Horse without the sour?

I'd like to try a half-batch of something brewed with a funky horse aroma/flavor, but without the tart or sour flavors that often go with it.

I've heard that there are methods to achieve this and I wondered what people would recommend to do this?

I had JP beer at a Siciliano's Market Homebrew seminar a couple of years ago that I enjoyed somewhat and I recall it wasn't very tart, but the horse sweat aroma was very evident. The beer didnt' have a name at the time because it was just some bottles that the head brewer pulled from the basement to share with us. (He's a very cool dude...)

Brett Brux or Lambicus for the funk. It may give a little tartness with time, but the real sourness in lambics comes from lacto/pedio.

brett; find a commercial beer you like and harvest the dregs. You should get that same character. I'm going to do this soon myself (I have way too much sour now, time for some wet horse myself)

the WL brett packs are far funkier than the WY ones so if you want horse go for a WL tube

Good informational all, thanks. I don't think I'll be able to try too many where I live. I might need some good suggestions and see what is around. I should be going to a decent store in a few weeks though.

So it's just brett? And it doesn't get sour?

The biggest thing is to minimize any potential oxygen if you don't want sour. Brett can produce acetic acid when exposed to oxygen.

In my experience Brett B produced considerable horse blanket / sweaty / basement character with only a little acidity, I'd recommend that one.

I did a beer with the White Labs Brett L. Horsey is DEFINITELY a word I'd use to describe it.

Brett as only yeasy and no aeration
Underpitching will give more funk then a big starter

So what if I used Brett B and pitched it after the hard fermentation is over. Would that give a fair amount of horse and limit the tartness?

I think WL says they purposely supply less cells in their vials because you want to underpitch brett. So I could just toss in the whole vial and call it good? (Or a half vial since I'm making a half batch...)

What kind of beer do you think would support the flavor best? Stout? Porter?

Also, has anyone ever done a brett cider? EDIT: Found some information on brett cider...

Brett is a super attuenator when the fermentation has been started with normal yeast
When used alone it seems to stop higher
Brett makes acetic acid when it has accses to oxygen

Saison is the only beer i know that is made with brett only

I had a flawed IPA that I'm SURE was infected (accidentally) with some sort of Brett (microbrewery, brewer denied any brett). It was REALLY good. It was a horse of a different color for sure (hee).

i think the basque ciders have brett in them. I used sarasola dregs for a cider that turned out okay- i added some brett b to it, but it's only like 3 months in- a little puckering, but kind of an earthy, dirty off taste (not an earthy funk) in it, that i am hoping will clean out.

What is this "Horse" is that the name of a commercial example I can buy?

It's also often refered to as 'barnyard funk'

My first thought would be to suggest picking up a few vintages of Orval?

H-ost said:

What is this "Horse" is that the name of a commercial example I can buy?

Click to expand...

No. "Horse" is a description of the flavor (or maybe just the aroma) of the beer when Brettanomyces is part of the yeast used.

And yes, I mean that you can smell horse, or horse blanket, barnyard, horse sweat, saddle, leather, whatever you want to call it. That's what it smells like.

Sounds gross, huh?

http://www.gooseisland.com/pages/beer_finder/69.php

It looks like Goose Island is available near you. Try and get a 4 pack of Sofie. It's an all Brett Saison. Toss the dregs from that in. Well, if you like the taste of the Sofie.

janivar123 said:

Saison is the only beer i know that is made with brett only

Click to expand...

You can make beers other than saison with brett only. Crooked Stave did a great all-brett hoppy ale that sat on the border between a pale ale and IPA. I've done an all-brett C pale ale that tastes great - the citrus/pineapple that you get from brett C really complements citrusy hops well.

Homercidal said:

No. "Horse" is a description of the flavor (or maybe just the aroma) of the beer when Brettanomyces is part of the yeast used.

And yes, I mean that you can smell horse, or horse blanket, barnyard, horse sweat, saddle, leather, whatever you want to call it. That's what it smells like.

Sounds gross, huh?

Click to expand...

I have been around many horses and various barnyards and yes it does sound gross. BUT, as i read in a post earlier today, "I'll drink anything once". Plus I love sours...

So I should look for Orval? This concept of funky without sour sounds like a strange taste but I want to try it.

tugbucket said:

http://www.gooseisland.com/pages/beer_finder/69.php

It looks like Goose Island is available near you. Try and get a 4 pack of Sofie. It's an all Brett Saison. Toss the dregs from that in. Well, if you like the taste of the Sofie.

Click to expand...

Didn't see that post, I will look for those too.

try to find an older bottle of orval- you won't get as much of the brett character from a younger one

Went to Bells homebrew store yesterday. They did NOT have any Brett. They had one vial of a sour mix...

Oh well, I'm not actually ready to brew yet anyway.

Picked up some Brett B from Siciliano's Market after judging in the homebrew competition this weekend. Now to find some time to brew...

I use orval dregs in my brett beers. It gets funky but it's not over the top horse blanket.

So what's the consensus on getting horse without sour?

Not adding until the initial fermentation is done (O2 removed?)

Ive gotten some of the horsey brett character from 100% brett b. For a quicker turn around i would go that route. If you find you want more of that character, use it as a secondary strain and wait it out.

So you think I should add instead of yeast? I thought the sour notes came from fermenting with brett and oxygen.