Brett Saison Review

This review is for the 3 gallon part of the Sour 6 gallon brewed on March 19, 2017.

Aroma: Light bretty funk notes. Grainy pils in the background. Surprisingly doesn't have much in the way of fruity Belgian esters. Hop aroma absent.

Appearance: Billowing white head with very thick texture, clear straw body.

Taste: Dry, bretty funk notes. Pils malt mostly hidden by brett character.  Some tannic quality from the wood. Slight tartness. Bitterness seems moderate but could be confusing it with the tannic  dryness.

Mouthfeel: Surprisingly full bodied but also effervescent. Weird.

Overall: Ok, not great. Lacks brightness and the refreshing lemony character of some brett beers.

Wheatwine & Brett Table Saison Brew Day

I've been wanting to brew a Wheat Wine Ale for while, ever since seeing the recipe in Modern Homebrew Recipes. Of course, I made some substitutions for the hops and grain that were available to me. And, since 24.5 pounds of grain is a lot, I decided to get a batch of Brett Saison with the partigyle batch.

Wheat Wine ferments

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Wheatwine
Style: Wheatwine
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.64 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.51 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal  
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.121 SG
Estimated Color: 12.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 48.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 73.9 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU        
5.50 gal              Boston, MA                               Water         1        -            
8.00 g                Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent   2        -            
5.00 g                Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins)        Water Agent   3        -            
2 lbs                 Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM)                     Adjunct       4        7.1 %        
10 lbs                Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)                Grain         5        35.7 %       
4 lbs                 Wheat Malt, Dark (9.0 SRM)               Grain         6        14.3 %       
3 lbs                 Munich (BestMälz) (7.6 SRM)              Grain         7        10.7 %       
3 lbs                 Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM)            Grain         8        10.7 %       
1 lbs                 Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM)    Grain         9        3.6 %        
1 lbs                 Honey Malt (25.0 SRM)                    Grain         10       3.6 %        
1 lbs                 Wheat - Red Malt (Briess) (2.3 SRM)      Grain         11       3.6 %        
1 lbs                 Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM)                  Grain         12       3.6 %        
8.0 oz                Acid Malt (3.0 SRM)                      Grain         13       1.8 %        
1 lbs 8.0 oz          Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM)         Sugar         14       5.4 %        
1.00 oz               Equinox (HBC 366) [14.20 %] - Boil 10.0  Hop           15       10.1 IBUs    
1.00 oz               Simcoe [12.90 %] - Boil 10.0 min         Hop           16       9.1 IBUs     
1.00 oz               Equinox (HBC 366) [14.20 %] - Boil 1.0 m Hop           17       1.2 IBUs     
1.00 oz               Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 1.0 min          Hop           18       1.1 IBUs     
2.00 oz               Galaxy [14.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool  60.0 Hop           19       27.4 IBUs    
2.0 pkg               California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35. Yeast         20       -        

1 oz each of Centennial, Calypso, Simcoe and Azacca, dry, 7 days  


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Light Body
Total Grain Weight: 28 lbs
----------------------------
Name                    Description                                          Step Temperat Step Time    
Mash Step               Add 31.80 qt of water at 108.9 F                     104.0 F       10 min       
Mash Step               Add 0.00 qt of water and heat to 131.0 F over 10 min 131.0 F       15 min       
Mash Step               Heat to 146.0 F over 10 min                          146.0 F       40 min       
Mash Step               Heat to 158.0 F over 10 min                          158.0 F       15 min       
Mash Step               Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min                          168.0 F       15 min       

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 3.82gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:

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Brewed 11/16/16.
Wheat Wine
Not completely sure I got the right temp on the rests. Even stirring the mash constantly there seemed to be variation around 5F-10F in the temperature of the mash.

Ended up with about 5.75 gallons of wort into the fermenter at 1.110 OG, lower than hoped both for gravity and volume. But given this is a very high gravity beer a low efficiency is expected. And, there was a lot of trub that got into the fermenter.

May use DME to brew some top-off beer to get up to the right volume.

Made a starter with 1 pack of dry yeast. Added that and a second pack of dry yeast when beer was 65F. After ~12 hours, good activity. After 36 hours, very rapid fermentation. Ambient temps in the 62F - 65F range. Tomorrow will move been to warmer place.

Color of the wort was beautiful deep amber. It tasted like malt candy. Very sweet and very malty.

Racked to secondary in mid-December.

Added dry hops on 2/25/17, will crash cool, keg and force carbonate in a week.

Hydrometer sample read the FG as 1.030, a bit over the predicted final gravity of 1.027 or so. Taste was a perhaps a bit too sweet. The recipe in Modern Homebrew Recipes had an FG of 1.018, significantly lower than my beer here. Maybe will taste a few samples of the carbed beer then if needed pitch a small starter of US-05 to dry it out a bit more, but would really prefer not to do that.

Brett Table Saison ferments

Brett Table Saison
Same mash as above but with no sugar, partigyled with ~6.5 gallons of 180F water.
Hop schedule was 1oz Tettnanger, 4%, at 60 min, 1oz Tettnanger, 4% at 10 min.

Got 5.1 gallons into fermenter at 1.030 OG. So, around 18% mash efficiency.

Shook to aerate, then pitched left over Tart Cherry Brett left over from a previous beer. No starter.

Wort was light amber color. The taste was fairly bland. Not sweet, and not much malt character. We'll see....

After around 36 hours, active fermentation has begun, with thin white krausen forming on the top of the beer.

Raspberry-Brett Saison

Originally planned as a cherry-brett saison, this one transformed into a raspberry beer since I could not find fresh sour cherries. In any case this beer is now a few months old and ready to drink.

Appearance: Medium pink in color with thin white head. Nearly clear but slight haze. Stunning body color, with hings of yellow pils malt color at the bottom of the glass. Lots of bubbles are rising to the surface from the bottom of the glass.
 
Aroma: Pronounced raspberry essence with bretty funk in the nose. A bit of a dry acidic quality. The raspberry aroma is not overpowering of the bretty funk - leaving a pretty balanced aroma. Not clear how much of the aroma is bretty fruit esters or raspberry.

Taste: Again good mix of raspberry taste with some acidic and tannic quality, but mixed with bretty funk. Dry. Bitterness is medium and it is a herbal, floral character. Fortunately the flavors all meld pretty well together. Malt flavors are very low as the fruit, yeast, and hops are the stars here.

Mouthfeel: Dry, a little tannic and fairly light and well carbonated.

Overall: This turned out very well. It's well balanced between the different flavor elements involved. The raspberry blends well with the brett and the bitterness. I may bottle a bit more of this to see how it ages, but otherwise I like it fresh. Will bring bottles to the brew club meetings to see what the club members have to say.

Brett-Cherry Saison Brewday

There was a bottle of really good cherry-fruit beer at a meeting of one the homebrew clubs of which I am a member. The person who brought it had traded for it, and I think it was Wisconsin Belgian Red. In any case I was inspired to brew a brett-cherry saison. The malt bill is nearly identical to my previous brett-saison, but with a different strain of brett, slightly more late hop additions, and obviously with the planned additions of cherries. I was planning to use some Brett C but the local shop didn't have it, and the GigaYeast Tart Cherry Brett sounded perfect for this beer, for obvious reasons. The ABV on this one will be at least 7% after the addition of the cherries, nearly double the ABV of the New Glarus beer. Oops, I probably should have considered that.

Not sure what form the cherries will take - frozen, puree, fresh, etc... It depends on availability. Puree would probably make for the easiest handling and lowest amount of fermenter loss.

Also I've been trying to tweak my planned volume amounts, ideally to get 5.5 gallons of clear, non-truby wort into the fermenter. But that didn't quite happen here.

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Brett-Cherry Saison
Style: Saison

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.62 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.50 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal  
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.057 SG
Estimated Color: 4.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 24.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 74.6 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU        
9 lbs                 Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM)            Grain         1        72.0 %       
2 lbs                 Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)                Grain         2        16.0 %       
1 lbs                 Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)             Grain         3        8.0 %        
8.0 oz                Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM)         Sugar         4        4.0 %        
0.75 oz               Sterling [8.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min        Hop           5        18.7 IBUs    
0.50 oz               Sterling [8.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min        Hop           6        4.5 IBUs     
1.00 oz               Sterling [8.00 %] - Boil 1.0 min         Hop           7        1.1 IBUs     
1.0 pkg               Tart Cherry Brett (Giga Yeast #GB002)    Yeast         8        -            
4.20 lb               Cherries (Secondary 0.0 mins)            Flavor        9        -            


Mash Schedule: 150F, Mash Out, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 12 lbs 8.0 oz
----------------------------
Name                    Description                                          Step Temperat Step Time    
Mash Step               Add 16.00 qt of water at 162.8 F                     150.0 F       60 min       
Mash Step               Add 9.60 qt of water at 203.7 F                      168.0 F       10 min       

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 2.91gal) of 168.0 F water

Notes:
------
1/2 tsp gympsum, 1/2 tsp CaCl to mash water, a little less to sparge water.

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Low gravity starter made on 4/13/16, with yeast nutrient. By brew day there was no visible activity but I did get some nice bretty smells from the starter.

Brewed 4/16/16.

Hit my mash temp. Pre-boil OG was ~1.044 (pre-sugar),  ~1.046 (post-sugar), on target. Post-boil OG was ~1.065, a bit high, likely due to underestimation of boil-off.

Brewing went smoothly except that I had to disassemble, clean, lube and reassemble my grain mill to get it to work properly.

Force cooled to 120F, racked to better bottle, and accidentally chilled all the way to 33F in my chest freezer.

On 4/17/16, pitched yeast at 33F and shook the carboy a bit, then allowed to warm to 68F for start of fermentation. May increase to 70F tomorrow. I don't want a heavily oxygenated wort for brett since that can produce too much acidity or other weirdness.

There was about 5.4 gallons in the fermenter, a little less than planned, and although most of the wort I racked was trub-free, I did get a bit of hot-break material in the wort.

5/7/16: Visibly active fermentation occurred from April 19 - April 30, with temperature ramping from 68F - 70F. As of 5/7/16 quite a bit of yeast and trub has settled to the bottom but the beer remains turbid with yeast. Will rack next week and at some point add the cherries.

5/15/16 - Racked to secondary. Carried some yeast into the new vessel. 

6/20/16 - I was away on vacation at the time that fresh sour cherries were available, and I couldn't find any frozen ones. So I added 36oz of frozen raspberries instead to the secondary fermenter.

Funky Mild Review

This is my second attempt at a beer from American Sour Beers. This one isn't actually soured, but dosed with Brett-C in the secondary fermentation. 

Appearance: Deep ruby brown. Nearly opaque but in bright light it is clear. Low but persistent tan head. The camera on my phone doesn't do the appearance of my beers any favors.

Aroma: Noticeable bretty cherry quality. Kind of musty with a chocolate note. Like dark bitter chocolate mixed with cherries. The Brett smell is similarly funky to my Brett C saison but definitely has a stronger cherry like nose. Perhaps that's an interaction between the Brett and the dark or crystal malts. I don't think I get any English yeast type esters.

Taste: Similar to the aroma. I get some bretty horseblanket funk. Maybe some leathery notes, a bit of chocolate, but doesn't have as much cherry as the nose. Low sweetness, very low bitterness, hops not detectable. Maybe some dry, spicy notes from the rye malt, but it all blends together.

Moutfeel: Fairly thin, like a mild is supposed to be. But mid to high carbonation range, which is probably a little too high. Aftertaste is bretty funk, maybe with a slight taste of bitter chocolate. Pretty dry - the brett must have consumed some of the sugars left over from the English ale yeast.

Overall: I'm not sure what to make of the taste profile of this one. Not clearly a sour, not clearly a mild, not a saison. Just different than anything that comes to mind. It's pleasant but has a stronger taste than a mild and probably a little more alcohol, both due to the brett. Probably not quite the session beer due to its more robust taste... but probably still is pretty low ABV.

I would like to continue brewing the beers from American Sour Beers. Maybe next is the Buckwheat Sour Amber or the Lambic. We'll see.... I currently have too many unfilled carboys so I'm looking to fill them with some sours or the like.




 

Brett C Saison Review

Appearance: Billowing, dense and persistent white head. Body is light golden-yellow color. Chill haze but by no means muddy or unappealing.

Aroma: Earthy, with some lemony aroma and funkiness. Not especially strong. Hop aroma is very low but I think I smell some noble hop quality. As it warms a little the brett and fruity smells comes out better.

Taste: More complex than the nose. Starts fairly clean, with some fruit quality (maybe tart apples) but certainly not as fruity as the saisons I have brewed with WLP330.  Lightly bready wheat malts in the middle, slight yeastiness, and then some funky brett tastes. I don't think it has the "classic" brett tastes, but maybe some light acidity, dryness, and prickly quality. Almost tastes slightly tannic. Does not taste like a "clean" beer to me. Bitterness blends pretty well with the brett funk.

Mouthfeel:  Dry body, high-ish carbonation, and dry finish.

Overall: Not really sure what it is "supposed" to be so it's hard to judge. To me it's pleasant and Belgian-y but I think it could use a little more fruity quality. According to someone whose judgement I trust it has a classic Belgian quality.

I put ~2 gallons in bottles and ~3 in a keg. Will allow some bottles to age and see how they develop. 

Brett C Saison Brew Day

This beer is a club recipe for a brett experiment. A bunch of people will use an identical grain bill but different strains of yeast, some with brett only and some with brett in secondary only. There's going to be a lot of bretty beer when the experimental beers are tasted.

Brett C Saison
5 gallons
10# Pils
1# Munich Dark
0.5# Torrified Wheat
0.5# Cane Sugar

.75 oz Magnum, 12.4%, 60min
1oz Santiam, 6%, Whirlpool

Brett C primary

Mash at 150F.

Expected OG/FG/IBU/ABV: 1.062 / 1.090 / 29 / 6.9%

7/19/15
Made starter with 1L water, 100g DME, and yeast nutrient. Pitched 1 vial of Brett C (WLP 645) 68F ambient.

7/20/15
No signs of fermentation yet.

7/23/15
Again no apparent signs that the starter is fermenting. Shook starter a bit. I've heard that Brett usually works way more slowly that brewer's yeast. I hope that I will have enough of it to get a good primary ferment with it.

7/25/15
The starter had a ring of trub gunk where the beer meets the side of the flask, indicating that fermentation has passed high krausen.

 Brewed 7/26
Brew day didn't go smoothly due to equipment issues and using my buddy's system rather than my own. No gravity readings etc. Long cooling period necessitated pitching the day after brewday.

7/27
Got  ~5.1 gallons into the carboy, but not much trub. Pitched decanted starter at 68F and let set in 70F ambient to begin fermentation. 

7/28
About 24 hours after pitching, the fermentation was going very vigorously. Continuous airlock bubbling and lots of churning due to CO2 production. I guess I was totally wrong to be concerned about not having enough brett yeast in the starter. 

7/29 
Fermentation going, but less vigorously.


8/1
Fermentation is no longer causing air lock bubbling, but bear is still turbid with yeast.

8/24
Racked to secondary.

Funky Rye Brewday

This will be my second brew from American Sour Beers, though really this beer will be brett-funky, not sour exactly.

The book only has percentages for the grain bill, and I neglected to look at The Mad Fermentationist before formulating the recipe, so numbers are slightly off compared to the original, and there are a couple of ingredient substitutions. Finally I was really lazy this brew and didn't record the gravity, mash ph, etc... I hope the brett will have funkified this recipe around November or December for a nice winter time session ale.

Recipe: Funky Rye Session Ale
Style: Mild

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6.88 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.88 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.25 gal  
Bottling Volume: 4.85 gal
Estimated OG: 1.043 SG
Estimated Color: 20.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 30.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.3 %
Boil Time: 60 MinutesIngredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU       
5.25 gal              Boston, MA                               Water         1        -           
3 lbs 8.0 oz          Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)           Grain         2        38.9 %      
3 lbs 8.0 oz          Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)         Grain         3        38.9 %      
1 lbs                 Rye Malt (4.7 SRM)                       Grain         4        11.1 %      
8.0 oz                Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM)   Grain         5        5.6 %       
8.0 oz                Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)               Grain         6        5.6 %       

1.00 oz               Goldings, East Kent [5.70 %] - Boil 45.0 Hop           7        20.1 IBUs   
1.00 oz               Goldings, East Kent [5.70 %] - Boil 15.0 Hop           8        10.8 IBUs   
1.0 pkg               West Yorkshire Ale (Wyeast Labs #1469)   Yeast         9        -           
1.0 pkg               Brettanomyces Claussenii (White Labs #WL Yeast         10       -           

           
1.0 pkg               Brettanomyces Claussenii (1 tube into secondary fermenter)     


Mash Schedule: 154F, Batch Sparge, Mash Out

Total Grain Weight: 9 lbs
----------------------------
Name                    Description                                          Step Temperat Step Time    
Mash Step               Add 15.25 qt of water at 165.3 F                     154.0 F       60 min       
Mash Step               Add 7.20 qt of water at 202.6 F                      168.0 F       10 min       

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 3.34gal) of 168.0 F water

6/24/15: Made a 1.020 starter since the Yeast package was old and discounted at the LHBS.

6/26/15: Decanted fermented starter beer, and stepped up to a 1.040 starter.

6/29/15: Brewed. Brewing went well despite my laziness in failing to take notes, etc... Cooled to 100F and racked to fermenter. Approx. 5.5 gallons into fermenter.

Put in basement to cool to pitching temps. 30 seconds of Oxygen, pitched decanted starter at ~ 68F.

6/30/15:  Good krausen has formed.

7/1/15: Krausen is still good and active. Moved to 72F ambient air temps.

7/27/15: Racked to secondary, added a small bit of the Brett C starter I made for the Brett C saison.

8/14/15: After a few weeks of no visible activity, the Brett C had left some krausen gunk along the neck of the carboy. Some foam / pellicle on the surface of the beer too.

Brett IPA #2 Review

So I finally brewed the same beer twice. Well, almost. This recipe had only one difference from the previous version, which was the addition of the Acid Malt. But the process was slightly different too, since I let the primary fermentation go for two weeks instead of one before adding the dry hops. Let's see if it makes a substantial different in the results…..


Appearance: Golden-orange, hazy with Brett yeast. Solid white head that leaves good lacing around the glass.

Aroma: Bright with hops. Fruity like mangoes or so, but with a dank side too.

Taste: Similar to the aroma: fruity, tropical juicy, but with a solid bitterness. To me it tastes a little more bitter than the last one.

Mouthfeel: Carbonation is on the higher end of moderate. Definitely not as highly carbed as my first Brett IPA. The body is not spritzy but still light.

Overall:Very good. My brother said it tasted like a commercial-quality IPA. I'm not sure if the acid malt made any difference compared to previous batch, but I definitely do detect the lower carbonation in this one. I think for next time a carbonation level around 2.5 would be better, as would a slight reduction in the IBUs. Not sure the acid malt added anything that I can detect.

I think I prefer the previous batch, which I believe benefitted from the lighter body and the slightly lower bitterness.

Brett IPA #2

 My last Brett IPA turned out well enough to share 1st place in a club-only competition. Turns out there's another competition coming up, and the 3 best beers in that one will be brewed professionally and ultimately judged by their sales in the brewery's tasting room. So why not try again?

The only change for this recipe is that I added 2oz of acid malt to try to encourage the brett to produce some nice tropical fruit esters.

Brett IPA
6# Breiss 2-Row
6oz Munich Malt
4oz Victory Malt
4oz White Wheat
2oz Acid Malt

Mash at 152F

.375oz Nugget, 13%, 60min
.5oz Cascade, 6%, 10 min
.5oz Centennial, 10.5%, 10 min
.5oz Cascade, 6%, 5 min
.5oz Centennial, 10.5%, 10 min
1oz Nelson Sauvin, 12%, 1 min

1oz Nelson Sauvin, 12% - Hopstand, 5min @ 210F, 30min @ 180-140F

.5oz Nelson Sauvin, .5oz CTZ, .5oz Centenial, dry, 7 days

WLP644

Expected OG/FG/IBUs/ABV: 1.062, 1.016 (or less as Brett is highly attenuative), 54, 5.9% (or slightly more depending on attenuation).

Starter made on 10/4 with 50g DME and 500ml water, lightly hopped. The yeast was washed from my previous batch of Brett IPA.

Brewed 10/5/14
Brew day went well - not much to say except that I hit my numbers pretty well including gravity and volume. The whirlpool step did seem to be quite a bit cooler than last time, dropping into the 150F - 140F range over the course of 30 minutes of whirlpooling.

I got the beer to about 90F before putting the kettle in the basement to cool to pitching temps.

Pitched when the wort was around 65F, a bit colder than last time but I hope that will not be a problem. Did not aerate, as per last time.

10/6/14, 6pm - Beer was fermenting nicely at 64F, which is on the cool side, but tomorrow I will move it upstairs for a temperature boost. 

Brett IPA Review

This is my first IPA brewed with brettanomyces yeast, and based on the results, I will absolutely try again with this combination of yeast, hops and malt, with the only change being a slight addition of acid malt.

I brewed this beer as part of a club-only competition to brew a brett-IPA for a group barrel project. The winning recipe will be brewed by a bunch o' club members then fermented in a wine barrel. It turns out this beer is one of the winners - I'm really interested to see how it turns out when brewed in the barrel.

----------------- Original Review, written 8/27/14
Appearance: Hazy orange, most likely due to low-floccuation brett still in suspension. Fluffy white head, but it dissipate a little too quickly.

Aroma: Very fruity hops. Stronger hop aroma than many or most of my previous hoppy beers. I smell the Nelson quite a bit but it's layered with the classic Cascade & Centennial combination. I don't get much pine. I'm not sure how to identify the contribution of the brett. It's supposed to give a variety of tropical fruity aromas, which if present here blend very well with the hoppy aromas.

Taste: Like the aroma - complexity in the hopiness. Dry but fruity, bitter but not astringent, a hint of pine, maybe a barely noticeable hint of brett funk or so in the aftertaste. Hard to describe except to say that to me it tastes really good. A little fruit-juicy. No sourness detectable.

Mouthfeel: Dry, high-moderate carbonation, and kind of thin in body. Close to effervescent in mouthfeel. Refreshing, but the bitterness prevents it from going down like fruit juice.

Other: I really like it.

For Next Time: I didn't include any acid malt in this brew, but I have heard that including some can boost the brett tropical fruit esters. So, that's what I will do the next time I brew this thing, which I definitely plan to do. Also I will try to pitch a very large starter to ensure good attenuation and avoid bottle-bombs.

--------------- Comments / Consensus from club tasters, 8/28/14
There were about 18 other entries in the field, and mine and another were selected to be brewed for the barrels. I was very happy!

The consensus seemed to be that the two winners had the most "brightness" in terms of hop flavor, as well as good body and appropriateness for the barrel. Additionally neither of the two winners had no faults such as diacetyl, excessive phenols, or acid clashing with the hops. I tasted all of the entries, and I did taste in some other them those flaws, including some that just tasted... bizarre in a way that I don't know how to describe.

All Brett IPA

The local brew-club is holding a club-only competition for an all-brett IPA. The winner, in addition to the fame, glory and riches that come from this accomplishment, will have his or her beer brewed in quantity enough to fill a barrel.

My thinking for this beer is as follows:

• Malt takes a background / supporting role and contributes to the body of the beer. Accordingly I used US 2-Row for its relatively neutral flavor. Maris Otter would be too much in this beer. But the  slight bit of Munich, Victory and Wheat malt will leave body and malt flavors without being overpowering.
• Hops and yeast are the key choices, since they need to compliment each other without clashing. 
• I chose Brett-Trois from WhiteLabs. This strain of brett is supposed to produce a huge amount of tropical fruit flavors and, when used as the primary yeast and without aeration, does so without the classic "barnyard" flavors and slight sourness that come from other strains of brett.
• For hops, I chose to feature the fruity, wine like aroma and flavor of Nelson Sauvin hops, as I think they will compliment the brett flavors nicely. However I generally do not like IPAs with too much fruit character - I prefer them to have some degree of piney, resiny character. Thus the Cascade / Centenial combo.
• For yeast, I have heard WLP644 - Brett Trois - is good for IPAs. However it can apparently create some sourness if the wort is aerated - so no aerating this one. The yeast also needs a good starter. 
• Ferment a tad warm to get some good yeast esters and make sure the beer reaches final gravity in a reasonable timeframe.

Brett IPA
6# Breiss 2-Row
6oz Munich Malt
4oz Victory Malt
4oz White Wheat

Mash at 152F

.375oz Nugget, 13%, 60min
.5oz Cascade, 6%, 10 min
.5oz Centennial, 10.5%, 10 min
.5oz Cascade, 6%, 5 min
.5oz Centennial, 10.5%, 10 min
1oz Nelson Sauvin, 12%, 1 min

1oz Nelson Sauvin, 12% - Hopstand, 5min @ 210F, 30min @ 180-160F

.5oz Nelson Sauvin, .5oz Cascade, .5oz Centenial, dry, 7 days

WLP644

Expected OG/FG/IBUs/ABV: 1.061, 1.015 (or less as Brett is highly attenuative), 55, 5.9% (or slightly more depending on attenuation).

Brewed 8/2/14
Made a starter w/ 50g DME in 500ml water on 8/1/14, by pitching time it had already fermented and the yeast was starting to settle. 

Brewday went well, hit my mash and gravity numbers. Yay!

Pitched at 68F after transferring to Better Bottle without aerating. 

8/3/14, 530pm - Beer was fairly actively fermenting.

8/5/14, 6pm - Moved beer to 75F ambient to encourage complete fermentation.

8/14/14 - Added dry hops, right into the primary vessel.

8/19/14 - Moved back to 66F ambient to try to get the hops to sink to the bottom of the vessel.

Funky Table Saison Review

The Snowpacolypse has descended upon the Boston area. What better thing to do than review a batch of homebrew!

For my first experiment with a brett beer I brewed a 1.045 saison with WLP565 and brett. c., in October 2012. The idea was for a light, refreshing but tasty beer that wouldn't need as much time as a stronger brett beer for the flavors to develop.

Appearance: Orange - golden in color with a moderate foam on top. Slight haze. The foam slowly dissipates to a thin covering fed by numerous bubbles moving up to the surface. Good lacing on the side of the glass.

Aroma: Fruity but subtle. Maybe bananas, pineapple or other tropical fruits. The brett is subtle but noticeable.

Taste:A fruity taste with a slight acidity to the aftertaste. To my tongue it does not have the characteristic brett phenols, but it does have some pepperyness.

Mouthfeel: Moderate carbonation. Probably should be more carbed. Body is light, but not as light as some commercial saisons I've sampled.

Overall: A refreshingly light and fruity beer with low-to-moderate brett characteristics, at least to my tongue. Fruity smell, slight acidity, and a little bit of bretty aftertaste. Low hop presence. Probably most appropriate for a hot summer day.

Note that I did get some feedback from the guys at a homebrewing club meetup. They said that while the beer is pretty good and quite drinkable, for the style it is a tad sweet and needs a little bit more hop aroma to balance out the fruit brett character. I like this beer quite a bit but perhaps I'll try next time to use more late addition hops or even dry hop in order to get a little more hop aroma.

Funky Table Saison Brewday

I would like to do a beer with a Brettanomyces twist, but without having to wait a really long time. This means keeping the gravity low, as I have read from several sources that for every 10 gravity points above 1.020 you should secondary the beer for an additional month to let the Brettanomyces work its magic. (After primary for 4 weeks). Otherwise the flavors may not fully develop or you may get beer that becomes dangerously overcarbonated (ie bottle-bombs).

The most prominent homebrewing funk-master in my mind is The Mad Fermentationist. I have been inspired by some of his recipes, such as his Funky Low Gravity Saison. As I understand it the basic idea is to make a saison in the 1.040 OG range and ferment with a combination of WLP645 Brett c. and WLP565 Saison. I'm going for a strong brett taste to get a sense of what that micro-critter is all about.

For this brew I based the grain bill of the BCS Saison recipe but scaled it down a bit to hit a 1.041 OG, with slightly reduced hopping. A little bit of acid malt and a 152F mash temp is part of the picture so that the brett has some good material with which to create its characteristic funkiness. The plan is to primary for about 4 weeks around 70F, followed by a secondary for 2-3 months. I hope the beer will be ready in February '13.

Funky Mini-Saison
3.25 gallons

3# Belgian Pilsner
1# Wheat Malt
0# 4oz Cane Sugar
0# 4oz DME (I forgot to get Munich Malt at the LHBS. That was dumb.)
0# 6oz Crystal 40L
0# 4oz Acid Malt
----
5.125# Total Fermentables

1/2 tsp. gypsum
152F Mash Temp
90min boil

5/8oz Hallertau, 3.9%AA, 60 mins
3/8oz Hallertau, 3.9% AA, 15 mins
1/2 tsp. Irish moss, 15 mins

WLP565 - Belgian Saison I
WLP645 - Brett c. 

Expected OG: 1.042 
Expected IBUs: 21


10/4/12
Made a starter with WLP565 from the previous saison and with WLP645 Brett. c. 

10/5/12
The starter was fermenting nicely with a moderate krausen by 7:30am.Started the mash around 7:50a and hit the 152F temp right on. Got 2.25gal of 1st runnings, as I was aiming for. Hit my pre-boil volume target of 4.5gal too.

Pre-boil OG without the sugar or DME was 1.030 at 4.5 gallons. That is about 76% efficiency. My system seems to get better efficiency on lower gravity brews. Added the sugar and DME with about 75mins left in the boil.

Used the IC to get the wort to 110F. Placed brew kettle in 65F water with some ice-packs to cool it to pitching temps.
   
Pitched when beer was at 70F, then placed fermentor in bin of 66F water for primary fermentation. Ended up with 3.4 gallons, or 3.5 with the starter thrown in. I have 5 cups (.3125 gal) of trub left in the bucket.

If my calculations and measurements are correct this all works out to a boil-off rate of .525 gallons / hour for my set-up on a rigorous boil. I need to figure that exact number into my calculations the next time I brew so that I get the right volumes.

Also, according to my rough calculation, because of the greater mash efficiency than expected, I should still have about the right OG of 1.042 - 1.045.

Pitched around 3pm. By 11:30 that evening the airlock was bubbling fairly actively.

10/19/12
Transferred to secondary. The gravity was at 1.006 - pretty low but I hope there's something left for the brett to munch on over the next few months. The sample tasted OK but definitely "green" and in need of more flavor development. I got a bit more than 3 gallons into the Better Bottle.  

1/18/13
Bottled with 68g of sugar, going for 2.4 volumes of CO2. The beer was all the way down to 1.003. I got slightly more than three gallons in a bunch of 22oz bombers and a few 16oz bottles. I will try the beer in a couple of weeks.