First all Brett - WLP645

I'm working on a recipe for a vial of WLP645 that I have. Tips/advice welcome

I'm looking at using rhubarb and fresh ginger in this beer. Ginger at the end of boil and not sure when I will add the rhubarb yet.

base grain either Belgian pale or pilsner malt. I'm leaning toward pils.
some munich
possibly a little biscuit and oats
mild hop schedule

A slight tartness would be welcome. I may achieve that just because of the rhubarb and ginger.

Starter advice for brett. I figured on stepping it up over at least a week. I do not have a stir plate, just agitate every time I walk thru the kitchen.

Never used this strain for primary,but hate to see an unanswered post.
I would go pils/Munich and oats,but no biscuit.
Noble hops 60 and 20 for about 26-28IBUs?

Thanks.
I've got the brett started. I'll step it up in a few days, then again next week. Looking at brewing in a 1-1/2 weeks. Primary for a few weeks then hit the secondary until the gravity gets real low.
I'm going to use fresh grated ginger in the boil and I diced up 2# of rhubarb. Thats in the deep freeze now and will go into the secondary.

If you add the fruit to secondary straight from the freezer,you will not need to boil it. Just chuck it in there.

Put my recipe together and picked up the ingredients today.

10# Domestic Pilsner malt
2# Domestic wheat
1/2# Domestic Munich 20L
1/2# German Malanoidin (for color, flavor)
1/4# 120L Crystal (for color)
1/4# Oats
1oz Palisade bitter
1oz Sterling flavor
1oz French Strisselspalt aroma
1oz fresh sliced ginger with flavor hops
2# fresh rhubarb in secondary

I have the WLP645 started and I grabbed a vial of WLP644 to pitch also.

Sweet. Happy brewing

badlee said:

Sweet. Happy brewing

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Thanks! Thanks for being interested.

I'm planning a Belgian Tripel with the exact same yeast. Be brewing in a couple of days time. No starter for me, just 2 vials of the yeast....

NZLunchie said:

I'm planning a Belgian Tripel with the exact same yeast. Be brewing in a couple of days time. No starter for me, just 2 vials of the yeast....

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Sweet!
I'll be brewing this saturday.

NZLunchie said:

I'm planning a Belgian Tripel with the exact same yeast. Be brewing in a couple of days time. No starter for me, just 2 vials of the yeast....

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For an all-brett fermentation you may want to consider a slightly higher pitching rate (closer to a lager pitch than ale).

White Labs recommends ~5 vials for a 5 gallon batch. Some good info from them on Brett pitch rates/starters in this post: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/100-brett-ipa-fg-still-high-477128/#post6184768

dcHokie said:

For an all-brett fermentation you may want to consider a slightly higher pitching rate (closer to a lager pitch than ale).

White Labs recommends ~5 vials for a 5 gallon batch. Some good info from them on Brett pitch rates/starters in this post: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/100-brett-ipa-fg-still-high-477128/#post6184768

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Yeah I've read that and read the flavors I'm wanting to get are from the yeast being strained. I'm not to worried. Either way it'll be beer 😎

Brewing in the morning. I'll be pitching the starter of WLP645 (one week, single step) and a vial of WLP644. I'll post up my mash temps and OG tomorrow.

Hope the brew goes to plan

mashed at 158 for 75min.

1.066 OG.

Just finished as well, 1.082 OG. Fermenting at 26 degrees C.
Lets see that this yeast can do

NZLunchie said:

Yeah I've read that and read the flavors I'm wanting to get are from the yeast being strained. I'm not to worried. Either way it'll be beer 😎

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Stressing the yeast relates to using it in secondary. You're using it here as the primary yeast so completely different kettle of fish. You want to pitch sufficient amount of Brett to get the job done before other bugs move in.

sweetcell said:

Stressing the yeast relates to using it in secondary. You're using it here as the primary yeast so completely different kettle of fish. You want to pitch sufficient amount of Brett to get the job done before other bugs move in.

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Too late now, it's pitched....

WLP645 Brett C is a lovely yeast for 100% in primary. It actually gets some nice Brett notes. I left a beer in primary on that for six months and it picked up more Brett notes than WLP650 Brett B has for me in primary when using ONLY that strain of Brett. Dunno how I would describe it exactly, but it is very Bretty but sort of soft and elegant. Love it.

Good luck with yours. Sure it will turn out great. For the record, I made a starter in 3 steps over about 10 days, 400 ml, then added 600 ml more then 1000 ml, chilled, decanted, pitched. Worked great.

Sweet! Thanks for the info. I pitched a 645 starter and a 644 vial at the same time. It's bubbling away nicely now.
I was thinking of doing a one week primary and then secondary onto the rhubarb for some odd months.
Any thoughts on that?


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I've used 644, Brett Trois, maybe 6 times or something.

A one week primary is quite short. In fact, I would skip a two stage entirely.

I've made a number of IPAs with Trois, all with a 7 week primary, then straight into the keg or bottle. And I have left other Brett, like Brett C, alone in primary for 5-6 months with no problems. Also that American Farmhouse blend from White Labs. What, WLP670? Left that alone, in primary, for 6 months.

If I were you, I would just drop the fruit into primary, but I have not used fruit with Brett. I just don't see the reason for racking unless you need an open mouth or different fermenter than you pitched into. If so, I would remove the plug thingy on the end of the siphon and pick up some yeast when racking. And even then, I would leave it alone for at least 3 weeks before racking.

But them's just my two cents.

Good info! Thanks for that. I used a bucket for the primary, so the rhubarb could get dumped straight in.


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Are you going to give us some visuals?

When I open the bucket, I'll get a pic. Nothing to see until then.


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Not trying to hijack your thread, I have a pic of it bubbling out the airlock, but nothing inside the fermenter just yet.

Recently posted to the pellicle picture thread. This is Brett C from White Labs after about 6 months in primary. It makes a monster of a pellicle.

Wow! That's awesome!
That's part of the reason I want to get mine into a secondary, so I can watch it and get cool pics.
Next time, maybe I go straight to a carboy.


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Fruit in a carboy seems a bit rough to deal with just to get some visuals. Just ferment another one with no fruit and stick it in a carboy. With a bucket, I think you can better pics once you DO open it because you can lift the lid off and get the camera in there. But I don't know if I would leave it in a bucket for an extended period after all because of air intake through the plastic. How long you gonna leave it on the fruit?

I figured I would leave it on the rhubarb until it's finished. Right now, the rhubarb is chopped up and in the deep freezer. The pieces are small enough to drop into the carboy a couple at a time. Probably take 2 minutes to get them all in there and then rack on top of them. I'll be sure to rack over lots of the brett from the bottom.



Is pellicle something you want to skim off before racking or avoid sucking up when racking? Or does it not matter?

MaddBaggins said:

Is pellicle something you want to skim off before racking or avoid sucking up when racking? Or does it not matter?

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doesn't matter, but i'm of the opinion that a pellicle is indicative of something going on under there so it's not time to rack yet. bugs at work - do no disturb.

sweetcell said:

doesn't matter, but i'm of the opinion that a pellicle is indicative of something going on under there so it's not time to rack yet. bugs at work - do no disturb.

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A pellicle is formed from the bugs, in this case Brett, forming a protective layer to keep out air. In my experience, it does not go away, but longest I have let Brett sit is maybe 7 months or something.

You don't need to worry about racking it over. I have drunk samples with bits of pellicle in them. Nothing to worry about.

If I were to rack this beer, I would remove the plug on the end of the racking cane and take the trub over along with everything else. The Brett will be happy having all of that tasty stuff to consume later on.

MattHollingsworth said:

A pellicle is formed from the bugs, in this case Brett, forming a protective layer to keep out air. In my experience, it does not go away, but longest I have let Brett sit is maybe 7 months or something.

You don't need to worry about racking it over. I have drunk samples with bits of pellicle in them. Nothing to worry about.

If I were to rack this beer, I would remove the plug on the end of the racking cane and take the trub over along with everything else. The Brett will be happy having all of that tasty stuff to consume later on.

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Thanks Matt. Thats the plan. I may peek inside the lid tonight and get a pic.

7 days in. Still bubbling well, not much on top.





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Beaut

Just racked into a carboy on top of the rhubarb. 1.02 after a week.
The only glass carboy I had available was a 5g. It pretty full. I put a blow off tube on it instead of an airlock.
Just in case
Racked over about 80% of the trub.


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MaddBaggins said:

Just racked into a carboy on top of the rhubarb. 1.02 after a week.
The only glass carboy I had available was a 5g. It pretty full. I put a blow off tube on it instead of an airlock.
Just in case
Racked over about 80% of the trub.


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Rhubarb is swelling up some. It's really full now. I hope I don't have to rack it out. I guess I could use my thief to pull a couple quarts out. Shame to waste it though.

Waste it?
Drink it or just keep it in a gallon dj snd add back on bottle day

badlee said:

Waste it?
Drink it or just keep it in a gallon dj snd add back on bottle day

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Didn't waste it.

I pulled about 1-1/2 quarts out last night and added that to a gallon and 1/2 of hefeweizen I have in a keg.

Like it

Here's a pic of the stuff I blended. 1-1/2 gallon of Hefe with 1-1/2 qt of ginger rhubarb Brett. It's tasty. It has some bourbon like qualities.








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Nice.