Good for Brett?

[badlee]

I will be coming into some inocculated oak cubes soon,which I hope to god will be riddled with Brett of three kinds.
So I have have been thinking of a recipe to use for all three. I will split it between 3 one gallon demijons.
13 litres
2.5kg vienna
0.5kg Pilsner malt
300gr crystal wheat
300gr soft brown sugar

25IBUs of Tettnanger at60 and 9 IBUs og EKG at 15.
I was thinking of mashing on the high side so as to give the brett something to go to work on after initialy fermenting with a sacc strain.
So, does it look like the kind of beer that will lend its self to Brett?

 

[The_Doctor]

The only two thoughts I have are:
1. Brett will dry your beer all the way out so I'd skip the sugar and use more grain.

2. Because it will be so drrrry and have some acid, ibu's over 20 can become almost astringent.

 

[badlee]

The reason I thought of the sugar was that I was thinking of mashing quite high. But if the Brett will eat through the dextrins then by all means the sugar is out.
But do you think I will get ALL THAT much acidity from Brett in the secondary for about 6 months?

 

[DrHop]

I don't really know that much about Brett but if you are worried that the body may be low because all the dextrins will get eaten up by the Brett, maybe you can use some flaked wheat or flaked barley that add body with proteins? Does Brett break down proteins too?

 

[badlee]

I believe that if given long enough,then yes it will.

 

[The_Doctor]

In six months you can get low to moderate acidity from brett. It depends on which bretts are present, what population they start at, and fermentation conditions. Are you doing primary with a normal ale strain. I've found 6-8 months is long enough for brett to chew through most dextrins. Sugar can reduce brett character if using an all brett fermentation. There is usually some degree of sacch contamination and with enough simple sugars, they'll out-compete brett for most of the fermentation. It just depends on what you're going for. And I'd put my money on you being right about the proteins.

 

[eastoak]

Brett will not dry out a beer any more than a sacc yeast will nor will it provide any acidity. Brett will add some complex flavors but it behaves very much like any other yeast. add pedio into the mix and you can get some super attenuation but not by itself.

 

[The_Doctor]

In my experience, there can be fair acidity produced depending on the strain. SN/RRB Brux is a great example. If you try it fresh, it has nice body and a mild twang. If you keep it for a month at 65-70 degrees, it becomes drier and more tart.
Bad wineries fear brett because it doesn't act like sacch.

I also remember this slide from a presentation put on by russian river:

"Brett is an oxidative yeast; the production of acids is an oxidative process.
There are many strains of Brettanomyces.
Common Strains are:
B. anomalous
B. bruxellensis
B. lambicus
B. claussenii
Brettanomyces can also eat the sugars (cellobiose) from the oak barrel.
Brettanomyces can even eat the unfermentable dextrin"

 

[badlee]

I was thinking of just letting the temperature go. Its quite warm here in Thailand,so I would say an average of 30c?
Do you guys think that the elevated temps will get the sourness out quicker?

 

[eastoak]

I was thinking of just letting the temperature go. Its quite warm here in Thailand,so I would say an average of 30c?
Do you guys think that the elevated temps will get the sourness out quicker?

no. if you want a sour beer you need to use sour bugs in addition to brett.