I brewed up a stout a few weeks back. Looking to get a dessert kind of stout, w oatmeal smoothness and chocolaty goodness. Here's the recipe to get an idea:
5 gal:
8 lbs American 2-row
0.75 lb chocolate malt
0.75 lb black malt
1 lb uncooked rolled oats
1 oz Magnum 60 min
1 oz Magnum 30 min
Safale-04 (rehydrated)
4 oz cocoa nibs in secondary
1 vanilla bean (Madagascar bourbon) in secondary
OG 1.050
FG 1.013
Well, somewhere along the line the batch got contaminated (perhaps the vanilla bean? I didn't sanitize that or the nibs). There was a really apparent Brett pellicle a couple days after I threw the vanilla bean in. I figured this beer was not going to be what I planned at all, but I've played w Brett and bacteria before, and I enjoy drinking funked and sour beers, so whatever, it'll be beer, I'll drink it. When I sampled it at bottling, I didn't notice anything funky, there was only a slight sourness, like a Brett sour, not a bacteria sour.
The other day, after just three or four days post-bottling, I cracked one open. Hot damn was it good! Tasted like chocolate covered cherries! Couldn't of asked for anything better, honestly. At first I couldn't really figure where the fruit flavor was coming from, but the next day I remembered that Brett can impart cherry pie flavors. I had totally forgotten, and was only thinking of the barnyard flavors when I saw it had gotten infected.
I plan to save a bottle to inoculate a similar batch down the road. Really pleased with how this turned out; very serendipitous.
5 gal:
8 lbs American 2-row
0.75 lb chocolate malt
0.75 lb black malt
1 lb uncooked rolled oats
1 oz Magnum 60 min
1 oz Magnum 30 min
Safale-04 (rehydrated)
4 oz cocoa nibs in secondary
1 vanilla bean (Madagascar bourbon) in secondary
OG 1.050
FG 1.013
Well, somewhere along the line the batch got contaminated (perhaps the vanilla bean? I didn't sanitize that or the nibs). There was a really apparent Brett pellicle a couple days after I threw the vanilla bean in. I figured this beer was not going to be what I planned at all, but I've played w Brett and bacteria before, and I enjoy drinking funked and sour beers, so whatever, it'll be beer, I'll drink it. When I sampled it at bottling, I didn't notice anything funky, there was only a slight sourness, like a Brett sour, not a bacteria sour.
The other day, after just three or four days post-bottling, I cracked one open. Hot damn was it good! Tasted like chocolate covered cherries! Couldn't of asked for anything better, honestly. At first I couldn't really figure where the fruit flavor was coming from, but the next day I remembered that Brett can impart cherry pie flavors. I had totally forgotten, and was only thinking of the barnyard flavors when I saw it had gotten infected.
I plan to save a bottle to inoculate a similar batch down the road. Really pleased with how this turned out; very serendipitous.
