To Brett or not to Brett....

Put together a recipe a few days ago. Grains are mashing now.
I will be kegging this one in 6 weeks tops.
Here's what I have.

7# Marris Otter
4# Dom Wheat
1# Canadian Honey Malt
.5# 80L Crystal
1oz Acid Malt
1# Piloncillo cane sugar
2.5# sweet cherries
(sugar and cherries are simmering on the stove and will be added as a late addition)

1oz US Tettnang bittering
1oz UK WGV late addition
.5oz Hallertau late addition

T-58 yeast

mash holding steady at 159˚


So, my original thought was to hit it with WLP644 after a week in the primary and let that go for 5 weeks then keg.
I'm having second thoughts on this now. I may just let the T-58 do it's thing and call it good. I'm not leaving this one in a secondary for months, it will be kegged and on tap late August.

So, the question:
To Brett or not to Brett...

644 is not supposed to be that great as a secondary yeast.

Hmm,
I was thinking of skipping it also because it will only have 5 weeks at best to do it's thing.

Maybe I make this recipe some other time with Brett.

1.07 OG


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If you did your entire mash at 159F, you may have significant amounts of unfermentable sugars in there. No problem letting the T-58 do it's thing, but you may end up with a maltier/sweeter beer than you would with a lower mash temp.

The Brett could clean that up
/dry it out though, correct?

It's already bubbling like crazy.


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yes, brett should munch through the dextrines. not sure if it will be done in 5 weeks, tho.

did you add the cherries to the boil? i would have added them to the fermenter after primary was done (in the secondary if you're using one). boiling fruit will set the pectin causing pectin haze, and cause some of the more delicate flavors to be boiled off.

Last 10 minutes of the boil, yes.


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tagz said:

644 is not supposed to be that great as a secondary yeast.

Click to expand...

Has anyone ever even used it as a secondary yeast? Everyone seems to use it for 100% brett. But why wouldn't it be good as a secondary yeast? It was cultured from 3F, wasn't it?

Tonsmeire mentioned that he was not impressed with trois as secondary on the latest basic brewing podcast. Said it was best used only as primary for hoppy beers.

tagz said:

Tonsmeire mentioned that he was not impressed with trois as secondary on the latest basic brewing podcast. Said it was best used only as primary for hoppy beers.

Click to expand...

i've used it in primary more often, but i've had no complaints about the results when i used it in secondary. i think it works pretty well and about to do so in a saison.

im drawing a blank on other commercial examples, but this one uses trois in secondary and is pretty tasty: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28742/92073/

dcp27 said:

i've used it in primary more often, but i've had no complaints about the results when i used it in secondary. i think it works pretty well and about to do so in a saison.



im drawing a blank on other commercial examples, but this one uses trois in secondary and is pretty tasty: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28742/92073/

Click to expand...

Interesting. What flavors do you get?

tagz said:

Interesting. What flavors do you get?

Click to expand...

been awhile, but light funk, mild tart and still has some of that tropical fruit get in primary, but significantly less

I've decided I'm going to go ahead and use it. Major fermentation has slowed. I may transfer tomorrow night and add the 644 at that time. Straight from the vial, no starter. Stress it out.

I hate to go against the word of the "sour god", but I had great results with it in secondary.
Kind of like a cross between Brux and Clauss

MaddBaggins said:

1.07 OG


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Click to expand...

T-58 took it to 1.02 in 4 days. Racked to secondary (bug bucket), pitched WLP644.

badlee said:

I hate to go against the word of the "sour god", but I had great results with it in secondary.
Kind of like a cross between Brux and Clauss

Click to expand...

I'm looking forward to the results of this. It smelled, tasted delicious so far.

Good to hear

MaddBaggins said:

T-58 took it to 1.02 in 4 days. Racked to secondary (bug bucket), pitched WLP644.

Click to expand...

1.012 @ 3 weeks. Tasted sweet and mildly tart. Very red and a little hazy.

1.01 after 7 weeks and clearing nicely. Sweet up front with a funky backbone.


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I pitched it with belle saison, excited to see how it comes out. Did a bit of flameout hops. See what happens.

I'm leaning toward kegging this one. It's in a bucket so I need to do something soon before oxy starts to really permeate the plastic. All my carboys are being used and at this point, I don't want to rack it anyway unless to keg/bottle.

Rumor has it, I may be getting a new carboy for my upcoming birthday. A wide mouth carboy even. :rockin:

Kegged it today. It was still at 1.01
Smelled divine! Cherry, alcohol and some horse blanket funk. Reminded me of bourbon at first.
Taste was cherry sweet up front and a nice funk background. I'll test it next week and get a more in depth report.


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Wow! Super fruity, amazing nose, nice head, a sweet funk taste. Cherry and caramel.
This is a dedicated bug keg/party tap. I hope to not drink it too fast an see if it changes. 7.8%abv
Mrs Baggins, who only likes fizzy yellow beer, says it tastes like cherry robutussin. I laughed.




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Chill haze. It clears as it warms and more funk develops at warmer temps.

Second glass!