Brett Braggot

[KyleWolf]

Hey everyone,

Been a while since I posted here, but I have trying something new and wanted to get the opinion of all you fine brewers.

I think I am going to attempt a "fairly low gravity" Braggot. But I want something a little extra, so I was thinking of throwing in some Brett. I have never used brett, and I know there are a handfull of different styles of brett out there, so I just wanted to see what everyone thought.

5 lbs 0 oz -Orange Blossom Honey (Or blueberry honey if I can find it)
5 lbs 0 oz -Pale Malt (2 row)
0 lbs 4 oz -Crystal 60
0 lbs 4 oz -Melanoiden Malt

0.2 oz Columbus 60min.

Honey goes straight into Primary or during wort cooling.

My primary yeast would be either a cream ale or a clean ale yeast. and then secondary with...

WLP645 Brettanomyces Claussenii

I wanted a crisp but not over powering brett flavor, and I read this is the more "mild" of the brett strains and gave a good sour similar to lambicus.

Or do you think that with the more mild WLP645, I should hike my britches and go 100% brett?

So far the specs on the recipe are

Est. OG- 1.066
Est. FG- 0.998
IBU-13.4
SRM- 6.7
ABV- 9%

Can't wait to hear your thoughts.

Thanks
Kyle

 

[ghpeel]

I've wondered about a Brett/Braggot mix myself. I'm not sure what the Brett would do to the wonderful honey aroma though. Good luck with it.

 

[Ramitt]

Interesting, I too would be afraid of losing the varietal honeys essence.

 

[jonmohno]

Just sharing my experinece, i made a honey ale. over 30% honey about 1 # and 2#ish base malt for a 1.6 gallon batch. I just bottled today,my mash was low 150's(not shure exactly) but my hydro was 1.001-2 my lowest. I used S04 yeast also.Never have had this low,but the sample tasted nice with honey and floral hops. I did a last 15 min with the honey in the boil.All is looking good so far.
I think belgian yeast can overpower other subtle things like honey or even hops sometimes.But could add a nice complexity if thats what your going for.

 

[KyleWolf]

That is a worry of mine as well. that is why I was considering adding it to secondary only. At the same time, if I did orange blossom, that is a fairly potent honey.

I also chose Brett C because it is much more mild than the other stains (according to the description anyways).

But I am also culturing the Brett from green flashes rayon vert. It seems to be a reasonably mild Brett strain. The only problem is I don't know what strain it really is. Though I guess after enough generations, I'll have my own Brett strain lol.

So what so you guys think? Only secondary in Brett? Use a mild strain? And watch awesome occur?

Thanks for the thoughts.

 

[KyleWolf]

It's up and going and it smells awesome! I am adding 1lb of honey every 3 days in primary. I ended up using dregs from Green Flashes Rayon Vert, so this is probably a mixture of brett and belgian yeast. How long do you all think it should sit around in primary or secondary for? I know some people let the brett sit around for months to even a year, just wanted some other people's opinion since sours are not necessarily my forte