Farmhouse Rye

I've been wanting to try some Brett, so I made a couple small changes to my ryePA recipe and I'm changing the yeast to WLP670.

11# Belgian Pale Malt
1-1/2# 10L Crystal
1-1/2# Domestic Rye
1/2# English Carastan
1/4# Carapils
2oz Citra leaf 60min
2oz Cascade leaf 15min
1oz Cascade leaf 5min
WLP670 American Farmhouse Blend

I'm doing a starter with the yeast. 2cups water/1/2 cup ex light dme for 2 days. I don't have a stir plate, I just agitate the heck out of it every time I go in the kitchen.


Since this is my first venture into Brett I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this recipe.
I had originally thought of this recipe with WLP644 in the secondary (WLP001 primary) but my LHBS didn't have it. They did have WLP645, but when I saw the 670, I thought what the heck. More than likely, this will get bottled, not kegged. Any thoughts on how long to wait and what FG I should be looking for?

That seems like an awful lot of cara/crystal malt to me, but if you've used that bill for a ryePA that you like I'm sure it's fine. I've never used MLP670 before but with a recipe that doesn't have a lot of cara or crystal malts, anything with brett in my experience can get to or near 1.000 or even a touch under. Hopefully someone with a little more experience with that particular yeast blend will chime in.

Sounds like fun anyhow and good luck!

lowtones84 said:

That seems like an awful lot of cara/crystal malt to me, but if you've used that bill for a ryePA that you like I'm sure it's fine. I've never used MLP670 before but with a recipe that doesn't have a lot of cara or crystal malts, anything with brett in my experience can get to or near 1.000 or even a touch under. Hopefully someone with a little more experience with that particular yeast blend will chime in.

Sounds like fun anyhow and good luck!

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It turned out to be a tasty ryepa. The only thing I changed was the base malt ( went from domestic 2 row to Belgian, after tasting the Belgian at the lhbs, I found it a little sweeter than domestic) and I upped the rye by 1/4#. The English Carastan brings a little toffee to it.
I guess I'm not familiar with "too much cara/crystal. Reasons? I've been brewing a long time, but most of that time was spent with extract kits. I've only been making up recipes and doing all grain for a few years.

It's probably just my tastes. Crystal malts lend to caramelly sweetness/maltiness and are less fermentable than base malts. It's definitely not "too much", but with 1.5# of crystal 10L and .5 lb carastan (which I've never actually used) that's 2 lbs of crystal/caramel malts. I usually go with about 1/2 lb. of one crystal malt in pale ales or IPAs but other people definitely do more. Maybe it will even be nice for the Brett to munch on! Like I said, if you made a beer that you really like with it, go for it. It was just something that stood out to me.

lowtones84 said:

It's probably just my tastes. Crystal malts lend to caramelly sweetness/maltiness and are less fermentable than base malts. It's definitely not "too much", but with 1.5# of crystal 10L and .5 lb carastan (which I've never actually used) that's 2 lbs of crystal/caramel malts. I usually go with about 1/2 lb. of one crystal malt in pale ales or IPAs but other people definitely do more. Maybe it will even be nice for the Brett to munch on! Like I said, if you made a beer that you really like with it, go for it. It was just something that stood out to me.

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Ahh, cool. I thought maybe there was some "rule" I missed. In the past, I've always let my brewing be more about magic and zen and less about the science. I've been getting into more of the science as time goes by and really trying to develop competition worthy brews.

Why not sub the Crystal 10L with Munich? I use about that much Munich in my Saisons, with or w/0 Brett, pretty consistently and its adds a nice malt backbone plus a little color without the beer becoming overly sweet. Just my opinion tho.

Ive only used this blend once and it took about 2 months to reach terminal gravity. Just take a gravity reading after 3 weeks, then again at 5 or 6 if it moved then youre going to have to wait a little longer if its the same then you may be good to bottle. Some people will secondary, and some leave the beer on the lees the entire time, its up to you really.

Coff said:

Why not sub the Crystal 10L with Munich? I use about that much Munich in my Saisons, with or w/0 Brett, pretty consistently and its adds a nice malt backbone plus a little color without the beer becoming overly sweet. Just my opinion tho.

Ive only used this blend once and it took about 2 months to reach terminal gravity. Just take a gravity reading after 3 weeks, then again at 5 or 6 if it moved then youre going to have to wait a little longer if its the same then you may be good to bottle. Some people will secondary, and some leave the beer on the lees the entire time, its up to you really.

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I'm going to go ahead and secondary and let it ride for a while. My reading here led me to assume brett is slow to finish, but worth the wait. I did recently pick up a thief so I can take readings along the way without siphoning.
I'm using Munich in my Saison also. I didn't think about it for this. I'll see how it comes out and adjust for the next time if needed.


I should have asked, is 68-70 a good ferment temp for this or would 77-78 be better? Those are my two choices at my house.

Thanks.

Is that ambient or wort temp? It is afterall a Saison blend so I would go on the warm side, the brett should dry the beer out with time anyway. But let the sacch get warm and dry the beer out to single digits, the brett will take it the rest of the way.

imo, high 70s is your best bet. And like you said, patience with this beer.

Coff said:

Is that ambient or wort temp? It is afterall a Saison blend so I would go on the warm side, the brett should dry the beer out with time anyway. But let the sacch get warm and dry the beer out to single digits, the brett will take it the rest of the way.

imo, high 70s is your best bet. And like you said, patience with this beer.

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That would wort temp.
Cool! Thanks

OG of 1.064

Racked to secondary today. I'll take a reading in a few days. It smells delicious!

I wanted to update this. I'm bottling today.

FG 1.002

It's clear, bourbon colored. The sample tasted of rye at first with a slightly sour/rye finish. Crisp. I'm going to bottle condition for a month before testing it again.
Using 1cup light DME for bottling.

This beer turned out better than expected. It hits with a rye crispness then I get green apples and nutmeg. Neither of the latter are in this beer. I like it.

Sounds awesome, glad it worked out for you.