A leaf fell in while cooling!

[breez7]

Just brewed a double IPA this morning and while cooling a leaf floated in the garage and landed in my wort. It was prob. around 120*F. Hope this still turns out good! Gotta get the beer active quick!!!

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

What kind of tree?

 

[breez7]

Red Maple...might have to rename the beer if it turns out alright.

 

[Cape Brewing]

What kind of tree?

LOL!!!! that's gold

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Maple IPA it is. SN call their Tumbler an Autumn cause it's........brown.

 

[Pilgarlic]

Red Maple. Damn. It's an established scientific fact (I read a long article about it) that more than 94% of leaves falling from a red maple have been shadt upon or have been splashed upon by the schidt of a migratory songbird shidtting upon an adjacent leaf.

 

[breez7]

do you find yourself researching about bird shat alot??? wierd...

 

[smizak]

What kind of tree?

That's a quality post right there.

 

[Pilgarlic]

do you find yourself researching about bird shat alot??? wierd...

Don't you?!?

 

[pwndabear]

What kind of tree?

thumbed up.

 

[DrawTap88]

What kind of tree?

That's the funniest thing I've read all day! Thanks.

As for the leaf...RDWHAHB. The yeast will overpower any wild yeast or nasties that got into your wort from the leaf.

 

[Cape Brewing]

Here is my "official answer" which probably isn't worth the electricity used to make it glow...

One of the most common "bugs" in the air when it comes to beer making is brettanomycis. Brett is a common ingredient in "sour beers". Look around the forum and there are a TON of "is my beer infected" posts and a good chunk of time they are brett 'infections' (still shudder at that word and we were just commenting on this in another thread).

Whenever you have something... I dunno.. "natural"... whether it is a piece of fruit, or spice, herb... or leaf... that hasn't been properly santitized and it is introduced to a beer, there is a real risk of it becoming 'infected' (God I HATE that EFFIN word) with brett.

I don't think 120 degrees for a relatively short time would kill off brett on a leaf. That said, there's no gaurentee that brett was present and that it'll 'infect' (twitching) your beer. And other yeast will not "overpower" brett... Once the other yeast has crapped out eating all the sugar in can... brett will become active and eat whatever is left, dropping your FG down to the 1.000 neighborhood if conditions are right.

I say let 'er rip and ferment away. If you get a 'nasty' white film with big narly looking stringy bubbles in it towards the end of fermentation... you've been brettified. I actually really LIKE brett in an IPA. Victory makes a brett-IPA called Wild Devil that is tremendous.

I would just watch it and if you get no white filmy stuff... no brett and you got what you probably intended. If you get a white filmy stuff... DON'T THROW IT AWAY!!!! Let it go a few months and go from there. If unsure what to do with a brett... INOCULATED... beer... just do some quick reading on Brett and you'll be good as gold.

 

[DrawTap88]

Gotta bring Brett into the equation don't you.

Good advice from, Cape.

 

[Cape Brewing]

I know... on a roll with Brett today for some reason.

 

[breez7]

Now I'm almost hoping I got some brett in there haha sounds like it could taste good!

 

[Cape Brewing]

ehhh... be careful what you wish for. It's an "acquired taste". If brett or sour beers in general aren't something you are used to, it can go either way.

Put it this way, the most common way to describe the taste brett adds to a beer is "horse blanket".

Personally, I really like all sour beers... but... not everyone does.

 

[breez7]

I like sour beers a lot but I highly doubt I will have an issue with this beer, I pitched a pretty big starter so it should get rippin pretty quick and fight anything off. OG 1.080 so there will be plenty of alcohol.

 

[Cape Brewing]

Yeast won't "fight off" brett. Nor will a 1.080.

We did a Russian River Consecretion clone last year in a 59 gallon oak barrel that beer was well over 1.100 and that sucker had a nice white pellicle on it for over a year.

"regular yeast" will crap out once all of the easily fermentable sugars are eaten up. Also, once the alcohol gets a bit high, regular yeast craps out. Brett doesn't. It'll sit nice and patiently until the other yeasts are through and then it'll take over.

Like I was saying before, if the yeast you pitch brings your FG down to... say... 1.017... brett will be more than happy to take that down dramatically more if given time.

The size of your starter and OG don't mean anything... if brett is in there... it's in there and you're not getting it out unless you pastuerize the beer.

ALL OF THIS said... just cause a leaf fell in, that doesn't mean it HAD brett on it... I'm just saying that there is a decent chance and if you get a white nasty-lookin' film on it... that's more than likely a brett pellicle and it's not necessarily a bad thing... if you like sour beers.

 

[breez7]

Wow thanks for all the great info! sounds like 'brett' is a persistent little 'bug'ger. I'll letcha know what happens...time will tell.

 

[munche]

We did a Russian River Consecretion clone last year in a 59 gallon oak barrel that beer was well over 1.100 and that sucker had a nice white pellicle on it for over a year.

Can you give me more info on how you did this clone (via PM if we want to stop hijacking this thread...)? I love this beer, and i'd like to see what's involved in the big process of taking it on.


As for things falling into your beer...well, a moth fell into mine. I tried to fish it out then it sank. Then eventually came back up. This was during the boil. I'm sure the beer will be fine. :rockin:

 

[DrawTap88]

Can you give me more info on how you did this clone (via PM if we want to stop hijacking this thread...)? I love this beer, and i'd like to see what's involved in the big process of taking it on.

Well...a leaf fell in the barrel. Now we just need to know what kind of tree it fell off of. Kidding of course.

Okay. Enough hijacking of this thread for me.

 

[vandeg]

If a leaf falls in wort does it make a taste?

 

[Daybis]

I think if this were to have happened to me, I would have stopped the cooling process, and brought temps back up to 165. Then I would have cooled it off again. Would this cause any problems?

 

[DrawTap88]

I think if this were to have happened to me, I would have stopped the cooling process, and brought temps back up to 165. Then I would have cooled it off again. Would this cause any problems?

Might get a little more hop utlization, but otherwise not too much of anything else.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

If a leaf falls in wort does it make a taste?

Did anyone see it? Did it make a sound?

 

[jgln]

If a leaf falls in wort does it make a taste?

Only if someone tastes it.

 

[Cape Brewing]

Can you give me more info on how you did this clone (via PM if we want to stop hijacking this thread...)? I love this beer, and i'd like to see what's involved in the big process of taking it on.


As for things falling into your beer...well, a moth fell into mine. I tried to fish it out then it sank. Then eventually came back up. This was during the boil. I'm sure the beer will be fine. :rockin:

I have been asked a million times on HBT for the recipe and I won't give it out. I got the recipe by literally just emailing Vinnie at RR and he was nice enough to give it to me within 30 minutes of my asking. I feel really weird turning and giving it out to the world. I probably sound like a douchenozzle (wont be the first or last time) but if people want it, i would prefer they get it from Vinnie or someone else.

That said, there is a freakin 100+ page thread on it that'll give you a ton of info called "brewfest so big you can see it from space

 

[jgln]

I would leaf it alone, should be fine.

 

[Cape Brewing]

Having something unexpected like that during a brew session can be such a birch. Maple it'll be pine, maple it won't. Only time will tell.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Maybe next fall you can alder the recipe or just leaf it alone.