Brett Red Ale

[kesslerr1]

I'm using my very successful red ale base and changing up the hops and adding brett. The brett is a mixed culture that I made and has Brett c. Brett L. and the dregs of a two crooked stave bottles. So far this mixed culture has produced some awesome beers.

8 lbs of 2 row
2 lbs of dark munich
4 oz of roasted barley (for color)
8 oz melanoidin
Mashed at 155

0.5 oz Simcoe First wort
0.5 oz Simcoe 5 mins
1 oz Cascade flame out
I usually cool my wort over the course of an hour and half adding hops when the wort hits the temp I want
1 oz Amarillo hop stand added at 200 F
1 oz Simcoe hop stand added at 190 F
1 oz Amarillo hop stand added at 170 F
0.5 oz Simcoe hop stand added at 160 F

:beard:

 

[stpug]

Crooked Stave beers should all be a mixed culture including bacteria at this point since all of their beers go through their barrels which are all said to be carrying the "house culture". Bacteria would include pediococcus and lactobacillus for sure. I've used the dregs from a bottle of CS Provision Saison and the resulting beer is wonderfully sour - but it took some time (pedio is slow).

 

[m00ps]

yeah I was going to say, this will not a "brett beer" if you added crooked stave. So dont plan on a quick turnaround like 100% brett beers

 

[kesslerr1]

Yea I know, Thanks for pointing that out though! But I have had quick turn around times with this culture. 1 month from carboy to keg and always has that awesome 100% brett flavor with a subtle sour twang from the bacteria that develops over the 3-4 months that the keg usually last as I drink it. I wish I could keep a keg around much longer to age it out, but I get thirsty! Maybe I will try bottling a few towards the end.

I do plan to so a saison with this same culture and let it age a for a long while in the carboy to let the bacteria do more work.

Stpug - the CS bottles were Provison Saison and St. bretta (summer I believe) Good stuff

:beard:

 

[burninator]

I've also been using a culture that includes CS dregs with great results in a short amount of time. I've talked with someone at the brewery who told me they'd expect a batch brewed with their dregs in primary to finish within a couple of months.

 

[kesslerr1]

I believe most of CS beers are brett forward and brett dominate. They do have bacteria in them from the aging in wooden barrels or intenstional additions, but those are for the most part complimentary to the brett and don't supersede it. From my experience, if you take one of chads bottle dregs and pitch it in a starter, grow that for a few days then step it up for a week and use that as your only microbe source your going to end up with a 100% brett tasting beer. I did an IPA like this once and it was awesome! Anyway I love the CS beers and and their dregs work great for tons of different projects like souring while aging or making a young brett dominate beer, especially if you use it in conjunction with other brett stains in a big starter.

:beard: