"The American Brett Stoudt": A wedding brew

My friends Allie Haynes and Brett Stoudt are getting married mid-November. I drew up this recipe as something I could gift them on their wedding day, and would age for their first anniversary. I present, "The American Brett Stoudt"

From beeralchemist:
1.071 OG
1.013 FG
34 SRM
64 IBU
7.9% abv

- 7# LME
- 1# Light Chocolate malt
- 12oz Crystal 40 malt
- 8oz Black Patent malt
- 16oz Corn Sugar
- 6oz Acid malt
- 1.5oz Centennial 10aa
- .5oz Amarillo 8aa (5mins)
- White Labs WLP645 Brett C. fermented at 72°F

I tried to go very citrusy on the hops and keep the dark/roasted character in check.

I'm unsure about whether the 5min hop addition will be overrun and the viability of the acid malt addition to increase yeast strain and give me more fruitiness I'm basing this off a typical American stout recipe, tuning it for Brett fermentation. I'm seeking thoughts, praise and/or insults This is my first recipe design.

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I dunno, seems like alot of dark malts to me. 1/2 lb of black patent by itself seems like alot and a whole #1 of Light choc malt on top of it. I'm no expert in recipe design though.

Also, do your friends have had a brett beer? Do they like it?

Recipes often times take multiple try to hit the right balance....If this is for a gift you pretty much have to nail it the first time around. Maybe you can find a more established recipe to make them. I know its not "original" but you still hand-crafted it for them.

Just a thought...I wouldn't want you to give them an absolute dumper of a beer (not saying this is going to be one of them...its just a complex style is all).

Sorry, my 0.02....maybe you'll get more positive and helpful comments than what I can offer!

I agree with Bill.

Unless your buddy is a super beer nerd already who loves Belgians, Sours, Brett beers....you might want to do something a little more standard as a gift. Is he a homebrewer also? Craft beer lover?

This recipe is loaded up on dark malt, and I think that the roast flavors are going to really compete with the Brett flavors. Could be amazing, but could be totally conflicting...I dont know.

When I am serving beer to my non-brewer friends, or giving it as a gift, I always choose a recipe that I have dialed in and know is good.

I think the combination of the brett and the roasty flavors could work out really nice, but it could also not. It might be pushing it on the roasted malt a little. I brew a pretty roasty, dark robust porter with 8oz of black patent and 8oz of chocolate and 8 oz of pale chocolate and it is about as roasty as you can get.

Two questions:
1. Have you ever done an all brett beer? The WL vials contain very little brett compared with the other wlp vials of saccharomyces as they are intended to be added to finish a beer. You will need to grow the bret A LOT if you expect it to ferment the entire batch. And brett grows slower than sacc.
2. (As noted above) Are you giving this as a gift to more than the grome? Even if the brett fermentation goes perfectly on a perfect recipe, the beer is going to be unique. It will not be a crowd pleaser I imagine (not that is bad).

Notes:
1. Make sure you chose a brett strain that is pure. I can't remeber which one, but WL adds lacto to some to help it dry stuff out faster and make it sour.
2. Maybe just do a normal sacc ferment and then finish it with brett? That would be the way I would lean not especially since you have a deadline and need to have something to give to your friend.