Porter with lambic accents/what to expect from brett bruxellensis?

So I want my next beer to be a porter and have been meaning to try out Brett for quite a while. I was reading that many of the historical old porters had significant Brett notes that they picked up from the wooden aging barrels back in the day so I figured why not?

This is the recipe I am thinking of trying:

6.25 gallons
1.044
23 IBUs

4 lbs marris otter
3 lbs brown malt
3 lbs victory
1 lb flaked oats

60 mins 1 oz Galena
5 mins 1 oz Tettnagger

So my question is...I want to use Brett Bruxellensis because its available and I think it'd be fun and I'm obsessed with Bruxelles (stupid reason but whatever). I was thinking about:

1) using S-04 and secondary with Brett OR
2) reserving like 3L for pure Brett, pasteurizing and adding to secondary with the rest fermented with S-04
3) All Brett Bruxellensis fermentation

What should I do????

I like lambics, Guezes, and other funky type beers although I haven't tried so, so many. Not a big fan of Lindemans though. Too sweet with a wierd taste. Anybody can give me an idea of what to expect with some of the different Brett strain from Wyeast in some of these different ways of using them? I'd like an interesting taste, but not a rip your face off wierd taste for my first try with a non sacch brew. I want something original but drinkable. I also have to say although I can be patient it's sometimes difficult....

Thanks for any advice

So how you use it depends on how much brett character you want

if you want it mild, ferment out then add the brett
if you want it stronger, pitch along with sacch
however no matter what you do over time the beer will become funkier and the brett will come to dominate the flavor


BTW why the maltodextrin? and the 6row?

If you can get ahold of a bottle of Telegraph Stock Porter you can get an idea. I found it to be a nice combination of fruity, funky and roasty. Theirs is aged in Zin barrels, but I believe it's spiked in secondary. Definately worth a try.

Maltodextrin adds body i think. 6-row because i have some and to give enzymes for the oats.

I guess i dont know what to expect in terms of taste for bruxellensis. Maybe ill try option 2 for moderate funk.

How long do i wait to not have bottles explode with this method?

With your recipe and brett in mind, I would nix both the 6row and malto

with oats in the mash youll already have a thick body, and with domestic malt there really isnt much difference in ezyme levels between 2 and 6row, Im also a big proponent of simple malt bills, IMO they tend to make better beers

Brett brux, if its from wyeast, is a very traditional funk producer, it will be fruitier when young but the funk will increase with age, looking at your IBU levels you might want to try and push the beer back towards maltier rather than bitter as I dont think the brux will mesh well with a bitter beer

As far as timing goes, I would wait at least 8wks, then check the gravity over the course of a 2wk period to see if its stable and where its at, I would bottle if its around 1008 or so, but not any higher, also keep in mind that brett used sans bacteria wont superattenuate

I make a brett brux beer quite often, and its actually usually a hit when its young and the funk isnt too strong, I like to keep the gravity levels down so you can drink it quickly, the higher the OG the longer it needs in the bottle to meld

Perfect thanks for the advice. I think ill follow basically all you advice. I was thinking of doing some of those anyways.

Nice blog btw!


EDIT updated recipe to reflect changes. namely scrapping the 6-row, maltodextrin, cascade hops at 30 mins, and adjusting numbers

thanks and good luck, please update us when you start drinking this beer!

Bendbiker said:

Maltodextrin adds body i think. 6-row because i have some and to give enzymes for the oats.

Click to expand...

not that the 2-row will hurt but you should have more than enough enzymes to convert the mere 1# of oats

So i brewed this yesterday. I adjusted the numbers to reflect my poor efficiency this time, argh. Had sort of a brewing poker party so all my times and temps were distracted by friends and generous quantities of alcohol lol.

In the end, I saved 4L of wort just for the Brett in an erlenmeyer flask. I will watch for a pellicle (and take photos!). I will decide later after tasting if i add the brett live or pasteurized into secondary

Transferred to secondary today. With the cold snap we had here in Quebec this is becoming a bit of a problem child beer. I think the yeast cut out early and I only reached about 1.020 with the S04. I didn't realized it but the Brett that they sent me was six months old, so it took nearly half a week to get going as well. I think they both finished at 1.020ish.

I put a half gallon of freshly boiled DME/dextrose into the secondary before adding the main batch of S04 fermented beer to warm it up. Then I added the 4L of Brett culture that I reserved, including all the Bruxellensis lees. Seems to have picked up activity right away so I am hopeful it'll finish off well.

Now I just have to forget about it for a while.......

Bendbiker said:

Transferred to secondary today. With the cold snap we had here in Quebec this is becoming a bit of a problem child beer. I think the yeast cut out early and I only reached about 1.020 with the S04. I didn't realized it but the Brett that they sent me was six months old, so it took nearly half a week to get going as well. I think they both finished at 1.020ish.

I put a half gallon of freshly boiled DME/dextrose into the secondary before adding the main batch of S04 fermented beer to warm it up. Then I added the 4L of Brett culture that I reserved, including all the Bruxellensis lees. Seems to have picked up activity right away so I am hopeful it'll finish off well.

Now I just have to forget about it for a while.......

Click to expand...

A year has passed - time for an update! I'd love to do one of these as my next batch - doing some research now and appreciate all the info I can get.

So in sum...it's really quite good now. It has been quite an aging process.

At first with the dark malts and the Brett it was quite fruity, but the dark malts were still quite astringent and I chose to age it further.

Then it became a bit leathery/ faint horse blanket which I didn't much like.

Now it has a really nice dark beer taste with hints of coffee and subtly of dark fig type fruit, which sounds wierd but is really nice. I like it a lot and am glad I rediscovered it from the back of my beer cupboard.