100% Brett C Mead

[MarshmallowBlue]

This is a bochet brewed for the first round of my Bochet Solera Project. I Caramelized my honey and pitched a full vial of White Labs Brett C to 1 gallon of must.


Brett C Bochet
Ingredients
Units for 1 gallon:
~2 pounds of Honey (I used Snowberry)
Yeast : White Labs Brettanomyces Claussenii
Starting Gravity: 1.074
Secondary: Oak, pumpkin pie spice

Process
I caramelized the honey and cooled it down with cold water. After sanitizing everything, I pitched the vial into 1 gallon of must. As this is part of the Solera Project it will age a total of 18 Months before I bottle 1/2 of the carboy, and top up from younger generations.

Pitched on 7/10/14

3 days: No airlock activity (Brett does produce CO2, so it is something to look for). However, there was a full pellicle already formed. I'm sure this relates to the air that got incorporated to the must when I poured it into the carboy. This may or may not leave a slight acetic note later down the road.

4 days: No airlock activity, but the pellicle bubbles doubled in size, so their is either fermentation or the must is just off gassing. Gravity check 1.074, so no fermentation.

5 days: Very slow airlock activity, Brett is finally catching up to all those sugars. It should be picking up speed, and I'll take another gravity reading in a few days.

 

[marvaden]

That should get a nice caramelized pineapple flavor. Sounds delicious!

Looks amazing, too.

Cheers!

 

[tagz]

Just did a Brett C beer. There was some interesting fruitiness right after primary but now it just tastes like a kolsh, pretty neutral. Bit it. Sounds like you'll have more going on there with the oak and spices.

 

[marvaden]

I agree. From my experience, if you age it longer than six months, the pineapple flavors start to fade. I know that's the case for average ABV beers, but I am not sure how and if that timeline would change for a mead.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

We'll see how it turns out! I did a lambic mead with Wyeast Lambic blend that turned out lightly tart (has lacto + Pedio) with some noticeable mustiness, but it doesn't say what strain of brett was in there.

 

[mwbrewer]

I absolutely LOVE mead and have been getting more and more interested in sours/lambics, so this recipe has really piqued my interest. I definitely want to try it after i get a couple of my current batches bottled up. Just wondering have you ever tried a cider made with brett? Cause i was thinking of trying that recently too since I've never seen one

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

I've seen a few brett ciders floating around in the cider thread

 

[marvaden]

I've done two brett ciders. The brett c one was bland but ok, but the brett l one tasted like cheese. In conjunction with a sweet cider yeast that accentuates the apple, that may have been better, but alone, it wasn't worth it.

 

[mwbrewer]

Thanks for the feedback y'all, i really appreciate it. I can't wait to finally try out some sour batches, and i will definitely post back when i do a sour mead, maybe a sour cherry melomel or something...I've already got an apple cyser brochet in secondary so that's the other reason this recipe caught my eye