Belgian Sour Brown

I'm thinking of doing 15g of Belgian Brown Ale and putting 5 of it in an oak barrel with Brett Brux. I was planning on using WLP550 for the yeast, but I've read that you should use a neutral yeast (WLP001 or SafeAle 05 for instance) for sour beers if you're going to use Brett Brux in secondary.

Any advice?

I think if your shooting for a Belgian Brown Ale than you should use a Belgian Yeast. But it's your brew so do whatever you want to drink.

JP uses 550.

Since sours take 9-12 months to mature, some of those crazy Belgian flavors kind of age out anyway. So I'd use the 550 if you want it to be a "Belgian Brown".

Definitely use a Belgian yeast. In my experience, the more estery and phenolic the primary yeast, the more the Brett has to metabolize and more complex the finished product is.

By the way, brett brux won't make it "sour". It'll just give it some funk.

Yep, I made a belgian brown using brux and it is not sour at all. Just deliciously funky. If you are trying to replicate an oud bruin then you need to pitch souring bugs, not brett.

Wyeast have a great yeast strain for this. unfortunately, it is not available the whole year long: YEAST STRAIN: 3763 | Roeselare Ale Blend

It is a mix of ale strain, a sherry strain, two Brettanomyces strains, a Lactobacillus culture, and a Pediococcus.

This is exactly what you need for a Flemish Old Brown (sour red/brown).
This strain comes from Rodenbach.

Give it one year -before that, your friends will think you're trying to poison them- with some light oak chips (not even necessary and you will be astonished!)

I will look for my recipe and post it.

Laurent

Try WLP655 in secondary maybe? That's White Labs' Belgian Sour Mix.

leyon said:

Wyeast have a great yeast strain for this. unfortunately, it is not available the whole year long: YEAST STRAIN: 3763 | Roeselare Ale Blend

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OT to the OP, but this is available year round: Wyeast 3763

Our home brew club just brewed 50+ gallonsof an Oud Bruin for aging in a barrel. We used the 3763 Roselaire blend. My batch has been fermenting for about 3.5 weeks now. We'll be moving it to the barrel this sunday so I'll get a preliminary idea of the taste when we do the transfer.

uglytunasaloona said:

Our home brew club just brewed 50+ gallonsof an Oud Bruin for aging in a barrel. We used the 3763 Roselaire blend. My batch has been fermenting for about 3.5 weeks now. We'll be moving it to the barrel this sunday so I'll get a preliminary idea of the taste when we do the transfer.

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What OG did you start with?

I've got a double batch of brown on Roeselare. I accidentally hit 1.080. Probably water it down soon (to ~1.070) to keep the bugs alive. I don't think they like it when the alcohol gets that high.

Thanks everyone...I think the Roeselare looks perfect

builderguy said:

Thanks everyone...I think the Roeselare looks perfect

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A flanders brown shouldn't be that sour, so it is recommended to let most of the fermentation to finish before adding the souring bugs.

I've used Roeselare several times and it certainly does make a sour beer. While it is all you need for a flanders red, the brown probably would be better if you pitched a standard sacc, then added the roeselare when the initial activity wanes.

passedpawn said:

A flanders brown shouldn't be that sour, so it is recommended to let most of the fermentation to finish before adding the souring bugs.

I've used Roeselare several times and it certainly does make a sour beer. While it is all you need for a flanders red, the brown probably would be better if you pitched a standard sacc, then added the roeselare when the initial activity wanes.

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Yeah...definitely planning on using it in secondary.

I'd be hesitant to put brett into an oak barrel. I feel like an oak barrel is a precious (and expensive!) thing to have around for aging and oaking beers, and after it's got brett in it, there's no way to do anything else in that barrel but brett beers. Of course, I've never had one, so don't take my word for it. If there's a way of sterilizing the barrel afterwards, it sounds like it could make a great beer.