which to pitch: farmhouse blend? rosalare? 100% brett?

Brewing tomorrow. Grain & hop bill:

5 gallon batch
5 lbs bohemian floor malted german pilsner
3 lbs white wheat malt
1/2 lb unmalted red wheat
1/2 lb honey malt
1/2 oz rakau hop 11.2% AA 60 min
1/2 oz rakau hop 11.2% AA 30 min
1 oz rakau dry hop (not if using rosalare?)

I have 2 brett starters over a week long. One is bret brux from white labs. Second is cultured from lips of faith "brett beer" could pitch one or both for 100% brett ferment.

Also have yeast cake from WLP670 (brett & sacc, no lacto or pedio) that is from a peach farmhouse saison I will be transferring.

Finally... we have the wyeast rosalare blend. This one has all the bugs and funk. Just got this one in the mail yesterday.


I love a good sour. We have a 5 gal 'dark kriek' brewing now with WLP655 belgian sour mix. It is currently at 10 months. It is our first attempt at sour brewing. Still many months away.

Our peach farmhouse saison is good so far. Sampled it today, at 2 months. It is different, but good. Not very peachy. Will have about another month in secondary then bottle.

As for the 100% brett... I tried the lips of faith brettbeer. It was good. I would drink it again. It is the only pure brett I have had. I have no idea what I should expect from a homebrew version of brett-only beer.

we do have some acidulated malt we can add if that seems appropriate anywhere.

Oh, we are also going to be brewing said beer on our new brew stand, for its first run.


So...
Anyone wanna chime in with advice, experience or even just an opinion on who gets to swim?

If you want to drink relatively soon, 100% Brett will finish quickest.

If you're in for the long haul, go Roselare, but drop your hopping. I didn't run a calc, but I think your IBUs will be too high. You can always dry hop a year or so down the road before bottling/kegging if you want the hop flavor.

If you have 1 gallon jugs or 2 gallon buckets, split the batch and give them all a shot.

I do have some 18 month old triskel hops 8.4% AA. I could sub the hops if I used rosalare.

I have combined my brett starters in new wort. I accidentally dumped one in while wort was at 100 degrees F. I think it should be ok. It was only above 90 F for about 45 seconds.


Still unsure what to pitch. Going to start the strike water now. I will think on it as I go.

It is done.

Went with the 100% brett blend. Decided to add brett lambicus to it along with the bottle dregs and brux.

1.044 was aiming for 1.047 so I was a bit off, but that seems acceptable withthe new system.

I might keep this updated as it progresses...

If I recall the Lips of Faith Brett beer is pasteurized. You might want to check on that. Also from my understanding 100% brett beers are typically pretty clean flavor wise

It was my understanding that lips of faith are all pasteurized. However, I tried anyway. My sanitation was on point, and my results were evident in about 18 hours. I was skeptical at first. In fact, I almost dumped it. In the end, I was convinced my culture was valid (and viciously healthy).

Tasted the spent wort from the starter, and I am quite happy with what we've got going on.

Apparently, their pasturization is not what it was intended to be, at least where the brett is concerned.

This one is now fermenting away:


I'm learning on this one as we go. So far, I have learned that brett is very top cropping. It is also a much more relaxed fermentation than ale yeast.






I really have no idea what to expect here. I am going to guess 3-4 week primary with a 1-2 week secondary.

I will dry hop this, but may do so in the primary vessel.

In the future I'd advise WLP644 Brett B Trois for 100% Brett fermentations. It'll be interesting to see what you'll get from NB that's supposed to be pasteurized. Perhaps champagne or some other bottle conditioning yeast?

Jnco_hippie said:

It is also a much more relaxed fermentation than ale yeast.

Click to expand...

I haven't found that to be true with 3 strains I've done. They were all quite vigorous. More like a Belgian or Hefe strain. The only subdued one was an extreme under pitch.

The starter feom the "brettbeer" looked pretty "classic brett" with a giant pellicule forming overnight when crashing. I dont think it was champagne or sacc. The taste of the starter was pretty funky. Either the dont pasturize anymore or their brett is an amazing soldier.

Now on day 2.5 this one has gone full throttle ferment. Lots of churning, large krausen.



No strange smells coming out. Looks pretty normal so far.

Ok... day 5: it has dropped 32 points to 1.012 and has slowed significantly. There is a bit of a brett pellicule forming. It is still actively fermenting.

I will leave it 9 more days, dry hopping for 5, then transfer to secondary.

Brett funk is there for sure. It also has lots of fruit flavor... possibly lemon, but without the sour? This is not intended to be a sour, it does however have .25 lb acidulated malt.

Tastes amazing so far. I cant wait to see this one as it develops.

I will definately be wanting to swap a few bottles with a few of yall to get some input (any takers?)

Should be ready to start drinking in about 5 - 6 weeks.

Are you sure the dregs you added didn't add any sacc or bacteria?

My understanding is that 100% Brett beers ferment in normal timeframes (like you're expecting), but when you have a heterogenous fermentation with sacc and brett, that the brett will specialize differently and take a lot longer to ferment out. Similarly, if you introduced lacto or pedio with your dregs, those can continue to work for months/years.

Basically, if there's a chance of mixed fermentation, I would be careful to avoid or protect against bottle bombs.