Bourbon Brett Cherry Quad

This is not my recipe, I had the pleasure of trying this beer of Mike's and knew immediately I want to brew it, or something close to it. The recipe details/etc. are here:

http://madfermentationist.blogspot.com/2007/09/bourbon-brett-cherry-dark-belgian.html

My only changes were to only use Dark Candi Syrup, and I'm using Brett L & C and maybe dumping the dreggs of an Orval in there too for Brett B. I also unintentionally mashed lower, it was cooold outside.
The beer is essentially a Quad you ferment with a belgian strain through primary fermentation, then rack onto cherries and add Brett. Mike's was not as funky as he or I would have liked, but still and AMAZING beer with huge complexity. He said that the funkiness has faded a bit as the beer has matured. Hopefully the Brett L will add a bit more funk. I look forward to tasting this one 6-9+ months or so.

Looks good! I was reading about this on Mike's blog.
I have a question, how do you build up your brett before pitching in a brett beer?

Iordz said:

Looks good! I was reading about this on Mike's blog.
I have a question, how do you build up your brett before pitching in a brett beer?

Click to expand...

For this one I'm using Brett 'L' and 'C' harvested from previous batches. I know for his batch, he made a starter.

Actually that sort of (sans Cherry) reminds me of the one New Glarus did Bourbon Barrel Bock. I personally was having a hard time picking up the Brett in it, but I suppose it would have aged to be a very good beer. It didn't last that long though .

But Bourbon Brett Cherry Quad sounds pretty intense

Baisically, I could the brett up from a culture like a regular yeast, right?

Iordz said:

Baisically, I could the brett up from a culture like a regular yeast, right?

Click to expand...

Yes, the only change I've heard is that Brett can use extra nutrient, so I add yeast nutrient to my Brett starters.

is there any need to feed brett in the secondary? thinking about some liquid candi or beet sugar.

slim chillingsworth said:

is there any need to feed brett in the secondary? thinking about some liquid candi or beet sugar.

Click to expand...

What are the specifics on the beer in question?
Generally I would say no, but it depends on what the beer is and what Brett character you're looking for. If its not that old and there is still a lot of 'normal'/primary yeast in suspension I imagine feeding it will develop the Brett character less than an older beer where the yeast are done/gone and mostly Brett remains. That's just my own idea. Also if the gravity was very low, like below 1.006, when you added Brett you might feed it to get more Brett character. So it really depends on what the beer is and what you're looking to get....although its not always a simple 1+1=2 with Brett.

landhoney said:

What are the specifics on the beer in question?
Generally I would say no, but it depends on what the beer is and what Brett character you're looking for. If its not that old and there is still a lot of 'normal'/primary yeast in suspension I imagine feeding it will develop the Brett character less than an older beer where the yeast are done/gone and mostly Brett remains. That's just my own idea. Also if the gravity was very low, like below 1.006, when you added Brett you might feed it to get more Brett character. So it really depends on what the beer is and what you're looking to get....although its not always a simple 1+1=2 with Brett.

Click to expand...

well said. i'm just doing some research and wondering about the general characteristics of brett and other wild yeasts. i'm interested in the relationship between sugars and overall brett character. i should have elaborated in the above post. i'd like to sour a couple of brews, just for experiments. i'm wondering if adding sugar to the secondary with brett will provide more or less noticeable character. are there any particularly good reference materials on dealing with wild yeasts, and brewing sour beers in general?

slim chillingsworth said:

are there any particularly good reference materials on dealing with wild yeasts, and brewing sour beers in general?

Click to expand...

Wild Brews by Jeff Sparrow is good, and you'd be hard pressed to ask a question you won't get a reasonable answer to on the homebrew section of www.babblebelt.com. They may not know for sure, but they'll have a good guess. I have not read anything about feeding a Brett beer to develop more character. Except that when moving a beer with a brett pellicle, and it is broken up, you can 'feed' the beer some sugar solution to get the Brett to grow the pellicle up again quickly to prevent oxidation,etc. So I imagine this would increase the flavors by giving the Brett more to eat.