100% Brett Cider

[levifunk]

Awesome experiment man, can't wait to hear more of the results. I'm doing a few 100% Brett pear ciders in a week or two, followed by a Brett "Cyser" on those yeast cakes.

Did you isolate the Brett Fantome yourself? I'd love to know more about whatever is in Fantome, have you had any previous experience brewing with it? Also, what is Saccharomyces paradoxus?

Regarding Paradoxus:

S. paradoxus has the ability to partially breakdown malic acid (some strains up to 38%) as well as pectinolytic activity, two traits not normally found in S. cerevisiae yeasts.

S. paradoxus strains have also been reported to have pleasant aromatic profiles in wines when inoculated on their own in musts.​

The partial malolactic fermentation is of particular interest for this cider application.

 

[levifunk]

Brett Drie and Brux are the same strain I believe.
Also did you isolate these cultures yourself or grabbing them from a respectible source?
Would love to know where you got the oenococcus, paradoxus and is the fantome you got ECY03?

Awesome experiment, subd to see the write up on this!
Cheers!

All of the strains, except brux and the oenococcus, are coming from ECY.

You can get Oenococcus (labelled as malolactic culture) from Wyeast on Midwest Supplies: Wyeast 4007 Malo-Lactic Cultures

 

[liquiditynerd]

Still following! I decided to top off The one gallon cider I had with a mix of Brett. Undeniably a fuller bouquet and mouthfeel. Keep your camera close, I can't wait to see what crops up from all these strains.

 

[levifunk]

Some more info/pics:
http://funkfactorybrewing.blogspot.com/2013/04/cider-fermentation-panel-yeast-pitched.html

 

[Hoplander]

looking good! Can't wait to hear how they all turn out!

 

[fc36]

Subbed...Just plated some Brett strains from Rayon Vert, Sofie and Cantillon so this may be one way to utilize them.

 

[levifunk]

Here is an update:
http://www.funkfactorygeuzeria.com/2013/06/cider-fermentation-panel-bottling.html

Brux and Fantome have been the crowd favorites, with Custer close behind.

 

[ahpsp]

Any further updates?

 

[levifunk]

Not a whole lot more I can say really. WY Brux and Fantome have been the crowd favorites. Custer is very good, but seems to be somewhat polarizing. Still working with the orchard and trying to get ready to do a couple larger commercial batches this fall.

I'm really hopeful for the results. It will be nice to have a high quality apple cider to ferment instead of the generic stuff we used for this experiment.

 

[levifunk]

Not a whole lot more I can say really. WY Brux and Fantome have been the crowd favorites. Custer is very good, but seems to be somewhat polarizing. Still working with the orchard and trying to get ready to do a couple larger commercial batches this fall.

I'm really hopeful for the results. It will be nice to have a high quality apple cider to ferment instead of the generic stuff we used for this experiment.

 

[BostonianBrewer]

How did these turn out !?!?

 

[levifunk]

We've got a couple commercial size batches going right now using the lessons learned in this experiment. They will be sold early 2014 in the Minneapolis area.

In general it seems to be very hit or miss with brett in cider. I can see how people have attempted this is the past and concluded that brett ciders just don't work, however there ARE strains of brett where it really does work!

As I said before, the Brux and the Fantome seems to be crowd favorites. Custer is polarizing, but is quite good. Claussenii is also very good.

Wyeast Lambicus was just not good in cider. In beer, Lambicus is a great strain, but it just doesn't work in cider. You can see where there is a learning curve. What you think you know about the strains just don't apply to ciders.

As I said in the blog post, we only bottled the Drie, Custer, Nanus, Brux, Claussenii, and Fantome batches. Lambicus wasn't good. S. Paradoxus wasn't that good in cider (though I've had some wonderful beers made with it, and go check out what Brandon Jones is doing with it at Yazoo!). The blend of brett also wasn't very good. In fact, even post fermentation and blending 2 good strains during bottling resulted in an inferior product that the strains individually.

Of the batches we bottled, looking back, I'd say Drie and Nanus weren't worth bottling. They are too watery and are unanimously the least liked.

That being said, this is 1 reference point.

 

[liquiditynerd]

This has been very helpful. Thanks alot! So for our harvest we have seperated some of the cider apples and pears from the bulk. The bulk bin ended up with alot of grannys so the malic is high.

Three 5s went on different fruit musts. Blackberry, Beach Plum.

Two 5s are going straight up.

Two are going Brux.

Thanks again for the wonderful write up !!!

 

[OleBrewing]

This is interesting. I believe all cider should be made this way. I don't like the store cider (as add sulfate, add sugar for the masses and have an alcoholic carbed apple pop).

Last fall my friend and I did an experiment with natural fermentation with cider. Many varieties of apples and crab apples for sour and dryness. Pressed with homemade 20 ton wooden press, we go 180 gallons for the winter fermentation. There were more bugs than just wild yeasts and fermented out dry, tastes great. My knowledge on the different bacterias and wild fermentation are limited and am slowly gaining knowledge.

Keep update how it all turns out.

 

[OleBrewing]

This has been very helpful. Thanks alot! So for our harvest we have seperated some of the cider apples and pears from the bulk. The bulk bin ended up with alot of grannys so the malic is high.

Three 5s went on different fruit musts. Blackberry, Beach Plum.

Two 5s are going straight up.

Two are going Brux.

Thanks again for the wonderful write up !!!

View attachment 168824

Those look like pickle barrels that I see at the local Macs Hardware

 

[liquiditynerd]

Those look like pickle barrels that I see at the local Macs Hardware

Hmmm. They have Greek writing on them with pictures of grapes, wine glasses and olive branches. It was sold as a rain barrel but I couldnt resist.

 

[kesslerr1]

So whatever happen with this? Did you let any of these age and see how they turned out down the road? I think this was a very cool experiment thanks for posting.

:beard:

 

[bellabrew]

Thanks a lot for sharing your valuable experience! Got me inspired I'm currently fermenting a batch of cider on 100% Brett b. How long time should I give it before kegging/bottling?