The Bard - All Brett B Brown

I have a brett fermenter that is empty, I intend on rectifying this problem this coming weekend with my next wild brew. This will be my first Brett B brewing, having already done The Minstrel with 100% Brett C and The Muse with 100% Brett L.

I've done some kicking around of ideas and I'm going for more or less an oud bruin kind of style but with all Brett B yeast. I was going to use the White Labs Brett B, but after doing some chatting with Chad from The Brettanomyces Masters Project he sent me a tube of Brett B isolated from Oude Beersel, so that seemed like a natural and more fun fit!

Here's my recipe.

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: The Bard
Brewer: saq
Asst Brewer:
Style: Flanders Brown Ale/Oud Bruin
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
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Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.89 gal
Estimated OG: 1.064 SG
Estimated Color: 20.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 24.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 46.15 %
4.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 30.77 %
2.50 lb Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 19.23 %
0.25 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 1.92 %
0.25 lb Special B Malt (140.0 SRM) Grain 1.92 %
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops 13.9 IBU
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (30 min) Hops 10.7 IBU
1 Pkgs Oude Beersel Brett B (Oud Beersel) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body
Total Grain Weight: 13.00 lb
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Single Infusion, Light Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
75 min Mash In Add 19.50 qt of water at 164.0 F 154.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 11.70 qt of water at 194.2 F 168.0 F


I'm going to let it ferment at room temperature (68-72) as thats what I have done with my other Brett beers and I like the character I'm getting so far. Comments?

Sound good, Id be interested in the flavor profile from the brett chad sent your way, maybe we could meet up sometime and do a swap of various wild yeasts/bacteria

Ive got a nice berliner culture going from Al B on BBB, along with a nice funky/sour lambic culture

Yeah, Chad isn't really sure what its going to be like as it wasn't a strain in his fermentation trials. So far as I know I'm going to be the only person who has done an all brett beer with the Oude Beersel strain so its just kind of a shot in the dark. I just cultured up my first step into a 1L flask, I should be able to start getting some of the aromas in a day or so.

I was thinking of adding cherries or something but given this is an unknown yeast character I think the idea of letting it go do its thing is winning out.

Well the yeast is still culturing up in the 1L flask that Chad had recommended me stepping up to from the vial he sent. It's fairly slow going and I'm not going to rush it as I'm going to need 3L or so. Not brewing it tomorrow, maybe on Tuesday which I have off if serious signs of life are shown tomorrow and I step it up to 3L.

That looks really interesting, especially considering the source this should be a great experiment. for the brown I did, I was really surprised how the brett cut through the chocolate malt.

This weekend I'm going to take the remaining brown I have and put it on top of a Fuyu persimmon puree. They are in season right now and the Japanese market has them fresh. I think the sweet persimmon will be a great accent to the tart brown.

Hmmm, what do I need to do to get a vial of that yeast????

I happen to have two vials from the starter I built up sufficient for pitching in up to a 4L flask... What ya got for me? I could send it with Soper...

I got about 82% efficiency from this when I brewed it on Thursday. It came alive around Monday and I stepped it up and had shown signs of finishing fermenting the 4L starter when I pitched. Sure enough about 8 hours later I had some krausen forming which is pretty damn quick for Brett. Brett krausen is so light and fluffy looking it almost looks like whipped cream. I'll keep an eye on it and do a gravity reading when it looks close to done.

saq said:

I happen to have two vials from the starter I built up sufficient for pitching in up to a 4L flask... What ya got for me? I could send it with Soper...

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When I culture up the Brett strains from CdT, Allagash and Consecration 2x1 I'll send you all three. Oh, and I will also have some Wyeast Brett L too.

Saccharomyces said:

When I culture up the Brett strains from CdT, Allagash and Consecration 2x1 I'll send you all three. Oh, and I will also have some Wyeast Brett L too.

Click to expand...

Sounds like a deal! I can probably put together a few more vials for you guys to share since I know you are a slant whore...
These going to be slants or vials? How effective do you think the mixed strain slants will be at getting good populations of the mix? I know CdT & Consecration are blends. What Allagash do you have? I have an Allagash Tripel Reserve that I'm probably going to slant up because omg the yeast flavors on that are AMAZING. ollllo can back me up on this.

saq said:

Sounds like a deal! I can probably put together a few more vials for you guys to share since I know you are a slant whore...
These going to be slants or vials? How effective do you think the mixed strain slants will be at getting good populations of the mix? I know CdT & Consecration are blends. What Allagash do you have? I have an Allagash Tripel Reserve that I'm probably going to slant up because omg the yeast flavors on that are AMAZING. ollllo can back me up on this.

Click to expand...

Allagash Confluence, which is a blend of their primary and brett strains. My plan for all of these is to plate them to isolate the Brett. If I am lucky I'll be able to get both the Brett and Sacc strains from the Confluence (assuming I can figure out which is which on the plate ). Tripel Reserve can be had at Spec's here, the Confluence I got through mail order...

Its been one week so I thought I'd check on the brew. Its a little cold in the house right no and ferm temp has been hovering at 68f, which from past experience means Brett is slow. Sure enough, gravity reading of 1.034 after a week of ferm time. I moved it to a warmer area of the house and we'll see what happens.

Did some more checkups on the beer today. The carboy is giving me the feeling that its done. No krausen or any signs of activity and its been like that for over a week. Took a gravity reading and I'm at 1.010, or 83% attenuation, somewhat similar to The Muse. Its pretty good, tastes a LOT like an oud bruin, but with all brett characters. Its very clean and much tarter than expected, the malt flavors are VERY subdue and the tartness is higher than expected. Perhaps bumping the chocolate and special B up a tad would keep some around.
I am beginning to think that all brett beers get more tart with dark malts...




Brett B Influence: Some fruity (like REAL fruit) mango/lychee/cherry flavors combine with some light tartness in the nose and palate. Funk level is fairly low, just a hint in the background that reminds me of a nice swiss cheese, very clean for brett. No leather or peppery characters like Brett L.

Kegged it last night and left it cooling in the kegorator. Carbed it up (still not quite there) and tried my first pint tonight. It'll probably be fully carbed up later tonight, might need to tweak the pressure to get it just right.



The flavors on this are interesting. Overripe plum, pineapple, mango, lychee. Light tartness, moderately funky and finishes somewhat earthy. Its an interesting combo, more subtle on the flavors overall than The Muse, which is interesting. I'm reserving judgement on this, though the thought of me throwing some the cherry concentrate I'm using for my Cuvee De Tomme style beer is growing on me.

As I expected much better on day 2. Had some while brewing my quad today, dropped in a little bit of cherry concentrate (100% cherry juice) and this beer was transformed into something REALLY amazing. I'm officially on the edge of pouring some of the extract in to the whole batch. I'm going to take some both with and without the cherry juice to 2 beer club meetings next week and get some votes.