I brewed my Brett Trois IPA yesterday.
Starter was done in three steps. Step 1 was ~400ml, fermented at 70F for 2 days, then Step 2 added ~650 ml, fermented 3 days, then Step 3 added 1150 ml and fermented for 3 days. 8 days total. Put in the fridge to chill for decanting for a full 3days (so, 11 days total, start to finish for those planning their starters), but when it came time to pitch, only about the top half of the starter was settled. Still milky in the bottom half. So, I decanted down from 2200 ml to about 900 ml, drank the sample and pitched the rest.
Oh, these were all on a stirplate turned up to high the entire time. The first step was pretty mild in its behavior. The second step was pretty active, lots of bubbles but no krauesen. Third step went crazy, but I used fermcap as I had about 2200 ml in a 2 liter flask, so it had no krauesen but it seemed like it might have if I hadn't used that. When it settled out on the bottom of the flask for decanting, it looked like a slightly smaller amount of yeast than when I make a 2 liter starter with my usual yeast, but as I said, it was milky in the bottom half, which I also pitched.
When the starter was fermenting, the smell coming off of it was incredible. To say it smelled of "overripe fruit" might be a bit forgiving. I would say it smelled more like rotting fruit. It was not entirely pleasant, but not entirely unpleasant. I think there's something built into the brain that tells you that that smell indicates that something is rotting and that you shouldn't eat it, like it's hard wired into us.
That said, I was very curious to see what it tasted like. I was disappointed to drink the leftover starter and see that that character wasn't in the beer. It was a lot cleaner than I expected. It was certainly nothing like the usual Belgian ale kind of fruitiness. The flavor of the grain reminded me of what one would get from Wyeast 1056. Overlaying that was a pleasant and soft fruitiness with a lemony tartness. That tartness was nice. I suppose this is that touch of acetic that people talk about. It's nice, but I don't know if I want it in the finished beer or not. In the starter, though, it was fine. Nothing huge, nothing horrible. The fruit character is hard to define. I'm not good at describing subtle nuances in yeast character, but it didn't remind me of the usual Belgian character at all. It was very nice, though. And totally unexpected that it didn't seem very different from just normal Saccharomyces.
This was pitched Sunday around 6PM at around 64. No oxygen was used this time, just shook the fermenter. I let it warm to 70 as I had wanted to pitch a touch warmer. The next morning, today, at 7AM, the fermenter is going crazy. This is a 27 liter batch, so what, over 7 gallons? It has a huge krauesen and is fermenting like crazy, giving off a mixed fruity hoppy aroma that I am sad is leaving the beer. Looks like a totally normal fermentation that had a good sized starter pitched.
I'll report back later on progress.
