My first all brett hop question

All,
Doing my first all brett this weekend and wondering what ibu I should shooting for and which hop to use. I am pitching Brett B in 5 gallons and brett l in another. My efficiency of my system is 85. Also, should I boil the flaked grains prior to the mash?

15 pilsner
4 vienna
2.5 flaked wheat
1.5 flaked oats
1.5 acid malt(added to sparge)
1 carapils

Hops I have on hand
Citra
Amarillo
Chinook
Cascade
Fuggle
Calyspo
Cyrstal
Us goldings
Hallurtau

Thanks!

personally I'd target a BU:GU of .50 with an oz at flameout.

as this is your first all brett, i'd go with a subtle hop like Hallertau MF.

also be sure to step up the brett in a starter!

flaked grains don't need precooking... throw them straight into the mash

recipe looks tasty!

Great, thanks!

What is BU:GU, I know I should search, but at work

I made a starter of my brett on Monday, been on stir plate all week. I was going to pitch this, but thinking I my delay brewing till the following week and step up the 1 liter to 2 next week.

I think I'd go with the fuggle or goldings and hop low so its tipped toward the malt your first go around. You might consider dry hopping before you bottle

As to your starter, I would suggest stepping it up to 3L before you pitch, those packs have much lower cells counts than normal. Are you using WY or WL? WL will be much much funkier of the two. In my experience with Brux, it gets a sort of phenolic rotten banana muffin flavor with higher grav beers, and takes awhile to smooth out

BU:GU is bittering units to gravity units i.e.

a .5 BU:GU in a 1.050 beer would be 25ibu... in 1.070 beer it would be 35 ibu.

hallertau/fuggles/goldings would all be good. i'd reccomend leaving it to a single hop varietal if you are trying to understand what the brett imparts.

Love this forum, thanks so much.

I am using White Labs. I guess I should step up the starter.

Might want to a quick protein rest with all those flaked grains though to help keep the viscosity of the mash down a bit.

25.5 lbs of grain. I'm assuming that is for 10 gallons. That would give you something around 1.080. That may be a little high for a first go.

WLP Brett-B is great as a single yeast. I've used it a lot. Plenty fruity, makes a great saison. Using it as the primary yeast you will not get the leather/farmyard character.

Why not add the acid malt to the mash. There is no reason not to.

Go with Fuggle or Goldings, but don't be heavy, the yeast flavors will be the highlight of the beer.

The example in Wild Brews is 20 IBUs in a 1.060 beer. I tend to aim for similar numbers and have been very pleased with the results.

I would also aim to mash low to get a fermentable wort. As a primary yeast, Brett does not super attenuate.

I have read the brett like a more acidic wort. So to keep my mash ph correct, I will add the acid malt when I sparge.

Calder said:

25.5 lbs of grain. I'm assuming that is for 10 gallons. That would give you something around 1.080. That may be a little high for a first go.

WLP Brett-B is great as a single yeast. I've used it a lot. Plenty fruity, makes a great saison. Using it as the primary yeast you will not get the leather/farmyard character.

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I agree with this when the beer is young, but in my experience with aging you'll get the traditional bretty flavors

Calder said:

Go with Fuggle or Goldings, but don't be heavy, the yeast flavors will be the highlight of the beer.

The example in Wild Brews is 20 IBUs in a 1.060 beer. I tend to aim for similar numbers and have been very pleased with the results.

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Its been awhile since Ive looked at wild brews, but I agree, I tend to prefer worts that are tipped towards the malt when using brett. IMHO brett + lots of IBU's doesnt mesh very well

ryane said:

I agree with this when the beer is young, but in my experience with aging you'll get the traditional bretty flavors

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Not my experience. Agree it does 'mature', but I find it still retains a lot of fruity flavors. Tomorrow I'll go find one that's been in the bottle almost a year and see if I still have that opinion. I'll report back; maybe I'll eat my words, but I've been drinking them slowly over time and not had any 'harsh' Brett flavors come out.

I will check my grain bill maybe I will reduce it a tad. Checked my brett starters, 5 days on the stir plate and the wort looks nice and tan. Going to let it settle and see what kind of yeast I got.

I figured if the brett is harsh or overpowering, I can use this for blending with my other sours. Have a nice pipeline for a reused yeast cake. I find I have trouble getting a brett aroma and flavor in them.

I just picked up the Wild Brews book. My next read on my flight.

Thanks again for all the info.

Calder said:

Not my experience. Agree it does 'mature', but I find it still retains a lot of fruity flavors. Tomorrow I'll go find one that's been in the bottle almost a year and see if I still have that opinion. I'll report back; maybe I'll eat my words, but I've been drinking them slowly over time and not had any 'harsh' Brett flavors come out.

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I wouldnt say that they become 'harsh' rather with age I think that they tend to become more bretty and funky than fruity. Ive always attributed this to the tendency of brett to metabolize esters

Who knows though, maybe your terroir ends up producing a different beer

So I brewed this up yesterday. I reduced my grain bill a tad. Posted below. The brett L on the stir plate look just like regular yeast after 5 days. Tons of co2, going like crazy, Brett B, no co2, but a nice yeast cake. This morning, the Brett L is rocking, nothing from the B. I ended up using Crystal hops. Their AA was 3%, so 4 ozs put me around 24 IBU, then I added 1 oz of saaz at 15 to get me around 28ish. My OG was 1.054. I did a single step at 150 for 60 and boiled for 90. Color is golden, straw like.

Tasted really good. Very excited for this one.

14 Pilsner
3 Vienna
2 Flaked Wheat
1 Flaked Oat
1 Carapils
1 Acid malt(added at the beginning of the sparge)

4 oz Crsytal hop 60
1 oz Saaz 15

Did a gravity check tonight. L was 1040. B wax 1020. I transfered some of the B to the L. Going to be a blend. If that does not get it going, I am going to pitch some 05. The B tasted like a beer fermentated with reg yeast.

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Give it a couple more weeks. They might move a bit further yet.