All Brett B IPA

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gunnerm109a6

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Hello friends!

After this weekend I will have about a half a vial of Brett B on hand and I was thinking of trying a small batch all Brett IPA. I brewed a pretty simple and tasty IPA recipe sometime ago and want to try it with Brett.

Do you guys think simply changing from a American ale yeast to Brett B would work or do I need to modify the recipe?

Thanks
 
The only adjustments I make are based off where I expect the brett to finish vs standard ale yeast. Trois is my standard brett for ipa and it tends to finish at one to two plato, so I alter OG and hopping accordingly to keep abv and bitterness in line. Have you used brett b on its own before, or have an idea of how it ferments for you?
 
The only adjustments I make are based off where I expect the brett to finish vs standard ale yeast. Trois is my standard brett for ipa and it tends to finish at one to two plato, so I alter OG and hopping accordingly to keep abv and bitterness in line. Have you used brett b on its own before, or have an idea of how it ferments for you?

I have never used Brett B before. I am dosing a portion of a Rye Saison batch in heavy bottles this weekend but I won't use the whole vial. Would Brett B work well in an IPA?
 
My Brett B Trois IPA was mashed at 69c and came in at 8.5% alc but drinks like it is 4%!
Now I didn't have any crystal in it at all, just some raw wheat, so if you want lots of body you will need quite a bit of residual sugar(not that easy with this yeast).
So,mash high and good luck. It's a great primary yeast,you are going to love it.
 
My Brett B Trois IPA was mashed at 69c and came in at 8.5% alc but drinks like it is 4%!
Now I didn't have any crystal in it at all, just some raw wheat, so if you want lots of body you will need quite a bit of residual sugar(not that easy with this yeast).
So,mash high and good luck. It's a great primary yeast,you are going to love it.

Would malted rye work well in place of the wheat?
 
You are definitely going to want to leave some long chain carbohydrates for the Brett to work on over the long haul. Like badlee said, mash high or you could add something like starch, Brett B can ferment this. Better yet, stick with the high mash temp. Good experiment and you will enjoy the outcome. Keep us posted.
 
I like the idea of mashing High (155-160) to get some complex sugars to work with, and also increasing the % the crystal vs a standard IPA. Maybe reduce the crystal color a shade too to keep it in the amber/copper range.
 
I would say that yes, rye would work very well,if it's unmalted rye you are thinking of.
Show us a grain bill?
 
All I have now is the grain bill, still working out the hops. I want to make sure I keep the ballance correct.

for a 5.5 gallon batch.
Single infusion, full body (based on your advice)

11 lb Pale 2 row
1.25 crystal 80l
12 oz carared
2 lb flaked rye


OG 1.070
IBU 60 ish (Thinking about all Chinook)
SRM 13
ABV 6.5
 
I have to disagree with you guys, don't mash high, don't try to add more dextrin. You want to drink this beer in a reasonable amount of time, right? Not wait six months for your brett to slowly chew on gravity points so you can finally bottle? Jolly Pumpkin does a really low mash for their beers. If you were making a true sour I would mash high, but not here.

I've done a few 100% brett brux beers. No idea how it will work for an IPA, but I am very curious. What is your hopping schedule?

When I've used brett b, the krausen dropped in about a week, just like sacc. I then waited two months before bottling. Over the next couple months, the beers got a bit funkier and started getting a little overcarbed as the brett chewed more, but nothing in the bottle bomb range. You could just store them in the frig.
 
I have to disagree with you guys, don't mash high, don't try to add more dextrin. You want to drink this beer in a reasonable amount of time, right? Not wait six months for your brett to slowly chew on gravity points so you can finally bottle? Jolly Pumpkin does a really low mash for their beers. If you were making a true sour I would mash high, but not here.

I've done a few 100% brett brux beers. No idea how it will work for an IPA, but I am very curious. What is your hopping schedule?

When I've used brett b, the krausen dropped in about a week, just like sacc. I then waited two months before bottling. Over the next couple months, the beers got a bit funkier and started getting a little overcarbed as the brett chewed more, but nothing in the bottle bomb range. You could just store them in the frig.

Rex,

I am leaning toward all Chinook: 1.5 oz at 60min, .5 oz at 10min, .5 oz at 1min and dry hop with one ounce for about a week. This works out to be about 56 IBU. Seems legit to me with a final gravity of about 1.010 or so.

So whats a good middle ground with this if I want to keep some maltiness and mouth feel and still have a drinkable beer at about 2 months?

Thanks!
 
After this weekend I will have about a half a vial of Brett B on hand and I was thinking of trying a small batch all Brett IPA.
if you're using brett as your primary strain, you're going to need to pitch more than half a vial.

a half will work when you're adding it as a secondary yeast, but as a primary i believe you want to pitch at a much higher rate.
 
I've brewed two all-brett IPAs in the last couple months, and a couple all-brett pale ales. I use a grist that is mostly two row, but about 15% malted wheat, 3% carapils and 1.5% of each of munich and victory malt. I like my IPA to be hop forward, so I don't put crystal/caramel/specialty malts. I used the wheat so that I would get some mouthfeel.

I mash at 148-150 because I want a dry beer in 4 weeks - grain to glass.

I hop it up like crazy late in the boil and have had the best success pitching just under 70 deg. F and fermenting thereabouts. I've been using Brettanomyces bruxellensis Trois from White Labs. I had one batch I fermented at 60 deg. F that finished out, but took about three weeks for krausen to drop - I wouldnt recommend fermenting this low, it made good beer, but not great. I usually pitch yeast cell counts between lager and ale rates according to Mr. Malty.

Good luck!

Edit - as for packaging, I either keg and carb or bottle with a normal amount of priming sugar. The yeast will probably not over-carbonate if it's bottled on its own.
 
I would say that 2lb of rye and over a lb of crystal will be a little too much.
Maybe more like 1lb of each and bring the crystal at 60l.
Brett B Trois gives huge attenuation in primary, but as was mentioned be someone already, you will need to build it up.
Mine was 4 weeks primary and then I started to drink it after only one week in the bottle.
 
if you're using brett as your primary strain, you're going to need to pitch more than half a vial.

a half will work when you're adding it as a secondary yeast, but as a primary i believe you want to pitch at a much higher rate.

You'll want to step that half vial up at least twice, I'd probably go .5l, 1l, 1.5L even though you're doing less than five gallons. I shoot for a midpoint between ale and lager pitching rates.
 
Mash low, and make a big starter. You probably need to pitch at a higher rate than normal for Brett.

I've used WLP650 a few times, and it doesn't attenuate that well. I've generally been in the 70% range. It does not super attenuate when used as a primary yeast. I've still got bottles of it that are a couple of years old and they are fine; no bombs, not even gushers.
 
Brett B works great in an IPA. Just did another one a few months ago with citra & galaxy (1/3 Brux, 1/3 Trois, 1/3 both). I'd just treat your recipe as if you were doing it with sacch, but pitch a lot of brett (lager rates). I usually get around 85% attenuation.
 
Thanks for everyones advice on this. here is the recipe that I used on March 1st

For 3.5 gallons:
Grist-
8 lb US 2 row
12 oz biscuit malt
6 oz Munich malt
Hops-
1 oz cascade, .25 oz citra@60 min
1 oz citra@ 10 min and flame out
1 oz citra dry hop

Pitched a 1.5l starter

I brewed this trying out the the BIAB method.
Mashed at 148ish with a 168 mashout
Great brewday, came up 5 points shy on my OG, I can live with that.

More to follow.........
 

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