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.

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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.

1st 100% Brettanomyces anomalus brew

Finally built up a starter from my pack of Wyeast 5110 Brettanomyces anomolus a few weeks ago in preparation for a series of brews. Brett A is similar to Brett C (mild), it was originally cultured from bottles on a bottle of English Stout and made its way to Wyeast by way of San Diego (Pizza Port I assume as it is the strain that was actually used in Mo' Betta Bretta). The owner of my local homebrew store says he thinks it is smoother and rounder as a primary fermenter than the Brett C from White Labs.

Last weekend I brewed a recipe (below) that is nearly identical to the first brew I did with Brett C. The only major change is that I replaced half of the wheat malt with rye malt because I was low on wheat. Ambient temperatures have been holding steadily in the mid 80s this week and I added the same nutrient and held back on the oxygen so it should be an even comparison.

This weekend I plan on brewing up a American Pale Ale wort to pitch onto the yeast cake from this one. Some of this yeast will also find its way into a Courage Russian Imperial Stout that my buddy James and I have been dreaming about for a few months.

1st 100% Brett A Beer
Recipe Specifics
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Batch Size (Gal): 3.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 6.00
Anticipated OG: 1.047
Anticipated SRM: 3.8
Anticipated IBU: 24.2
Brewhouse Efficiency: 62 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain
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5.00 lbs. French Pilsen
0.50 lbs. Rye Malt
0.50 lbs. Wheat Malt

Hops
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0.50 oz. Sterling @ 60 min.
0.25 oz. Mt. Hood @ 10 min.
0.25 oz. Mt. Hood @ 5 min.
0.25 oz. Sterling @ 5 min.
0.25 oz. Mt. Hood @ 0 min.
0.25 oz. Sterling @ 0 min.

Extras
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1.00 Unit(s)Servomyces @ 10 Min.(boil)
0.50 Unit(s)Wirlfloc @ 10 Min.(boil)

Yeast
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WYeast 5110 Brettanomyces anomalus


Water Profile
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Profile: Pale, Medium Hop
Profile known for:

Calcium(Ca): 69.0 ppm
Magnesium(Mg): 7.5 ppm
Sodium(Na): 15.0 ppm
Sulfate(SO4): 61.0 ppm
Chloride(Cl): 96.0 ppm
biCarbonate(HCO3): 23.0 ppm

pH: 8.25

Mash Schedule
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90 minutes @ 151 degrees

Notes
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Brewed 5/26/07 By myself

Starter made a few weeks previous and stepped up to around 1/2 gallon, crash cooled in the fridge for a few days before the brew.

Bach sparged and collected 5 gallons of 1.030 runoff, boiled down to about 3 gallons of 1.047

Decanted and pitched starter, no extra O2 added aside from some splashing during straining.

Pitched around 80 degrees (tap water just wasn't cool enough to get much lower). Ambient temp in the high 80's caused the yeast to start fermenting fast and hard. Hopefully the beer will be alright.

Fermentation only lasted about 48 hours. The krausen never got more than a couple inches thick and fell to a pellicle like covering that took several days to fall out.

Tasting notes.

First 100% Brett Beer: 2nd Tasting

It has been 2 months since my last "Official" tasting of my First 100% Brett Beer, so I thought I would give it an update.

Appearance – Beautiful, thick, meringue like head. The beer is clear amber on the second pour some sediment comes out as well. The steady streams of bubbles keeps the head inflated perfectly.

Smell – Mild aged Brett funk, starting to get a bit more barnyard (like Mo' Betta, but not nearly as much). Light spicy hops, they have faded since the last tasting.

Taste – Still not very funky, but definite earthiness. Nice balance between hoppiness and dryness. Not sweet, and still without and real tart/sourness. I may up the finishing hops next time around to keep the spicy finish around longer.

Mouthfeel – Prickly carbonation, light body, very refreshing. Carbonation is slightly stronger than before, but no danger of gushing.

Drinkability/Notes – A great session beer for this warm May evening. I wonder if it was the extra O2, acid malt or fermentation temp that caused my batch of Mo' Betta Bretta to get funky so much faster than this one.

Recipe

Lambic Phone Home

My mother was kind enough to take some pictures of the wild brews I brewed before moving down to DC. They have no been sitting undisturbed in my old bedroom for about 8 months total (I haven't seen them since I was home for Christmas). I am planning on bottling the Old Ale and the Strong Dark Belgian in about a month, the Flanders Red around next Christmas and the Lambic will be divided and put on fruit in another year or so.


Group photo:
Front left - Lambic
Front right - Flanders Red
Rear - Old Ale w/Brett C and French Oak











Close up of the funky lambic pellicle.














Strong Dark Belgian (w/ cherries, bourbon and 2 strains of Brett)

Mo' Betta Brett Bottle Hopped Tasting #2 (The Mt. Hood)

Not a full tasting: I expected this one to be mega funky, but the spicy hops subdued much of the Brett funkiness. It actually has a lot of flavor in common with My first Brett beer (that used Mt. Hood as part of the aroma addition.) Certainly tasty, I think I liked it more than the last few "straight" bottles of this that I have had.

I am intrigues that flavors (hops/cherries) seem to be able to cover up the harsh elements of the Brett funkification.

I'll post a full review of the Sterling Hopped version which I expect to be very similar to this one.

With the re-release of Wyeast's Roeselare Blend

With the re-release of Wyeast's Roeselare Blend (for 3 months as part of the summer VSS releases) I though I would post my only experience with it (even though I have yet to taste the beer).

Roeselare Blend is supposed to be an approximation of the yeast/bacteria mix that Rodenbach uses on their beers (the same blend was at one point provided to such small brewers as De Dolle). It is supposed to give a solid acidity and interesting flavors without being as pungent as the lambic blend.

I haven't found the actual strains in the blend, but there is Brett (probably lambicus) and lactic acid bacteria (most likely Lactobacillus and not Pediococcus). There is also regular old Saccharomyces (California Ale yeast according to some people), but I thought it was a good idea to pitch my own primary yeast so I would not be under pitching (I figured with all that bacteria/Brett in the smack-pack the yeast would at a low count and stressed).

For more info on the the piece of oak jammed into the top of the carboy check out this.



Double tasting 1/24/08

Blackberry tasting 8/18/11

RodenTons

Recipe Specifics
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Batch Size (Gal): 6.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 12.31
Anticipated OG: 1.062
Anticipated SRM: 12.9
Anticipated IBU: 13.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 83 %
Wort Boil Time: 100 Minutes

Grain
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4.00 lbs. Belgian Pilsener
3.00 lbs. American Vienna Malt
3.00 lbs. Belgian Munich Malt
1.00 lbs. Wheat Malt
0.44 lbs. CaraMunich Malt
0.44 lbs. Aromatic Malt
0.44 lbs. Special B Malt

Hops
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1.75 oz. Whole Czech Saaz @ 90 min

Yeast
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Primary White Labs WLP530 Abbey Ale
Secondary Wyeast 3763 Roeselare Blend

Water Profile
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Profile: Wayland
Profile known for:

Calcium(Ca): 31.0 ppm
Magnesium(Mg): 6.2 ppm
Sodium(Na): 20.0 ppm
Sulfate(SO4): 36.0 ppm
Chloride(Cl): 25.0 ppm
biCarbonate(HCO3): 61.5 ppm

pH: 7.00

Mash:
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Sacc Rest 40 min @ 147. 0.85 qrt/lb
Sacc II 30 min @ 162. 1.18 qrt/lb

Notes
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Based on a Flanders Red from Jamil

Brewed 8/9/06 by myself

First rest temp a few degrees higher than intended. Fly sparge, with great efficiency 6.75 gallons of 1.058 runoff collected. 2 year old hops 3.3 AA listed, adjusted down to 2.5 AA. 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient added with 15 minutes left in boil. Boil off went faster than expected so I ended it 20 minutes ahead of schedule, next time collect more wort. Pitched washed cake of 530 pitched from dubbel sugar experiment when wort was chilled to 69. Put into fridge at 62. Nice thick krausen by the next morning, so I dropped the temp to 60 to lower ester production and limit attenuation. The next day the blow-off had overflowed, so I dropped the temp to 58 to slow production.

8/14/06 Gravity down to 1.038 (49% AA), higher than I expected. Sweet and fruity flavor. Temp raised to 65 to see if I can wake the yeast back up a little bit.

8/19/06 temp dropped to 60 to get yeast out of suspension before racking.

8/20/06 1.026 (new hydro adjusted down .004 due to cold water reading) Still a bit of crap in suspension, but I racked anyway. Topped up with 1 gallon of filtered water and put into 5 gallon glass carboy with smacked (but not swollen) Roeselare blend and topped with the oak chair leg, toasted and soaked/boiled, hopefully this will transfer oxygen into carboy, let co2 out and impart flavor I cooked it at 300 for 30 minutes to sanitize and then wrapped with Teflon tape and tapped into place with a rubber auto mechanic mallet. It took a few tries to get the wood in tight enough to stop foam from escaping around it, but eventually foam was coming out the top of the wood. Wood approximately 13 sq in of surface area contact, .5 oz oak beans has 16 sq in contact. Fridge adjusted to 64 degrees for long aging.

10/29/06 I managed to crack the neck of the carboy while putting the wooden peg back into the carboy. The damage was minimal so I just the neck back together.

12/24/06 Looks pretty good, crack hasn't developed and the beer still looks good. After a prolonged secondary I plan to add sour cherries to 2 gallons, dry hop 1 gallon with Amarillo/Cascades like New Belgium's Le Terroir, and leave 2 gallons straight.

8/05/07 Planning on bottling some of this next week. I bought 4 lbs of blackberries today and put them in the freezer, planning on adding most of them to half of this beer.

8/12/07 bottled 2.5 gallons aiming for 2.2 volumes of CO2.  The other half was racked onto the 4 lbs of blackberries for extended aging.  The sourness seems a bit tame at this point.

9/13/07 The carbonation increases the perception of sourness, this is turning into a really solid beer. 

12/29/07 Bottled the blackberry half with 1/3 cup of table sugar.