Brett + lager yeast = ?

Has anyone tried this? I only see ale and brett combined. Either concurrent, or as a secondary fermentation? I'm suggesting that the lager be fermented at traditional temperatures.

Everything I've read suggests that the funk Brett produces is a result of it consuming the byproducts leftover from the primary fermentation yeast in an otherwise hostile environment to the yeast.

Since lager yeast has a different ability to ferment sugars than ale yeast there must be some sort of different flavor profile.

Typically you would not combine a lager with funk since the point of a lager is the crisp and clean beer. But it might produce a rather interesting beer.

Not exactly what you're asking about, but I had Stillwater Premium on draft recently. I think primary is standard Stillwater saison ale strain, but with Crooked Stave bretts. Reason for mentioning is that grist has corn & rice, & I loved the beer. Loved, loved, loved. Great brett aroma, clean but bretty taste. I'm brewing a cream ale with Wy2565 and thinking of following the sacc ptich up with brett.

Yea ! I was just thinking about lager + Brett also. You should try it out! Let me know how it works

I have been wanting to try this for a while now. I was wanting to try with WLP810 since it is fairly low attenuating. Does anyone know at what temp Brett completely shuts down?

TNGabe said:

Not exactly what you're asking about, but I had Stillwater Premium on draft recently. I think primary is standard Stillwater saison ale strain, but with Crooked Stave bretts. Reason for mentioning is that grist has corn & rice, & I loved the beer. Loved, loved, loved. Great brett aroma, clean but bretty taste. I'm brewing a cream ale with Wy2565 and thinking of following the sacc ptich up with brett.

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I've got a keg of cream ale that I threw some Brett B & C dregs in a couple months back. Can't remember what the primary yeast was, but it was fermented low. I haven't sampled it yet, but it smells nice...

Chad from Crooked Stave mentioned on his Sunday Session interview that he doesn't even store his brett starters in the refrigerator because it drastically affects their viability. Based on that if you were going to add brett to a lager it would seem you would at least want to pitch after lagering is complete.

I saw him speak at a homebrew comp not too long ago and remember him saying that now.

highgravitybacon said:

Has anyone tried this? I only see ale and brett combined. Either concurrent, or as a secondary fermentation? I'm suggesting that the lager be fermented at traditional temperatures.

Everything I've read suggests that the funk Brett produces is a result of it consuming the byproducts leftover from the primary fermentation yeast in an otherwise hostile environment to the yeast.

Since lager yeast has a different ability to ferment sugars than ale yeast there must be some sort of different flavor profile.

Typically you would not combine a lager with funk since the point of a lager is the crisp and clean beer. But it might produce a rather interesting beer.

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New Belgium often primaries with lager yeast before funking or souring. Part of Lost Abbey's Cable Car is a Biere de Garde that is fermented out with lager yeast, albeit there is more than just Brett added to secondary.

In general Biere de Garde's can be made with a lager yeast at middling fermentation temp and then finished with Brett in secondary or in bottles with good results.

I've also done a Munich Helles with the San Fran lager yeast, secondary with Brett and it was excellent!

Been wanting to try souring or funking a Baltic Porter, but after all the hard work of making one I would probably be tempted just to drink it clean.

buttcord said:

Chad from Crooked Stave mentioned on his Sunday Session interview that he doesn't even store his brett starters in the refrigerator because it drastically affects their viability. Based on that if you were going to add brett to a lager it would seem you would at least want to pitch after lagering is complete.

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I've listened to this interview a few times now. So much good info, it almost makes jogging not suck.

I've been re-reading 'Wild Brews' and the chart on p115 lists Brett active temps as 40-95, the same a listed for Sacc. Maybe some strains are active at cooler temps?

Can I get a link to this?

Every so often I think about a funky lager but then always end up questioning why. It just seems futile to work hard to keep yeast flavor minimized just to go and add a bunch of yeast flavor back in. Also since Brett produces much of it's flavor from yeast esters and by products it seems like a bretted lager may still end up being pretty clean. Probably taste like a badly made lager. Doesn't mean I'm not going to still do it one day.

Stillwater premium is amazing, and I did steal the idea and made a light lager wort fermented with jolly pumpkin. Still has a few months to go though.

Maybe just for S's & G's I'll make a lager at full ale temps and see what Brett dies with those flavors.

BryanThompson said:

Can I get a link to this?

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http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/866

I actually have a big lager sitting at about 1.030 - down from 1.094. I am thinking of pulling it out of the cellar and dropping in some brett. Alternatively, I have some jp dregs sitting in the fridge waiting for some suga. I'm tasting it tonight to see which one seems like a better prospect.

Awake! Any updates on lager yeast + brett?

I like the way Brett transforms hop flavors. I wonder, dry hopping a lager and dosing it with Brett might be a good way to isolate the effects if Brett working on the hop compounds, since there'd be less additional flavor influence from Brett also transforming ester compounds.