100% brett lambicus ?

[Bensiff]

I'm running an experiment with brett. Multiple one gallon batches of 100% brett to see what the different commercial strains taste like. I got two Wyeast and four (well three considering brett trois is now known to be a sacc) White Labs strains. I did starters on the WL due to their cell count. The Wyeast I pitched straight from the package. The Wyeast took longer to start than the WL, likely due to not making a starter. Anyway, the Wyeast Brett brux has finally kicked off looking like a normal sacc fermentation as has all the other brett strains. However the Wyeast lambicus has not, it has developed a pellicle. Is this normal for 100% Wyeast lambicus ferments?

 

[MileHighBrewer]

Iirc, my wyeast lambicus behaved the same. Grew a layer very quick with out a sacch type fermentation.

 

[Bensiff]

It's finally showing fermentation activity. However, unlike all the other 100% brett beers that appeared just like a sacc ferment you can see from the picture that the Wyeast brett lambicus appears like a sacc/brett ferment. That is Wyeast brett brux on the left and the lambicus on the right.

I'm wondering if the culture was contaminated with some sacc.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1424463463.183932.jpg

 

[Bensiff]

And now it has taken off and the pellicle is gone.

 

[finsfan]

What type of fermentors or containers are those? Awesome experiment!

I have also seen the same type of fermentation that starts with a pellicle but it wasnt with Brett Lambicus, it was a mixed culture.

 

[hirschb]

I did a similar experiment last year (with both beer wort and cider). We recently tasted them at beer club, and the general consensus was that all of them sucked. If I were to do this again, I'd do a mixed fermentation with brett and a super-estery belgian yeast. All the great things I love about brett just don't shine through in single-strain experiments.

 

[TastyAdventure]

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[Bensiff]

What type of fermentors or containers are those? Awesome experiment!

I have also seen the same type of fermentation that starts with a pellicle but it wasnt with Brett Lambicus, it was a mixed culture.

They are one gallon PET plastic with an airtight lid I had to modify for the stopper.

Is that a mixed brett culture or are you talking about sacc, pedio, lacto and such?

 

[Bensiff]

I did a similar experiment last year (with both beer wort and cider). We recently tasted them at beer club, and the general consensus was that all of them sucked. If I were to do this again, I'd do a mixed fermentation with brett and a super-estery belgian yeast. All the great things I love about brett just don't shine through in single-strain experiments.

I was originally going to go with a pale ale as the base. However when I started doing starters the pure strains smelled very Belgiany (that's my new word for today) so I instead went with a triple karmeliet clone based wort, a little lighter on the gravity though.

Phase two of this experiment, time permitting, will be to make the same base and do a mix with a neutral sacc strain to see what their "brett character" is without interference from a mixed brett culture. From there I hope to get an idea of how to inoculate my barrels. Of course, the sacc/brett portion will take a good while longer. Maybe in a couple years I'll be pulling my first barrel where I hand selected the brett strains instead of tossing in a bunch of dregs and crossing my fingers.

 

[TastyAdventure]

This is a great thing you have going. I currently have a starter of 5526 going.