100% Brett Farmhouse inspired ale

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BootsyFlanootsy

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Just posted this at the BBB, thought I'd mirror it here and see what the locals have to say..

This will be fermented with East Coast Yeast's BugBlend #9.


The plan for my 1st 100% Brett ale.
I've got a one quart starter going as I type. Plan is to step it up once or twice as the vial is now nearly four months old. Recipe I mocked up looks thusly....((( this is a PM as I'm still mulling over the retooling of my failed AG system))),.....

extract portion-

2#'s - Golden Light DME @ 20%

1#8oz's - Munich Malt LME @ 15%

Mini-mash portion...

2#'s Six Row @ 20% ( to ensure conversion of adjuncts )

1# Flaked Oats @ 10% ( pre-gelatinized)

1# Flaked Wheat @ 10% ( pre- gelatinized)

1# Torrified Wheat @ 10%

8oz's of Acidulated malt @ 5% ( to help lower the ph for the brett)

also was thinking of adding 14oz's of table sugar @ 10 mins for fermentability.

as for hopping....60 min boil...

FWH - .25oz's of Northern Brewer @8 ibu's in mini-mash.

60mins 1oz of Kent Goldings

15mins .50oz's of KG's

5mins .50oz's of KG's

Flameout 1oz of Saaz

at an OG of 1.063 this should give an IBU of roughly 24.

2tablespoons of Yeast nutrient @ 15mins is the only extra I've contemplated.

I was thinking of pitching the entirety of the stepped up starter into the cooled wort @ 73 degrees and fermenting at about that temperature for the duration of primary.

Beyond that the plan is just to let flavor dictate the appropriate time to bottle.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
Looks like a solid recipe, just a few comments.

You are probably above the conversion ability of the 6-row, any chance you could fit another pound in there?

2 tbls of nutrient sounds like too much. Servomyces is often suggested for 100% Brett beers, but I've had fine luck with ~1/2 tsp of Wyeast nutrient.

Brett Blend #9 is supposed to be really funky, it will be interesting to hear how it turns out as a 100% fermentation. I just used Brett Blend #1 in a rye saison.
 
Ya know, I woke up this morning thinking the same thing, re: the 6 row.
I'll have to fiddle with the recipe to get it back in line as adding another pound of 6row will obviously throw the SG a bit higher than I'd like. I suppose I could just cut back on the DME though.

The only reason I thought of adding that much nutrient was that from the research I've been doing I'd gathered that a bit more than average amounts of it can help to speed up the overall fermentation process in regards to brett. Honestly, it doesn't even matter all that much as I plan on this bulk aging for at least three months.


I can't speak for blend #9 other than the fact that when I opened the vial the smell was quite pungent, literally all over the place, fresh bread, cheese, passion fruit, typical barnyard aromas, I swear it might have singed a nose hair or two....... so, ya know, I've got that going for me.

Was your Rye Saison 100% Brett, or did it go into the secondary?
 
King of Cascades-

You know, you might be right on that. If I could forgo the table sugar, I wouldn't need to cut back on the DME.
 
Brett will attenuate quite a bit...not sure if this is necessary.

You know, you might be right on that. If I could forgo the table sugar, I wouldn't need to cut back on the DME.

In my 'Limited' experience, Brett on it's own does not attenuate that well. I've gotten about 70%.

My limited experience is with Brett-B (2 different strains .. they certainly had different characteristics, in 5 beers).

I actually added a highly attenuating Sacc yeast after the Brett had done it's work to get a decent attenuation in the beers.

The acid malt is essential, but you will still have a relatively low attenuation. Add the sugar!


......... You can always hold back the sugar and add later after you see what the Brett does.
 
Ok, So I've had a bit of a rethink on this ale....

I'm going to also ferment with wy3724, ( currently building a starter), and I'm going to simultaneously pitch the brett blend with it.

I'm also going to go for it and add a bit or Amaranth and Buckwheat to the mix for added farmhouse'y complexity. I was inspired to do so after reading a post on both the Ryanbrew blog and Oldsocks blog.

I'm also lowering the OG down to the low 1.050's....


I know this makes for a complex grist, ( I usually keep things as simple as possible), but I figured it would be nice to try something a bit more involved for a change.
 
Wow, this ale really went through a pretty major transformative process in the planning stage.

In the end I built a cheap and easy 52qt mash tun. I dropped all of the malt extract, ( sans the Munich LME just b/c it was going to waste anyway), and went the All Grain route on this.

The only decision that I fretted over in the end was the use of six row as the base malt.
I convinced myself that it was the way to go due to the fact that I was using SO many adjunts and unmodified grains. I will have to wait and see if the flavor is ultimately affected negatively until it's fit to be consumed. I have a feeling it will be fine though.

So I did a cereal mash that consisted of 1 pound each Amaranth, Spelt and Buckwheat. I mixed in a 1/2# of 6 row. First I crushed the spelt and buckwheat. The spelt was particularly difficult. I still am lacking a grain mill, ( have mine milled at the lhbs), so I had to use a large ziplock and rolling pin. The buckwheat crushed easily.

After the cereal mash was done I emptied the contents into the mash ton ( 3 1/2#'s of grain in roughly 3gls of h2o. From there I topped up to about 4.75 gallons of cold water and brought the temp down to strike temp. I mashed for 60mins @ 145f w/ 3.75 #'s of 6row, 1# vienna, 1# rye malt, 12oz's of Torrified wheat/ flaked oats/ flaked wheat and .5#'s of Acid Malt and 1 huge bag of Rice Hulls as it was a big starchy sticky mess. I also added .50oz's of Northern Brewer as a FWH.


Batch sparged and collected about 5.25 of wort. Still need to work out my water calculations so I wind up collecting enough wort to factor in for boil off. In this case I just topped off about 1/2 gallon or so when all was said and done.

Wound up with a post boil gravity of about 1.058. Which is pretty damned close to what I was shooting for, a little high actually.

I pitched the starter of ECY BrettBlend #9 and the wy3724 at the same time. The batch was fermenting within 2 hours.
 
For the spelt, Ive found that tossing them in a blender and grinding to flour works really well, and I havent had a single issue with stuck sparges

Why all the different grains? I think it will be hard to learn much about any of them specifically, but should be interesting anyway

Ive found that...

spelt - adds a nice golden color lots and lots of body and is very creamy
Amaranth - very herbal quality that meshes well with earthy hops
buckwheat - really gloopy but adds tons of body to a beer or braggot
 
Thanks for the tips on the the grains.

Why all the grains?

I suppose it's due to having just read Farmhouse Ales combined with a pressing desire to get back to all grain. After multiple batches of PM's and Extracts I felt like going over the top. Which if I do say so myself, I believe I have achieved.

Agreed. At the least this will be an interesting beer to watch develop and hopefully, ultimately, to drink as well.

The hydro sample tasted fantastic all by itself, very complex and "grainy". I wound up drinking it all.


What the brett and the 3724 do to it is anyone's guess at this point.
 
wow, so much for waiting a month for the 3724 to finish out. This batch is already down to 1.002 in about two and a half days. It's tasting great already, though it's obviously still VERY cloudy and rough around the edges. There is a significant punch from the Brett already. I have a feeling that given the proper time this is going to age out quite nicely.

I will say however that, at this point, the brett presence is more up the urinal cake alley in the aroma department. Hopefully this will subside in time. If not, perhaps a dry hopping may be in order?
 
anyone have any thoughts on how long to secondary this brew? it's fermented out as dry as I imagine it's going to go; 1.002 and I could swear I saw a tumbleweed blow threw the airlock the other day.


what would be the benefit to a secondary conditioning, just to allow for all things to mellow? Would this not also be achievable via a long healthy bottle conditioning?

I am planning to bottle this is 750ml corked belgians btw.
 
I hate when tumbleweeds blow through my airlock :) This is a really interesting topic. Im not sure I'd do any secondary on it personally. I'm days from a VERY similar brew and I will be pitching Brett Brux with Belgian Saison yeast. I don't plan on using a secondary at this point and Im figuring between the traditionally slow finish of the Belgian Saison yeast and the Brett finish, it will take a month...
 
Bumping this thread back up as this has now been bottled, ( and corked), for a couple of weeks and the little 8'oz test bottles I capped are already phenomenal. I think I neglected to add to this thread the fact that I racked this onto 7.5#'s of locally grown sour cherries back in the end of june. It sat on the cherries with about 1oz of Medium toast Hungarian oak cubes until, well, about two weeks ago. Smell is fantastic. Initial aroma is of wild cherries and pie... followed by some serious bretty, barnyard funk. Not for the meak. Early tastings find the character from the 3724 showing itself well, very present on the finish. It goes in sharp and acidic and tasting and smelling of cherries and has a very interesting almost pie crusty flavor in the finish. I **** you not.


I can only hope and imagine that these will only continue to improve with age, if I can manage to keep my hands of them long enough.


Nice work Al.
 
I'm aging 2 different Saisons 5 months after fermentation. I was told by few brewers and The Mad Fermenter that Brettanomyces works slow and steady cleaning up leftover unfermentable sugars the yeast leaves behind.

Saison #1 had extra spices added during brewing... bitter orange Peel, coriander, peppercorns and grains paradise. I Fermented with WLP670 American Farmhouse Ale yeast with a blend of Brett. White labs could tell me the blend (proprietary reasons). Its has a great film of slowly growing big bubbles that look as if they had powder sprinkled on it.

Saison #2 brewed was same partial grain and Extract Saison with no spices at all and different hop additions. This time I'm going with WLP568 Belgian Saison yeast blend in primary and Brettanomyces Claussenii in secondary for 4-5 months.

Let me know how everything works out, hope helped out any.
 
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