The OFFICIAL 11-11-11 Old Ale Thread - The HBT Anniversary Series

[smokinghole]

Anyone willing to step up to organize this? I'd do it if I weren't busy with a 18 credit semester and an internship. I'm picking up my bottles this weekend so I have them on hand for the upcoming trade.

 

[smokinghole]

Just a little update. I grabbed my case of 12oz crown bottles and a handful of flip tops that I bottled with. I tried two of the flip tops and it has developed into a slightly smokey leathery flavor. It's fantastic. I let some friends try it on Saturday night and it went over great.

 

[orangehero]

Would it be advised to add fresh yeast at bottling or will the Brett carbonate it in a reasonable period?

 

[smokinghole]

I don't think the brett would have a problem. I cannot remember if I added SO4 at bottling or if I just relied on the brett. I can tell you I added dme for priming the bottles. Just remember that carbonation calculators count for DME being 75% fermentable or 55%. With brett it will attenuate further than the advertised apparent attenuation for that DME. I primed my bottles for just under 2.3 volumes at the corn sugar rate but using DME to account for the additional attenuation.

 

[jmo88]

Would it be advised to add fresh yeast at bottling or will the Brett carbonate it in a reasonable period?

I will not bottle condition mine, but I'll offer my advice. If you want to hit a specific amount of CO2, I'd add some yeast at bottling and use corn sugar. The reason I wouldn't rely on Brett to carbonate the beer is mainly because brett produces less CO2 as a byproduct than Saccharomyces. How much less? I don't know and it may be more trouble than it's worth to try to nail it down. Also, it would take longer to carbonate, so to me it seems worth it to just add back some yeast.

 

[smokinghole]

I only heard that brett produced less CO2 than sacch from one source. That source I think was at White Labs but also believe it was withdrawn. If I'm not mistaken they said that the CO2 production of Brett, if different, is so close to that of saccharomyces it doesn't matter. I know it's been repeated on here a few times.

Here's a post referencing contact to White Labs. I have no reason to disbelieve the source. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/when-bottle-funky-saison-243141/#post2900930

I've actually been looking for research articles that discuss CO2 production by brett. I have found many articles about brett but mostly surrounding flavor compounds in wine.

 

[jmo88]

That certainly makes sense, in fact after I replied I realized I was just restating what I heard on the Session. I think perhaps what was confused was the rate of CO2 production compared to Saccharomyces, not the byproduct ratio.

You know about brettanomycesproject.com right? It's the only scholarly research I've found pertaining to brett and beer.

Here is an article discussing CO2 production in wine fermentation and brett's effects on sacc: http://www.scielo.br/pdf/babt/v54n2/v54n2a17.pdf It doesn't discuss what we are talking about, but it does contain information on CO2 production in brett and sacc

 

[AnOldUR]

From BJCP: 19A. Old Ale . . . Some wood-aged or blended versions may have a lactic or Brettanomyces character; but this is optional and should not be too strong (enter as a specialty beer if it is).

Got my first taste of this last night. Kegged about 2 gallons from a 3 gallon carboy. (Still have a 5 gallon carboy of it aging.) The hydro sample had a lot of the complexity that we are all hoping for. Very pleased with the results. Where I have doubts is the Brett character. I don't have experience with it and don't know what "too strong" is.

This leads to a slightly off topic question. There's a local competition coming up and I thought it might be a good opportunity to get an outside opinion on my 11-11-11 before inflicting it on HBT members. So where is the best place to enter this? Old Ale or Specialty Beer. Or are you allowed to enter the same beer in both?

 

[MarsColonist]

There's a local competition coming up and I thought it might be a good opportunity to get an outside opinion on my 11-11-11 before inflicting it on HBT members. So where is the best place to enter this? Old Ale or Specialty Beer. Or are you allowed to enter the same beer in both?

Body should be like a Barleywine.... mine was @ 1.023, now at 1.015, not so much. I put mine in a comp back in April and while they didnt directly identify the Brett, it didnt do well versus what they were looking for in an Old Ale.

Id put it in 23 Specialty; also, you can enter in both categories.

 

[GuldTuborg]

For those also bottling, is it safe to assume there is little to no carbonation in the carboy before bottling? I can't imagine much carbonation would be left after 6+ months bulk aging, but I've never bottled anything this old before. Advice?

 

[smokinghole]

There will be some. Probably somewhere around .5 volumes, due to atmospheric pressure it will not lose all dissolved CO2.

You can add some fresh S04 if you'd like. I think I did, but don't remember. Also I bottled using DME but weighed it like was corn sugar. The brett will probably consume damn near all the DME. I poured one of these about two weeks ago and the carbonation was about right if you asked me. I targeted about 2 volumes and left wiggle room for it to go a little bit higher.

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

Do we have anyone to organize the swap for this yet? What should the trade deadline be so we can ensure we all have our trades for 11-11-11?

 

[KingBrianI]

Do we have anyone to organize the swap for this yet? What should the trade deadline be so we can ensure we all have our trades for 11-11-11?

I did it last year so if someone else would like to take the lead this year that would be great. If there are no takers though I can do it again.

 

[KingBrianI]

Since no one spoke up I'll take the lead on the swap. I've created a thread here to organize the swap. If you would like to participate, please go to that thread and voice your interest.

 

[KingBrianI]

If you brewed this and want to participate in the swap, get over to the following thread ASAP and sign up. Registration is closing this weekend.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f38/11-11-11-old-ale-swap-critique-thread-271674/