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bigljd · 09-25-2012, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by berebrando

Well, I'm currently fermenting my third all-Brett Trois beer. So far I have made a pale ale and fermented at 70 F (taste test tonight). Next, I made an IPA that fermented at 65 F.

Now, I have a wheat that will serve as the base beer for a sour. The wheat was brewed a few days ago and put in the fermentation chamber at 60 F, which is where I normally ferment with US-05. Twenty four hours after pitching and it is clearly fermenting. Interesting to see that temperature (at least between 60 ad 70) is not really slowing down the Trois.

I don't think you'll have a problem with an initial fermentation in the 60's but you may have a problem getting the yeast to finish that cool. It will be interesting to see how yours finishes at the cooler temps. Maybe our batch of yeast is just being a pain in the a**. We just had Lauren Salazar (the cellermaster from New Belgium) talk to our brew club about bretts and bugs, and she laughed (in a nice way) at Chad for thinking he could predict what Brett would do in the real world. The stuff has a mind of its own.

BTW - my Janet's Bretty Brown ale is down around 1.020. Still only like 65% attenuation, but it's tasting a lot better and is not so sweet. I'm not going to re-brew it for now, I'm going with what I've made to share with the club. Hope it drops a few more points yet, but with all the crystal malts and high mash temps, it probably won't. It's a good beer though, so I'm happy with it.

berebrando · 09-26-2012, 01:42 AM

Anyone get bubble gum flavors? The air lock on my Brett IPA smells like straight bubble gum. My Brett pale ale tastes like bubble gum. Maybe it's the interplay of hops and yeast flavors(?).

**Quaker** · 09-26-2012, 10:13 AM

Fermentation blow-off I could see labeling as bubblegum; lots of ester production with my warm ferments. But none of that in the flavor of the beer.

badlee · 09-27-2012, 01:14 AM

Thats good to hear. I am building up a starter from oak cubes and the small and taste are fantastic!

jgourd · 10-08-2012, 04:18 AM

I'll add my experience with this yeast. On Aug 17 I brewed what I am calling Blonde Soubrette. Here's the profile:

Code:

Blonde Soubrette
OG: 1.046 SG
FG: 1.004 SG (estimated)
IBU: 20.8
SRM: 5.0

Grains:
Northwestern Pale Ale malt 8.36# 84.79%
Munich Malt 10L 0.50# 5.07%
Vienna Malt 1.00# 10.14%

Hops:
Cascade 6.4%AA 0.75oz 60min
Cascade 6.4%AA 0.5oz 15min

Yeast:
White Labs WLP644 (Brettanomyces Bruxellensis Trois)
3000mL starter

I aerated this more than usual with O2 (60 seconds). Fermented at 75F (ambient temps in my house in the summer here in Louisiana). Fermentation temps raised to about 82F and stabilized back to 75F for the first month. Temps went down to the low 70s in the second month of fermentation (fall is coming and it is bonfire season!).

I was at 1.015 SG 11 days after pitching. Aromas and flavors were mostly citrus (pineapple) with a little funk. It was pretty crisp and clean for such a young beer. A lot of yeast was in suspension. No krausen and no pellicle.

A week later, I was at 1.012 SG. Same aroma and flavor as before with a bit of a mouth puckering effect. Still a lot of yeast in suspension. No krausen and no pellicle.

Another week later, we're at 1.009 SG. Very dry and quite mouth puckering (tart, not sour). Bitterness is nice and removes the tartness in the aftertaste. A lot of yeast has fallen, but the beer is not clear.

One month after pitching, it's now at 1.008 SG with a profile similar to the previous sample. The level of tartness and funk is still fairly light and hasn't increased. I want more funk, so I decided to let it age a bit more. We're still in the primary on the yeast.

Almost two months after pitching, the gravity is stable (1.008 SG). There is a pellicle that looks like a very thin layer of fat that has congealed (see below). It has a few vivid white streaks. The aroma is much funkier with intense tart notes. Very citrusy aroma and flavor that is mostly pineapple with some orange and mango. Flavor is very tart, but not quite like sucking on a lemon tart. Ctrus is bold and fades to a smooth bitterness. This should be a great thirst quenching summer brew. I decided to let it age another week to see how it does. I will then cold crash for a week and keg.

Comments?

**JLem** · 10-15-2012, 12:46 AM

hope you guys don't mind a little hubris here, but I just found out that the beer I brewed with wlp644 took 2nd place in the Nordeast Big River Homebrew Competition...they offered a special 100% Brett category! I think there may have only been like 5 entries in the category, but a silver medal is a silver medal, right? I knew it was a good beer, but it's nice to have some validation, especially given the beer's "experimental" nature.

othellomcbane · 10-15-2012, 03:17 PM

Congrats! I think it's awesome that a competition even has a category for 100% Brett beers.

I have two 100% Trois batches finishing up. I really need to devote an hour or so to reading through this whole thread once more to see how my results compare with everyone else's.

bigljd · 10-15-2012, 11:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigljd

The email above is actually mine. Some more specifics about the beer is it's mostly a copy of Tasty McDole's Janet's Brown recipe, only I switched out the 1lb of wheat for a 1lb of quick oats. The SG was actually 1.061 and it's currently stuck at 1.027. Everything I've read suggested that the Brett Trois rips through everything, and most people were getting 80%+ attenuation, so to counter that I mashed a bit higher (156-157) instead of the 154 suggested in the recipe, since I was hoping for some body left in the beer. I pitched a 2 liter stir plate starter that was stepped up 3 times over a week. I didn't aerate other than splashing the crap out of it while cooling and racking to the fermenter. Initial fermentation was strong, but then it crapped out at 1.027.
The recipe does have a lot of carapils and crystal malts in it - that combined with the higher mash temp would definitely leave a normal sacc yeast finishing way too sweet, but I guess I assumed that brett trois would rip through some of those sugars. Looks like I was wrong.
Maybe I'll just rack this batch to a carboy and pitch some Wyeast Brett L and let it sit for a few months, and re-brew the same beer at a lower mash temp for our club experiment. I guess I'll wait to see how the other club beers turn out first.

As a follow up to this beer - I've left it sit for a couple weeks and I didn't notice any airlock and assumed it was finished at 1.018, which is where it was a couple weeks ago. I went to dry hop it today and took another gravity reading and it's now down to 1.012! So even with the 156-157 mash temp and 2.25 pounds of crystal/carapils this yeast still managed 80% attenuation! Pretty impressive.
Guess I should have been more patient - the yeast seems to crank through the first phase of fermentation in like 24 hours, then shifts down into low gear and starts breaking down the longer chain sugars over a few weeks.
The taste is good, although it's a little more bitter now that there is less sugars to balance the IBUs. Once the dry hopping is done and it's kegged and carbed I think it should taste good when shared with our brew club.

It's an interesting yeast, and should work well with beers that you want to end up on the dry side. I think I'll try it next on a nice citrusy IPA where I want the hops to shine through and the malt body to be subdued.

lacticacid · 10-15-2012, 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigljd

As a follow up to this beer - I've left it sit for a couple weeks and I didn't notice any airlock and assumed it was finished at 1.018, which is where it was a couple weeks ago. I went to dry hop it today and took another gravity reading and it's now down to 1.012! So even with the 156-157 mash temp and 2.25 pounds of crystal/carapils this yeast still managed 80% attenuation! Pretty impressive.
Guess I should have been more patient - the yeast seems to crank through the first phase of fermentation in like 24 hours, then shifts down into low gear and starts breaking down the longer chain sugars over a few weeks.
The taste is good, although it's a little more bitter now that there is less sugars to balance the IBUs. Once the dry hopping is done and it's kegged and carbed I think it should taste good when shared with our brew club.

It's an interesting yeast, and should work well with beers that you want to end up on the dry side. I think I'll try it next on a nice citrusy IPA where I want the hops to shine through and the malt body to be subdued.

Hopefully I'll have something similar to share.

I brewed a Rye Porter with a good bit of crystal. It stalled/finished at 1.030. So I decided to pitch some washed wlp644. I liked it in a 100% Brett beer will see how it plays with s-04.

mhenry41h · 10-16-2012, 01:06 AM

I just drank the first bottle that had decent enough carbonation. (this thing has been VERY slow to do so) The beer is intensely fruity with a nice soft malt finish. This beer is going to need much more time to reach the high level of carbonation that I primed for as well as drying out to the intended gravity. This beer is going to be quite amazing but it needs time. The fruitiness of ECY09 in conjunction with Trois is quite reminiscent of Victory's Golden Monkey.