Farmhouse Ale (WLP670)

This weekend I will be transferring a rye saison(1.050 OG) that was fermented with American Farmhouse (WLP670). Originally it was to be a Sorachi Ace Beer but the LHBS only had Nelson Sauvin Hops, so I replaced the Sorachi with them and the grape and funk so far taste pretty good together.

My dad's basic sour dough bread recipe has a bit of rye, buckwheat, and whole wheat berries in it as well as a good bit of whole wheat flour. Inspired by it and the possibility of the interaction between Brett and the Buckwheat I've come up with the following for a 6 gallon batch.

37% 6 0 Belgian Pilsner Malt info 34 2 ~
12% 2 0 Wheat, Unmalted (Wheat Berries) info 34 5 ~
12% 2 0 Belgian Wheat info 38 2 ~
12% 2 0 Buckwheat (Kasha) info 20 1 ~
10% 1 10 Belgian Candi Syrup A info 36 40 ~ (Dansukker Dark)
9% 1 8 Rye Malt info 29 4 ~
6% 1 0 Munich Malt info 37 9 ~
2% 0 4 Acidulated Malt info 33 2

75 min boil.

first wort 75+ mins 1.0 Styrian Goldings info pellet 5.4

boil 20 mins 1.0 Tettnanger info pellet 4.5

boil 5 mins 1.0 Styrian Goldings info pellet5.4

OG 1.073
IBU 25.6
Yeast - Slurry of American Farmhouse

Is the grain bill to complicated? I want something a little darker for the winter, but trying not to be too complicated.

Plan is to do a adjunct mash with 1lb pils 2lbs Buckwheat and 2lbs unmalted wheat.

Interesting. Today I racked an American Saison (centennial hops, 1.050) with WLP670 to a keg, used about a pint of slurry for a rye saison (1.062). The racked beer tasted great. Gonna let it sit about a month in the keg to see what the brett does. The rye saison is gonna get bottled so it will be sitting for awhile in secondary.

I definitely like the WLP670 so far. I made several slants of it so it will definitely be something I will use again, especially considering it attenuates very well at lower temps. than the Belgian Saison yeast.

here is a picture of mine. i'm not sure if i wanna just let it go or keg it.
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WOW. Thick pellicle. Is that just foil you have covering the top?

lacticacid-- I don't think there is anything in there that seems out of place. I am going to brew a dark saison to age with this yeast blend as soon as the first batch I have going is done.

I hope this blend turns out some nice beers.

Beerrific said:

lacticacid-- I don't think there is anything in there that seems out of place. I am going to brew a dark saison to age with this yeast blend as soon as the first batch I have going is done.

I hope this blend turns out some nice beers.

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Brewed the beer this weekend.

For some unknown reason it seemed like a good idea to hit the cereal mash with a stick blender as the buckwheat wasn't able to be milled and I had to use my food processor.

Ended up having the sparge from he'll and I brew in a bag. Something like 60-75 minutes to collect 7 gallons of wort. Ended up with 5.75 gallons of 1.076, so I've consistently hit 75% with my overnight mash, then 15 minutes at 158 in the morning method.

My rye saison went from 1.050 to 1.006 with this method and only .5lb of sugar.

So I kegged this last night. The hydro sample didn't really have any sourness but a good "earthy/funk" to it. What astounded me was the FG .998?!?! Is that even possible? I would love to hear if anyone has had a beer go that low.

phished880 said:

So I kegged this last night. The hydro sample didn't really have any sourness but a good "earthy/funk" to it. What astounded me was the FG .998?!?! Is that even possible? I would love to hear if anyone has had a beer go that low.

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Alcohol is lighter than water, so it certainly is possible. Wine, meads, sake etc... often finish below 1.000 since they are much lower in unfermentable dextrins than beer. Brett has an enzyme that can break-down these dextrins and continue fermenting.

Brett doesn't create much sourness, that is really the domain of lactic acid bacteria. Brett can make some acetic acid (vinegar) if exposed to enough oxygen, but that doesn't play a large role in sour beer production.

Glad that blend worked well, I didn't get a chance to use it when it was out.

Oldsock said:

Glad that blend worked well, I didn't get a chance to use it when it was out.

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Sorry to hear that, I was hoping one of these days I would read about it on you blog.

Btw, you blog was most of the reason I took the plunge into a Brett blend in the first place. Keep up the good work.

I brewed 2 beers with it, a low gravity American Saison with centennial hops and a higher gravity rye saison. Samples of both are tasting excellent and the yeast attenuated very well. The first is aging in a keg and the other is in secondary waiting for the brett to do some work before bottling. I am very curious to see the results after some aging.

phished880 said:

here is a picture of mine. i'm not sure if i wanna just let it go or keg it.

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My WLP670 has a pelicule that is that thick as well. When compared to my other sours aging in the same area, it definitely has developed a much thicker pelicle. It must be something with Lost Abby's strain of Brett. I am not sample it until October, so I can't comment on gravity.