Diable Sauvages: Brett. Golden Strong Ale

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mhenry41h

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With my Munich Helles happily fermenting away in the fermentation fridge and my last bomber of Brett Saison kicked, its time to brew some more funky stuff.

Draconian Libations': Diable Sauvages

OG: 1.071
FG: 1.004
SRM: 3.4
IBU: 24.8
ABV: 8.8%

11 lbs 00 oz - Castle Belgian Pilsner (74.6%)
03 lbs 00 oz - Cane Sugar (20.3%)
00 lbs 12 oz - Weyermann Pale Wheat (5.1%)

0.500 Oz - Magnum - 60 Mins
0.500 Oz - Styrian Goldings - 10 Mins
0.250 Oz - Styrian Goldings - 0 Mins

East Coast Yeast ECY09 (Belgian Abbaye)
White Labs WLP644 (Brettanomyces Bruxellensis Trois)

*dual fermentation. Create 1 starter with both the Abbey Strain AND the Brett. I find that using Brett in the primary fermentation creates more intense Brett character in the beer as well as bringing it our FAR earlier than using it in secondary or at bottling.

Mash 1.5 hrs @ 148F w/ 4.5 Gallons
Boil 90 Mins

diable.png
 
This sounds delicious! I'm going to be making a Golden Strong here shortly, using Sorachi Ace as the hop...instead of Styrian Goldings. ...I really want to use Brett...and was debating on All Brett or like you, a split with some good golden strong yeast

How is this going? I've heard that Brett tends to start a 2nd ferementation after about 4 weeks and takes another 3-4 to complete. I'm guessing this has another 6 weeks or so to go?
 
1971hemicuda said:
This sounds delicious! I'm going to be making a Golden Strong here shortly, using Sorachi Ace as the hop...instead of Styrian Goldings. ...I really want to use Brett...and was debating on All Brett or like you, a split with some good golden strong yeast

How is this going? I've heard that Brett tends to start a 2nd ferementation after about 4 weeks and takes another 3-4 to complete. I'm guessing this has another 6 weeks or so to go?

The ingredients should arrive this week so it will be brewed in the next few weeks. As for a second fermentation, I tend to just let the split fermentation roll for 6 weeks. It's usually done for me in 5 but I let it sit for an extra week or so to be certain that I'm not making bottle bombs. I can generally smell a strong Brett character at the 1 month mark. I'm interested to see how the Brett reacts to using an ECY strain. ECY tends to be fresher as well as a bigger pitch so my experience with their strains is that you get a violent Sacc. fermentation. I'll get to see how much "easy food" the Brett gets to with the ECY strain shredding through the sugars. I'm guessing that the Brett character won't be as excessive as the Brett Saison I brewed in this fashion. Time will tell!
Have you used Sorachi Ace before? Ive used it twice now. Most recently, I brewed an Extra Pale IPA using Simcoe, Amarillo, and Sorachi Ace. I know they describe the flavor as "lemony," but to me, I pick up a "lemony-dill" flavor. Very unique...very cool. I used all pellet Simcoe and Amarillo in that beer but at the last second I decided to drop 1/2 Oz of whole flower Sorachi Ace in at 12 minutes. Im rather astonished at how much I can notice 1/2 oz in with the plethora of Simcoe and Amarillo. All and all, I think its a pretty bad ass hop. I love Brooklyn Brewing's Sorachi Ace Saison...delicious beer.
 
Gravity checked in at 1.072. Thankfully! My digital thermometer fritzed on me...sparge water was 157 an after doughing in, my thermometer said 165! After panicking, I ended up with an extended 90 minute mash at 144. Conversion did complete and amazingly...I was only off 1 point. I NEVER have issues with mash temps so the lesson learned is: expect the unexpected!
 
Geez, complete digital fail. This beer, no matter what it ends up tasting like, will be hard to replicate. My ferm fridge & temp controller went rouge and I woke up to a 55 degree internal temp and what looks like a lager fermentation. Who knew that a Belgian strain would take off at lager temps?? This is going to be a strange brew. I'm really angry to have had two devices fail on 1 brew.
 
3.5 weeks in: 1.006 gravity is close to complete. I'm just waiting for the Brett to come through. The beer is delicious. My past experience with Brett is to expect Brett character at around 28-35 days. It's not there yet. I'll let it rest until the 6 week mark and bottle it up.
 
I tried "*****ing in" one time with a Strawberry Blonde. The batch was great when it was fresh, but it got super funky and barely drinkable a few weeks later.
 
MisterTipsy said:
Thank you auto correct.

The recipe looks good, btw!

Thanks MrT. I'm really looking forward to carbing the hell out of this one and drinking it up!
 
Have you tried one of these yet?

How big was your combined starter?

I'm curious because my next brew is going to be a brett golden strong ale. I was planning on pitching a liter of Wyeast 1388 (Belgian strong) and a liter of a strain of Brett Brux that I got from a local brewery.

Let us know how yours ends up tasting.
 
It took quite a while to carb and isn't fully done. At first, it was intensely fruity with flavors reminiscent of Victory's Golden Monkey with a more pronounced soft malt background. I cracked a bottle the other night and the intense fruitiness has begun to subdue and there is a decisive tart character that I didn't expect. I'm going to let these age for quite some time as its evident that age is only making this beer better and better. To be honest, I think this beer is going to be remarkable in another few months.

As for a starter, I did a 1500 ml starter with one vial of Brett Trois and one vial of ECY09 together in a mixed primary.
 
Do you have any updates on this? I'm trying to research high gravity (ie strong belgian ales) with Brett. Would love to hear how this one turned out. Thanks!
 
This beer has been met with high marks from my Belgian loving friends. I will use this disclaimer: the Trois strain is INTENSELY fruity. So much so that, for my palate, that it distracts you from the beer. Obviously this is only my humble opinion as there are people clamoring to use the strain. I don't think Trois has enough "funk" to be used as a traditional Brett and its too fruity to use as a primary.
 
In my mind, most, if not all, Belgian ales require some varying level of "peppery" phenol character and unless somebody has found a magic temperature for the Trois strain that I'm unaware of, you can plan on not getting the phenols and having an overabundance of very sweet and fruity esters.
 
This beer has been met with high marks from my Belgian loving friends. I will use this disclaimer: the Trois strain is INTENSELY fruity. So much so that, for my palate, that it distracts you from the beer. Obviously this is only my humble opinion as there are people clamoring to use the strain. I don't think Trois has enough "funk" to be used as a traditional Brett and its too fruity to use as a primary.

Trois smells like a pack of fruit stripe gum to me. Minimal funk. Produces some tartness.
 
I'm familiar with the strain.

I guess I'm looking for more information on your experience with Brett in a high gravity belgian ale. Did this attenuate to 1.000 as my mixed fermentations have done?

Good to know it received high marks from your friends.
 
berebrando said:
I'm familiar with the strain.

I guess I'm looking for more information on your experience with Brett in a high gravity belgian ale. Did this attenuate to 1.000 as my mixed fermentations have done?

Good to know it received high marks from your friends.

It finished at 1.007. I'm quite amazed at how it "tastes" like a higher FG than where it finished.
 
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