Brett Cider Experiment panel (round 2)

[levifunk]

Last year's brett cider panel was a great success. We learned a ton about how the different strains perform in cider and are using that information to produce 1,000 gallons of 100% brett ciders this year! (which I believe will be the first 100% brett cider commercially produced).

We still have the 11 three gallon carboys (juice is easy enough to get, and we want to keep learning) so we would like to fill them all up with experimental batches. We need your help to come up with ideas.

Here is what I have so far:

1 - Boil/simmer the cider juice to caramelize the sugars prior to fermentation.
2 - Redo B. Claussenii batch from last year.
3,4,5 - Doing different temps of the same brett strain (55,65,75 degrees?)

So, there are another 6 carboys to experiment with. What experiments have you had success with in Brett beers? What do you like to do to ciders? Any crazy ideas are welcomed!

 

[izraehl]

It should be noted that boiling sugary liquid (juice, wort, etc.) cannot caramelize sugars. You would need a very small amount of water and a lot of sugar in order to do so. You may be thinking of a Maillard reaction which causes a darkening in color.

Also, have you tried a brett cider and racking it onto fruit?

 

[levifunk]

We have thought about fruiting some of the fermented ciders, but that is something we can experiment with using some of our final product.

ECY has a couple brett strains we didn't use last year, so:
6 - Brett anomala
7 - Brett brux (ECY)


4 more to go...

 

[Calder]

I would think a lot of naturally fermented ciders are with wild Brett yeast. I guess it has been done before.

I have never boiled apple juice, but I thought it set a permanent haze in the cider.

 

[izraehl]

I have never boiled apple juice, but I thought it set a permanent haze in the cider.

Yep. It's called Pectin Haze. Wine makers know quite a bit about it!

 

[Brewbien]

I think a good idea would be to combine a few of the better performing Brett strains in one batch of cider.

 

[dinnerstick]

question for brett cider people, dunno if this is addressed anywhere else, not meaning to hijack the thread. i see above that the OP heated the raw juice, so i'm assuming you didn't sulfite the juice after that; why would you. but does anyone know how tolerant brett in general (or the white labs trois strain in particular, as that's the one i'm probably going to throw at it) is to sulfites, my typical strategy is to sulfite to around 50 ppm free SO2 and leave it for 1 day before pitching sacc (s05 preferred). although i know it's not necessary, but i prefer to do it, keeps things in check, keeps the nail polish smells away.
i was taking this year off from cider making but someone just dropped off 2 crates of apples at my door, and there's a good size cake of brett in my fridge....

 

[marvaden]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22537453 It appears that at least the spore-producing strains of Brettanomyces can be susceptible to sulfites.

I just kicked off two ciders of my own. One with a blend of Brett B and Brett L, and the other with Brett Trois. They both smell amazing at this point. I will be kegging them both within a month.