The Muse, my second all-brett beer

So last Friday I had off thinking I needed a good chunk of the day to go to traffic court and get two minor charges dismissed but it ended up only taking about 20 minutes. What do I do with a suddenly free day? Brew of course!

I've been meaning to get another funky wild ale going with how deliciously successful The Minstrel was. See final recipe sheet & notes here. Thoughts floated through my head on what to do, no recipe had as of yet been made, but suddenly I was inspired and there wasn't anything else I could do about it.

This time I decided to go in the other direction and do something a little simpler. Light blond in color and not too strong, simple more traditional belgian pale ale / blonde ale recipe, nothing TOO crazy, oh and definitely need to do Brett L on this bad boy.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.98 gal
Estimated OG: 1.060 SG
Estimated Color: 5.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 26.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 68.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM) Grain 52.83 %
3.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 22.64 %
1.00 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 7.55 %
1.00 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 7.55 %
1.00 lb Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 7.55 %
0.25 lb Caravienne Malt (22.0 SRM) Grain 1.89 %
2.00 oz Styrian Goldings [4.10 %] (60 min) Hops 26.3 IBU
1 Pkgs Brettanomyces Lambicus White Labs #WLP653 Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 13.25 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 20.94 qt of water at 166.6 F 156.0 F
10 min Step Add 10.00 qt of water at 197.1 F 168.0 F

Notes:
------
9/4/09 - Easy brewday, hit temps though efficiency was a little low. 1.060

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I picked up about a half pound of figs at the grocery store the other day, I think I'm going to put this in when gravity gets a little lower. I cleaned them, rinsed, quartered and froze the figs last night.

About 4 hours after pitching the 3.5L stir plated starter of Brett-L I got some pretty thick but not too tall krausen going, smells pretty funky. Going pretty active.

During the brewday I drank some really good sour beers with one of my buddies. 3 year old Rodenbach Grand Cru, Russian River Consecration Batch 2, and Norrenboro/Dogfish Head Old Odense.
I cleaned out a mason jar with starsan for an hour or so, then dumped some of my starter into the jar along with the dregs of the sour that I'm going to use to build up my own sour culture. I'm going to split off 1 gallon after fermentation is mainly done and before the addition of the figs and throw some of the funky bunch in and see how it goes.

I've been back brewing for about a year now and can't wait to get to lambics (still along way off for me...) This brew sounds disgustingly awesome!!! I've been staring at pics of pellicle the past few days. I can't wait!!! I know the end result is pretty laid back, but I love to think about the process.

I've got a couple of fig trees in the backyard. Haven't used them for anything but jam and good eatin' so far, but maybe a brew should be in store.

I'm jealous...

and a little buzzed...

All Brett beers do not get as sour as lambics, but they dont take nearly as long either. They add some acids but mainly produce funk. Im expecting it to be done in about 6 weeks.

I took a gravity reading last night and got 1.020, its a little funky. Yeast kinda seems like its stopped which is perplexing given that its at room temperature more or less and brett is known for >90% attenuation levels at this temperature. It could just be taking a rest to build up a pellicle and continue fermentation or something, I'm going to keep an eye on it and maybe pitch some more yeast in the future if it doesn't continue fermenting.

you just reminded me that Muse has a new album that I need to go get, thanks

Oh yeah, this looks like a great beer too

Couple of updates.
Looky here, a nice pellicle! This formed about 2 weeks ago and dropped off on Friday.

So of course I had to take a gravity reading then, down to 1.012.

Took another gravity reading today since the pellicle is gone and airlock activity is more or less gone too, its down to 1.008, about 85% attenuated.
Here's a sampler in the glass, tastes interesting. Big dark musky funky nose, with some followthrough in the palate, a touch of tartness but not much, the malts are pretty mild and in there somewhere.

So I debated this back and forth for a while but eventually just decided to go for it, had about a half pound of figs I quartered and froze a few weeks ago, broke them up and dumped them in just now.

Its in my theater room so I can keep an easy eye on it, I'll post more updates when i get them!

Kegged this today. Gravity reading was at 1.006 and it looks like its been done with any activity for over a week. Tasted pretty funky, this is definitely lambicus. A little bit of fig comes through and kind of pairs with the brett funk in a really nice way. Can't wait to try it once its carbed.

Grgl. grgl. grgl.

Makes me wish I had another fermentor to put a straight Brett L beer into, instead of this complicated archaic Flanders and Lambic stuff.

Buy another better bottle, you don't need to refrigerate brett or anything. Its going to produce all kinds of fun flavors whatever temp you let it roll at

Tapped it the other day and carbed, pulled my first test pint just now with lunch.


Appearance: Polished amber with a thin offwhite head. The beer color looks amazing, I think it will clarify more with time and more head will develope as the carbonation finishes.

Aroma: Funky, but not acidic. Somewhat like mango with a touch of lime. It is firmly present, but does not overpower and dances around lightly in the nose.

Flavor: The funky flavors come in first, again like mango with a touch of lime, and then the belgian blond characters of light malt sweetness. On the finish the lightest touch of dark fruit sweetness comes through with the fig. The flavors actually come together quite well.

Mouthfeel: A little dry but very smooth and drinkable. It definitely carries the body of a belgian blond / pale thats been funkified. I think maybe some more caravienna would have kept a little bit of the residual sweetness and not had it dry out so much.

I brewed this yesterday but omitted the pilsner malt and only used half an ounce of saaz at 60mins. I did a 2L stirplate starter with a wyeast brett L. I spun the starter for 2.5 days, stuck it in the fridge for about 16 hours, decanted and pitched yesterday. 24 hours later activity is apparent, and about a quarter inch layer of krausen has formed. Fermenting at 73.

Looks great man!

Coastarine if you had signs of fermentation in about 24 hours that means you got the yeast population up to some pretty good levels. I had this with a small local brewclub I'm in today when we did some planning for 2010 and everyone really enjoyed it (a big compliment from these guys) and one of the common descriptions was leathery with a bit of pie cherry and mango.

The Muse took gold in the specialty category in its first competition entry at 2009 Walk The Line - Barleywine Can't wait to get the judges sheets back on this one.

Very cool, congrats!

I have some concerns because my fermenter didn't cool as quickly as I thought it would, it spend about 48 hours at 76. Got it down to the 68-70 range pretty fast after that. Really though, it's not like this was supposed to be a clean fermentation anyway. I'm only concerned because I'm used to worrying about temps that high, but I have no real idea what the brett will do.

I usually do my Brett ferments in the high 70s to 80s. I don't think Brett is capable of fusel alchohol production, nothing to worry about there!

I've got an all brett b molasses coffee porter going with a cake bred from orval bottle dregs. It smells amazing. If it turns out well then I think i'm going to give this one a try. It sounds and looks delicious and makes my mouth water. great job saq

Kicked the keg on this last weekend after doing some bottling. Sad to see it go.

this sounds like a blast... i just tried the victory Wild Devil a few weeks ago and got my interest perked for doing an all brett beer, after seeing this thread, i gotta get it done! it's pretty cold in my neck of the woods this time of year, will brett still ferment completely below 70? and does it kick out heat like sacc?

Victory Wild Devil is a Brett L fermentation. Those earthy, leathery, musty, dry spicy notes are the signature of Lambicus. The Muse has a lot of similar things going on when you compare it with Wild Devil.
Brett is a lot like Sacc in most practical brewing applications. It does produce heat, but most Brett strains ferment slower at similar fermentation ranges. The Muse fermented with room ambient temp and the thermometer on the fermenter said it was only a few degrees over, so 72f and it took about 4-5 weeks and got about 89% attenuation.

My latest, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/bard-all-brett-b-brown-147712/ was fermented when room temp was a bit lower, about 65f and also took about 4-5 weeks before it was completely done but didn't finish as low, I think around 85% attenuation.

cool, thanks for the info... can't wait to try this out... I think i may do something similar to wild devil and just ferment my IPA with brett.

Hoping it's best to post my question on this related active thread than start a new one....

I pitched Lambicus onto a new wort about a week ago and the fermenter has been at 49-52 F the whole time. There's a single layer of pea-sized clear bubbles on the surface. (It's also spiked with dregs of a few ale yeasts.)

Will this beer ferment on out (and in how long)?

Do you recommend raising temp, or adding yeast at some point?

I've never tried to do anything with Brett at that low of a temp. Most strains of Sacc won't be able to handle that, really getting into lager territory with that. The warmer Brett is, the better it does.
Another thing to consider is that when you make a starter of Brett you need to account for extra time due to 1: White labs vials contain very small amounts of brett, I think wyeast packs have higher cell counts and 2: brett grows slower. If I'm culturing up from one of my propogated tubes I give it 4 days where I'd normally give Sacc 2. Turning the hot stir plate heat up a little to get it around 75 really seems to help too.

Just read this thread and am intrigued. I've only had a few sours, so I'm a novice drinker in that category, let alone brewer. I've had a few sours at a local Belgian taphouse but don't recall the brands. Can you point me to some all Brett L commercial beers to try? I need something to brew in the summer months when my fermentation room (storage unit) is between 72-80

First off, all brett beers aren't sours. Brett is a component of lambics/gueze/flanders sours, but is not responsible for hardly any of the acid content in those beers.
Brett beers are dry (high attenuation) and funky, with interesting fruity like flavors popping up here and there.
The only real Brett L commercial beer I've had or even heard of is Wild Devil.

I'll keep an eye out for that beer. I do realize that about sours. I guess I should have mentioned that my only encounter with bret would have been through these sour beers. Souring the mash and lacto doesn't appeal to me at the moment, so this sounds like a worthwhile approach.

All the Brett strains are distinctive. From what I've heard:
C - is fruity and very mild
B - is pretty horsey and funky
L - funky and a lot of sour cherry in the nose and some in the taste

Jmo - With those temps you can do almost any Belgian beer although they will be on the warmer side.

Tapped, and darn tasty! The brett definitely lived up to its reputation of funky with plenty of sour cherry. Also refreshing! I am going to experiment with higher carbonation as I think it will benefit.

saq, do you have a dedicated glass carboy (or other fermenter) for your brett beers? i've got a plastic bucket i don't care about, but would prefer to do it in one of my carboys... can glass be cleaned enough to get rid of all the brett?

I have a few things dedicated to sours / brett stuff. 1 3g BB that I use for keeping bugs propogated/starter buildup/sour barrel topup, 1 6g BB for fermenting, 1 balcones 5.25g bourbon barrel, 1 serving corny and 1 aging corny. I'd like to add another barrel to sour with so I get more done at once.

I've dropped glass from my fermenting side of things completely, its such a hassle to deal with. But it will work just fine.

That being said Brettanomyces is a yeast, and not a bacteria. A proper cleaning procedure for dealing with Saccharomyces is sufficient for dealing with Brettanomyces.

Bacteria are a little tougher as they can survive pretty low pH levels which is one of the sanitizing methods of starsan. Bacteria can also get into porous things like rubber where its harder for sanitizers to get to properly, so you may want to soak longer when this stuff is involved.

Another thing that will help maximize the effectiveness of Starsan is to use distilled water which usually has a lower pH than your average rather-hard city water. A lower starting pH means a lower effective pH once you add your starsan.

Mine is finally carb'd to where I want it. Funny thing; the first two sips are always sort of overpowering with funk, and the rest of the pint tastes pretty much completely different to me. Much more tart fruit. I have one friend who comes over regularly to drink beer with me and he agrees. We both really enjoy it but I forsee plenty of people not getting past the first sip. The appearance probably doesn't help, since it seems to be retaining a muddy look. Just sort of a dirty yellow.

Without a doubt one of the most interesting beers I've ever brewed or even drank. I'm sure it will continue to evolve as I drain the keg, and I'll keep updating.

Saq,
I just got some Brett B do you think this will be sufficient for this beer? Also how do you go about bottling this ale? Won't the brew continue to ferment and possible create glass grenades? Just wondering. I'm going to brew this next week once I get my yeast. Also do I need to add oxygen before I ferment? Never did an all Brett beer so I want to get it right. Thanks for the help.

Steelers77,
Sorry I missed your post and didn't notice it until today.
Brett does not super-attenuate when its the only microbe in the wort. It does that in the presence of bacteria as a form of competition to try and get all of the nutrients for itself. When used alone it acts a lot like a very attenuative strain of Saccharomyces. It ferments until it hits its 85%+ attenuation, and then drops out into the bottom.
If you were to bottle condition you might want to cut back on the sugar added as Brett will definitely eat it all, but I bottle from keg so no worries.
Brett B has a totally different flavor profile compared to Brett L, but I think this kind of a beer recipe is good to show off the nature of the yeast.

For some reason I have a pack of Brett. L. in the fridge. How long does it take this beer to fully mature? What I'm really asking is how long should I plan on having a carboy in use?

About 5 weeks. Ferment it at room temperature. If it doesn't get to at least up to 72f it goes really slow.

These threads are really great. Thanks, saq!

Wow! thats some great turnaround. You did make a large starter correct? around a gallon? I assume the pitch rate will really effect the brett character. I really love Orval do you think I should go all Brett L., or start with a good belgian strain and pitch brett a couple days in to fermentation?

I like 100% brett beers, they are so unique and flavorful.
I did create a large starter, planning on similar pitching rates as for a belgian beer. Building up a starter is going to take a few extra days because Wyeast/White Labs only puts 1/10th the amount of brett in their media than they do for sacc. Just pitch it on the stir plate and let it run until it looks like a normal sacc starter.

Saq,
I'm finally getting around to brewing this, do you think it would be wise to chiill my wort to around 85 and pitch the starter? I'm just wondering because the temp in my area has come down and it looks like its gonna stay here. Also, I have a ferm chamber I was going to put this in with the hopes that it will stay warmer than room temp. Is my thinking sound?

The warmer the beer is the faster its going to work and probably the more tasty its going to be. I'm not sure about pitching at 85 but I don't think Brett would care too much. Worth a shot!