. Centennial Pellet (Pellet, 8.50% AA) @ 0 min.
1.00 oz. Citra (Whole, 10.00% AA) @ 0 min.
1.00 oz. Chinook (Whole, 13.00% AA) @ Hop-Back
1.00 oz. Citra (Whole, 10.00% AA) @  Hop-Back
2.50 oz. Citra (Whole, 10.00% AA) @ Dry Hop
1.50 oz. Centennial  (Pellet, 8.50% AA) @ Dry Hop
1.00 oz. Chinook (Whole, 13.00% AA) @ Dry Hop

Extras
------
0.50 - Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
0.50 tsp - Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min.

Yeast
-----
WLP644 - White Labs Brettanomyces bruxellensis Trois

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Pliny the Water

Mash Schedule
-------------
Sacch Rest - 60 min @ 153 F

Notes
-----
6/22/12 300 ml starter of WL Brett Trois, started.

6/28/12 Stepped up to 1.6 l (pitched .1 L into Berliner weisse)

7/1/12 Brewed with Keith

4 gallons distilled plus 5 gallons filtered DC tap water. 10 g gypsum, 3 g CaCl.

Added acid malt for the last 20 minutes of the mash since the pH was already low enough without it.

Fly sparged into Peter's keggle. Hot break.

One bag of ice was not enough for the pre-chiller for the plate chiller, only got the temperature down to 78. Put in the fridge for four hours to bring it down the rest of the way.

65 F ambient temp for fermentation.

No apparent fermentation the next morning, but when I shook the Better Bottle there was a huge CO2 release that cause it to blow off.

7/9/12 Moved out of cold room to 75 F to help finish fermentation.

7/12/12 Gravity down to 1.010, fermentation appears about finished. Big fruity flavor, hard to distinguish hops from the Brett.

7/22/12 Kegged with the bagged dry hops. Extra 3 cups put into a plastic bottle with 6 Chinook cones, force carbed.

8/23/12 What a terrific, tropical-fruity, balanced, quenching, summer IPA!

7/2/13 This recipe was reincarnated as Modern Times Neverwhere!

100% Brett Brux Sour Brown

Last summer I brewed an Oud Bruin that I soured half of pre-boil with a starter made from the microbes living on a handful of pale malt.  Most of the soured wort was boiled and then blended with the clean half that was already fermenting with a neutral ale yeast.  The resulting beer was fine, but not one of my favorite batches (after sitting on tap for a few months I took it off and added some blackberries and black raspberries and blended it with another traditionally souring batch).

Back in July when I was blending the soured and clean portions I ended up with an extra two quarts of the soured wort.  Not wanting to waste the "free" beer I racked it into a growler and pitched some of the White Labs Brett B starter I had on hand.  This wort was already quite sour, and it was unhopped, so I had no idea how it would turn out.  The other 100% Brett beers I've brewed were fermented with B. clausenii and B. anomalus (milder strains), and at most some of them had a hint of tartness from an addition of acid malt. 

After a few months in primary I bottled the Brett B portion, but at that point the flavor wasn't great (a bit too funky with a strong worty flavor).  After a few months in the bottle though and the flavor really turned around, with a solid acidity, lots of cherry funk, and just a bit of that grainy flavor (maybe a longer boil would have helped?).  This combination of souring the wort pre-boil and doing a 100% Brett fermentation seems like a legitimate way to turn out a relatively "authentic" tasting sour beer in less than half the time it takes to do the souring and funking simultaneously.  I'll certainly be giving a full batch done with way a shot sometime soon (once I get a few other experiments out of the way).

Brett Brux Sour Brown

Appearance – Nearly crystal-clear amberish brown body with a moderate white head. The foam retention is alright, but it doesn't leave much lacing.

Smell – Funky tart cherry aroma, with good intensity. It has more grain/toast character than most “standard” sour beers I've brewed, fresher flavor. There is just a hint of vinegar in the aroma as it warms.

Taste – The lactic acidity isn't aggressive but it seems to coat the entire surface of my mouth. There is some sweetness, but nothing like a sweet and sour Flemish Red. The balance most reminds me of Ithaca Brute, although their production method (acid malt for sourness, Brett in the barrel) is much different.

Mouthfeel – Still has a bit of body, but there is a lingering tannic roughness on the tongue. The medium-high carbonation works well with this beer helping to lift the sweetness.

Drinkability & Notes – A pleasant beer that has gone over well with the people who have sampled it. Turned out great for an experiment, worth a repeat with a lower mash temp and a longer boil.

Mo' Betta Bretta Batch #1 Final Tasting

After doing a tasting of my second attempt at cloning Mo' Betta Bretta, I thought it was time to do a tasting of my first attempt (the recipe was the first post on this blog). The first and second batches were very similar, the only major changes were the strain of Brett (Brett C for batch #1, and Brett A for batch #2), and the way the acid/sauer malt was added (to the main mash at the start of the sparge for batch #1, separately for batch #2).

After how oxidized the second batch tasting was I didn't have high hopes for this one, but it pulled through. One of the two recipe changes (or another uncontrolled process variable) was the flap of the butterfly's wings that sent these two batches in completely different directions over their two years in the bottle. There is always a bit of luck involved in brewing, particularly in 100% Brett beers, and this is just one of those times when things worked out.

Sadly I don't have any of the first batch's dried cherry Pinot noir portion left to sample (most of it was sent out for the BBB 100% Brett swap).

Mo' Betta Bretta Clone Batch #1 - Tasting 8/21/09

Appearance - Brilliantly clear golden with a thin white head. The carbonation keeps the head inflated, but it is not as voluminous as it was in the beer's youth. It took some time to clear, but this is a beautiful beer now.

Aroma - Terrific stone fruit aroma (peaches and apricot in particular). This would make a great base for a fruit beer with one of those. Luckily no sign of the oxidation that plagued the considerably younger bottle of Batch #2 I had a few weeks back. There is some musty/barnyard funk that this batch has always had, but it is just a subtle complexity compared to what it was when the beer only had a couple months in the bottle.

Taste - The flavor is very nice, lightly tart and crisp. The apricot carries over from the nose and is joined by some cherry. The flavor is just a bit sweeter than I recall, by now basically all of the bitterness has faded. A well rounded flavor that gets funkier as it warms (but never unpleasantly so). No malt character and just a slight breadiness from the malt.

Mouthfeel - The carbonation gives it some lightness, but the beer still has a medium body (probably from the oats). I remember it feeling a bit lighter in the past, but it is fine as is.

Drinkability/Notes - It was no chore to down the entire bomber on a warm evening. The combination of complexity and drinkability makes this an excellent beer. Maybe a bit past its prime, but still in very good shape considering that it is a pale, moderate gravity beer that was brewed 30 months ago. I had forgotten how good these 100% Brett beers can be, I'll have to do another run of them sometime soon.

Final Mo' Betta Bretta Clone 2 Tasting

About two years ago when this blog was still getting 20 hits a day I brewed my second attempt at Pizza Port’s Mo’ Betta Bretta. The batch was split three ways with half bottled plain, one quarter aged with sour cherries and pinot noir, and the final quarter getting the same cherries and wine with the addition of a vanilla bean.

Last night I enjoyed my last bottle of each of those beers (actually there may be one final bottle of the plain hiding somewhere). It was interesting to taste the three beers back to back to back, they differences were remarkable. As 100% Brett beers they do not have the same aging potential as mixed culture sours, but I have been impressed by how my first attempt at Mo’ Betta Bretta has aged, so I had high hopes for these as well.

I wrote up some tasting notes and posted them last night, but when I checked back this morning they seemed to be gone from the site (I blame blogger, and not the fact that I was sampling three beers while posting…). What follows is a recreation of my thoughts to the best of my recollection.

Mo' Betta Bretta 2
Appearance – Clear golden, with a puffy, stark white head. The considerable carbonation keeps the head inflated for several minutes before allowing it to fall to a thin ring. A bit of lacing sticks to the sides of the glass.

Aroma – Candied fruit is the first thing that comes to mind. There is some sherry notes as well that do not meld well with such a pale beer. It almost smells like an old ale, but without the dark malt component it is very off-putting.

Taste –The flavor has a bit of white wine character, but not in a good way, more like old wine that sat out too long. It needs a touch more sourness or bitterness, as the sweetness is just overpowering. I really liked the flavor when this beer was young, but clearly two years in the bottle is too much for this one.

Mouthfeel – The beer does not have the lightness that it once had despite the strong carbonation. It has lost the acidic edge that really brought it together.

Drinkability/Notes – Sad to say that I had to dump this one. The character just did not hold up over time despite being stashed at my parents’ house in pretty optimal conditions.

Cherry Mo' Betta Bretta 2
Appearance – A beautiful “cherry” red body topped with a head that has just a touch on pink.

Aroma – Really bright cherry aroma up front, but there isn’t much behind it. Hopefully the cherries prevented the oxidation and aren’t just covering it up.

Taste – The cherries again take the lead, still fresh and juicy. There is a little bit of earthy funk as well, but not much. The wine has continued to mellow, at this point I couldn’t call it more than a distant complexity.

Mouthfeel – The acidity from the sour cherries really makes the beer. The strong carbonation really compliments the acid, giving it a lightness that is very refreshing.

Drinkability/Notes - I know cherries are high in anti-oxidants, so that may have been enough to stave off the oxidation that has ravaged the plain beer in just over two years. This is a very nice lightly funky cherry beer, but it lacks a bit in the beer department, it may have done better with some more assertive malts.

Cherry-Vanilla Mo' Betta Bretta 2
Appearance – Not surprisingly it looks exactly the same as its vanilla-less brother, although maybe the head has just a touch more pink. The head looked to of had more color in the picture from last year, but I’m not sure what would have caused the head color to change over time (might just be the photo).

Aroma – The vanilla compliments and mellows the cherry and makes it seem a bit duller. The vanilla smells rich and sweet, it is a very nice character. Not much else going on in the aroma, even as it warms up a bit.

Taste – The flavor has that great vanilla bean complexity with hints of cigar and fresh leather. This is the sort of character I have always wanted in a vanilla porter or stout but have never really gotten. The cherries are playing back-up, and the wine flavor is completely covered up. The vanilla also mutes that hint of funk and any lingering beer-ish character.

Mouthfeel – The vanilla gives the beer a slightly fuller/sweeter impression. The light tannic quality I noted a year ago has completely dissipated with age.

Drinkability/Notes – The vanilla certainly adds complexity and helps to balance out the brash cherry character, but it comes at the expense of taking away any beer character. It is an interesting drink, but I think I prefer the plain cherry on a hot night like this.

Mo' Betta Bretta Clone #2 - Tasting

I could have sworn I had done a tasting of my second attempt at Mo Betta Bretta, but it appears I haven't. It was on the Offbeat Yeast Basic Brewing Radio Podcast (a new episode is in the works).

This beer has been bottled for 7 months, but it seems to still be developing nicely.

Appearance – Voluminous meringue-like head. The beer has visible carbonation coursing through its burnt orange hazy body. Great lacing and retention, the Carafoam really did its job on this one.

Smell – Strong apple, not green apple like actylaldehyde, more like apple cider. A bit of straight up funk as it warms. It also has a bit of tropical aroma, I have heard the original Mo Betta Bretta described as having a pineapple aroma, but I would say this is more generically fruity.

Taste – Light tartness (thanks to the acid malt), with a bready malt backbone. There is some cherry funk as well, but it is very smooth. No bitterness, and rather dry, so it has good balance. Not particularly complex, and with a hint of clean ethanol in the finish. An example of how clean a 100% Brett beer can be when the fermentation temperature is kept down

Mouthfeel – Prickly carbonation, with a medium-thin body. I like the stronger carbonation on this one, more than the first version.

Drinkability & Notes – Solid drinkability, much less objectionable funk than my first attempt when it was this young. I think the carbonation has increased a bit, but it still very appropriate for a Belgian-y beer.

BBB Brett Swap Article

A very nice article by Steve Gale about a 100% Brett beer swap I participated in. It was great to have so many homebrewers experienced with Brettanomyces in addition to Tomme Arthur (Pizza Port/Lost Abbey) taste one of my beers. The range of Brett beers was really phenomenal, in fact the swap included twice as many all Brett beers as there have ever been brewed commercially. I can't describe how much my eyes were opened to the flavors that Brett can produce.

Here is the section on the beer I contributed my:

Brewer: Michael Tonsmeire, Washington D.C.
Beer: Cherry Bretta
Strain: Claussenii
Starting Gravity: 1.060
Finishing Gravity: 1.010

Mike is fairly new to brewing, having started 2.5 years ago after taking a Beer Brewing and
Appreciation class during college. Despite this, in the last year he has produced 8 batches with
brett. This one had an interesting twist, beginning life as a Mo' Betta Bretta clone. But Mike added1 lb or dried cherries that had been rehydrated in Pinot Noir to the secondary. We tasted this brew having been in the bottle only 3 months – quite an infant for a brett beer!

SteveG: Cool aroma - autumn spices. Smells like potpourri.
Mike T: It is a Mo Betta Brett clone (Brett C) with dried sour cherries and pinot noir wine.
Cisco: Big cinnamon, with cherries in the background.
Mike T: I gave this one 60 seconds of O2 and servomyces.
Sean Paxton: Very nice, cinnamon, cherry, hint of oak.
AlB: The pinot was w/ the cherries yes, no oak right?
Mike T: The cherries were rehydrated at 160 in pinot noir, drained and then pureed with about a cup of "fresh" pinot.
Cisco: How was the cinnamon added?
Mike T: No cinnamon, just the yeast I guess.
SteveG: Mike - how much of this autumn potpourri thing do you attribute to the cherries?
Mike T: Not much of it, although this was my first time using dried cherries. I think it is an interaction of the cherries and the yeast, I think the fruit/wine is covering up some of the yeast flavors making what remains taste spicy.
Sean Paxton: Almost a clove/allspice finish.
SteveG: Sean, this is like a glass of apple pie!

Mo' Betta Bretta #2

This was my second attempt to clone Pizza Port's Mo' Betta Bretta. First attempt This time around I made two significant tweaks to my recipe.

First and most importantly I switched the strain of Brett from claussenii to anomalus which is the strain used in the original. Claussenii and anomalus both have their origins in barrel aged English strong ales, and are both subtle compared to the Belgian Strains.

Second I doubled the amount of acid malt to increase the sourness and instead of adding it to the mash where the buffering capabilities of the mash may have canceled much of it out I mashed it separately and added it directly to the boil. The draw back of this method is that the pH of a mash of just acid malt is too low to allow for conversion, so some starch certainly got into the finished beer.

I also followed up my Pinot Noir and dried sour cherry version the first Mo' Betta batch, by doing the same thing but with fresh sour cherries. In 2 gallons I used 4 lbs of sour cherries from my local farmers market that I breifly froze to break up the cell walls. I added half a bottle of Pinot Noir from Bear Boat, which located in the Russian River Valley. In retrospect I think I added too much wine, the first batch used about the same amount but part of that was tossed out after it was used to rehydrate the dried sour cherries.

Mo' Betta Brett 2.0

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 4.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 10.50
Anticipated OG: 1.062
Anticipated SRM: 5.6
Anticipated IBU: 13.9
Brewhouse Efficiency: 63 %
Wort Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Grain
------
7.00 lbs. Pilsen (2 Row)
1.00 lbs. Munich Malt (dark)
1.00 lbs. Sauer(acid) Malt
0.75 lbs. Oatmeal
0.50 lbs. Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt
0.25 lbs. CaraFoam

Hops
------
0.25 oz Magnum @ 45 min.

Extras
-------
1 Servomyces @ 15 min
.5 Whirlfloc @ 15 min

Yeast
-----
WYeast 5110 Brettanomyces anomalus

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Pale, Low Hop

Calcium(Ca): 65.0 ppm
Magnesium(Mg): 7.5 ppm
Sodium(Na): 15.0 ppm
Sulfate(SO4): 50.0 ppm
Chloride(Cl): 96.0 ppm
biCarbonate(HCO3): 23.0 ppm

pH: 8.25

Mash Schedule
-------------
60 minutes @ 152
Thin Decoction to reach 162 for 5 minutes

Notes
-----
Brewed 7/04/07 by myself

Notched the barley crusher down a hair to try and combat the recent string of low efficiency.

Boiled the old fashion Quaker Oats in 1 gallon of distilled water.

Pulled a few quarts of liquid off the mash, brought to a boil and returned to raise the temp for a few minutes at the end of the mash. Nice long slow sparge to collect 5 gallons @ 1.053 (not sure if it was the smaller crush, or the mash out, but this is the best eff I have had in ages, 76% not including the sour malt)

The sauermalt was mashed on its own for 45 minutes @ 152, then drained through a sieve and sparged with a bit of the collected wort. It turned out pretty cloudy, but had a nice yogurt like tang to it. Ended up with 2 quarts after straining that I added with 5 minutes left in the boil. Not much evidence of its addition in the cooled wort.

Chilled to high 80s with chiller then placed in 60 degree freezer to get it to pitching temps.

After 6 hours I assumed it was cool, topped off with 1 quart of Evian water and hit it with 1 minute of oxygen. I then added about 2/3 of a mason jar of slurry from the Brett Pale Ale

After 24 hours I gave the carboy a shake and turned the temp up to 70. In the morning fermentation was pretty active, so I put the temp back down to 65.

7/11/07 Added 4 lbs fresh (frozen then thawed) sour cherries that I got at the farmers market to about 2 gallons of the beer. The rest got transferred to secondary in two 4L jugs.

7/16/07 Added 1/2 bottle of Bear Boat Pinot Noir to the cherry half. Took a sample and it was a light pink with a great soft cherry character and nice complexity, really looking forward to this one.

7/28/07 Racked off the cherries into 2 one gallon jugs. The wine tastes too intense, hopefully it will mellow.

8/01/07 Added a split vanilla bean to 1 jug of the cherry/wine

8/05/07 Bottled all 3 versions. Aiming for around 2.5 volumes of CO2.

FG:
Plain - 1.008
Cherry - 1.009
Cherry/Vanilla - 1.010

9/20/08 Tasted as part of the offbeat yeast episode of BBR

2/10/08 Tasting of the plain version.

6/23/08 Tasting of the plain version and the cherry vanilla.

7/29/09 Tasting of all three versions.

A poor quality video, but you can sort of see how violent a 100% Brett fermentation can get:

2 Brett Tales

I recently had two infinitely different experiences (one good, one bad) with other people trying my 100% Brett fermented beers that I think illustrates the state of Brett beers in the American beer culture.

I'll start with the negative experience: I entered a bottle of my first Brett beer in my homebrew club's Saison competition just to see how it would fair and to get some basic feedback on how to improve it. While the beer was not brewed to be a saison its recipe and specs (aside from the use of just Brett) were just within the low end for all of the BJCP guidelines (gravity/color/bitterness/abv etc…) and I thought the flavor and aroma were not far off particularly because Fantome's line of saisons often have a mildly funky Brett note to them (and occasionally a strong funk).

Well I was dead wrong according to the judges, my beer was panned by all of them as either infected or having a strong acetylaldehyde problem (which I think was just the appley ester that Brett C seems to put out). All four of the judges gave me 21s and 22s. I wasn't expecting to win, but I also thought that my beer was a reasonable entry into the category and that it would at least produce more meaningful comments than "Needs more malt" and "Watch your sanitation" "Would be more appropriate as a Lambic". I am generally not a big fan of competitions for precisely this reason, I think more competitions need to focus on the tastiest beers not the ones that are closest to some Socratic stylistic ideal form.

----

Now for the positive story: I was recently involved with a swap over at the BBB for people who brewed a beer with no Saccromyces (Primarily Brett, but a few people added lacto as well). I got to try beers brewed by 7 fantastic brewers who coaxed amazing flavors out of the four major Brett strains. Fresh apples, cherries, spices, tropical fruit and many other unique flavors were on exhibition with almost none of the maligned stereotypical Brett aromas of "goat" "sweat" or barnyard. My Cherry/Wine Mo' Betta Bretta was received quite well, with the common analysis boiling down to cinnamon, cherries, mulled wine etc… There was one comment of fecal… but even that wasn't entirely negative.

Tomme Arthur (of Pizza Port and The Lost Abbey) also receive a bottle from everyone. I got to have a brief chat with him about my beer after going to a tasting/presentation (so many tasty and inspiring beers, and he only brought one of their barrel-aged offerings) he gave at the Brickskeller, he thought that my beer was one of the most interesting of the tasting and seemed to be genuinely intrigued with exactly how I got the flavors I did. It was very rewarding to hear the man who essentially co-created this genera of beer say that my beer had positive characteristics that he had never gotten.

An older gentleman in the crowd during Tomme's speech had some negative words for the use of Brett, however the guy didn't seem to mind the mild Brett character in The Lost Abbey's phenomenal 10 Commandments (originally SPF 8, a big black saison with fresh rosemary, orange peel and port caramelized raisins), Tomme said that it would have more Brett kick in future batches.

I think the point of these two stories is that not every beer-geek has gotten the Brettanomyces education that they need, but that the ones that have are starting to spread the gospel (with the help of a couple fantastic professional brewers). Brewing with Brettanomyces isn't for everyone, but it allows you to create flavors that are impossible to get with traditional brewer's yeast. If you have never made a batch with Brett before I implore you to do so, you might want to avoid entering it in a contest anytime soon though.