Brewing a 100% brett brux cherry stout on 26 March 2011

[Steve973]

Hi All,

I have never brewed a brett beer before, so I thought it was time to try it, since brett beers are some of my favorites. This coming Saturday, I thought I would brew a cherry stout and ferment it with brettanomyces bruxellensis. This is what it will look like:

7 lb pils
1.5 lb caramel 120L
1 lb rye malt
1 lb Carafa Special III
0.75 lb Chocolate Malt
0.5 lb Roasted Barley
0.25 lb Black Patent

1.0 oz Northern Brewer at 60m
0.5 oz Goldings at 30m
0.5 oz Goldings at 15m

1.0 lb lactose at 10m

1 starter of brett brux in primary

1 can of Oregon cherry puree in secondary

I haven't ever tried a brett stout before, so I am very excited about this recipe. Let me know what you think, and I'll post about how everything went sometime on Saturday evening.

 

[ryane]

I would back down on the roast just a bit 2.25# while a good portion in a normal beer, I think is a bit much with both the brett and cherry going on as well, simplify your recipe to really accentuate the brett and cherries

I would also nix the rye malt, for the same reason

 

[maskednegator]

Can brett eat lactose?

 

[dstar26t]

I hope you got that starter of brett going a few days ago.

 

[Calder]

Forget the lactose and replace with simple sugar, the Brett will not attenuate as well as you want.

Too much roast.

Add some acid malt. Brett NEEDS an acidic wort.

 

[ryane]

I agree about getting rid of the lactose, didnt see it at first in the recipe, I wouldnt add sugar to replace it though

I disagree about adding acid malt, its not really needed for a brett beer, especially if your adding cherries

 

[maskednegator]

Brett doesn't need acid. I've got a brett L IPA that's just great right now, and it was like 90% pils, 5% wheat, 5% aromatic.

 

[Steve973]

In a forum about brewing wild and experimental beer, I am surprised at some of the responses. I'm not really trying to brew anything true to any particular style. I wanted to take something similar to LMB Milk Stout, and ferment it totally with brett, and then finish it with cherries. I'm not looking for any particular amount of attenuation. I'm trying something that is fairly different, and seeing what happens. I did remove the Carafa and I replaced the rye with flaked wheat in order to let more brett character through. Other than that, I'm content to just see what happens. Brew day went really well and now I'm waiting for the fermentation to really kick in.

 

[smokinghole]

In a forum about brewing wild and experimental beer, I am surprised at some of the responses. I'm not really trying to brew anything true to any particular style. I wanted to take something similar to LMB Milk Stout, and ferment it totally with brett, and then finish it with cherries. I'm not looking for any particular amount of attenuation. I'm trying something that is fairly different, and seeing what happens. I did remove the Carafa and I replaced the rye with flaked wheat in order to let more brett character through. Other than that, I'm content to just see what happens. Brew day went really well and now I'm waiting for the fermentation to really kick in.

Dude you posted a recipe for critique on the internet. This internet place is full of armchair quarter backs and self-proclaimed experts. What do you expect?

I say experiment on! I'm actually planning a blended stout for my annual over the top beer that I do every year for christmas. I'm thinking 50% of it will be fermented with brett and some souring organisms and the other half will be normal. Then I will sulfite the sour batch and blend for bottling.

 

[Steve973]

Ah, I have absolutely nothing against the advice of anyone, and I appreciate the time everyone has taken to read this thread. It occurred to me that I didn't make my intentions clear when I originally posted, so I thought I would note my intentions with this one. This beer is an idea that I have been bouncing around in my head for quite a while now, so I thought I would put it into action.

 

[Calder]

Fast forward ....... I predict it will finish somewhere around 1.035 (55 to 60% attenuation).

Before you come back and ask why it finished so high, I thought I would tell you. Brett on it's own does not attenuate well, the lactose is completely unfermentable, and you have loads of speciality grains with more unfermentable sugars.

If that is what you are after, then great, but for me it would be way too sweet.

 

[jtakacs]

just picked up a barrel which i decided to toss a stout in... i'm going to ferment it straight with US-05 until its about 3/4 of the way through, toss in brett-c (not b, i want more fruit) and then chuck it in a wine barrel with lacto and see how it goes...

 

[maskednegator]

Fast forward ....... I predict it will finish somewhere around 1.035 (55 to 60% attenuation).

Before you come back and ask why it finished so high, I thought I would tell you. Brett on it's own does not attenuate well, the lactose is completely unfermentable, and you have loads of speciality grains with more unfermentable sugars.

If that is what you are after, then great, but for me it would be way too sweet.

What are you doing to get such low attenuation of your 100% brett batches?
I've only done a few batches, but I got the following results:
1. 1.065 to 1.008 (88% AA - mashed at 154, 4L starter brett L)
2. 1.060 to 1.020 (66% AA - mashed at 150, boiled first runnings down to less than a gallon, pitched 1 quart of the cake from batch 1)
3. 1.057 to 1.008 (mashed at 156, pitched onto cake from batch 2)

 

[B-Dub]

I used Oregon canned cherries a few years ago and believe fresh cherries to be a better choice. With Summer just around the corner and the cherry trees in full bloom, you might get some fresh fruit instead of Oregon brand.

Brew on,
BW

 

[Steve973]

Here's a little update... I wasn't seeing any/much activity after 2 days of sitting in the fermenter, but I had a blow off tube in the carboy, so I switched it to an airlock last night and gave the carboy a good shaking. This morning, it's going (albeit slowly). A friend of mine has a pretty clean slurry of a mixture of brett strains, so I'm going to see about pitching some of that along with what's already in there.

For those that have used fresh cherries before, how do you recommend to prepare them for adding to secondary, provided that we can obtain some that are ripe and flavorful? The other option is to get some good frozen cherries.

 

[jtakacs]

i have yet to add fruit to a beer, but my understanding is if they're fresh, you'll want to freeze them and defrost them to break down cell walls...

 

[Steve973]

Is it ok to just drop them in at that point? No mashing necessary?

Edit: Obviously, I mean physical mashing, not with enzymes.

 

[B-Dub]

Use whole cherries fresh. Just wash them and sort out the bad one and drop them in.

For Lambic it doesn't even look like they get washed or sorted! They just dump them in the bung hole and wait for the pink froth.

I have never waited for the cherry to breakdown all the way; just about 2 months. I understand you could ferment for a few months and rack off the first batch and drop a second right in on top. I have not tried that one yet. Maybe this year!!

http://www.cantillon.be/br/3_102
http://www.whitebeertravels.co.uk/cantillon.html

BW

 

[Steve973]

Does anyone have suggestions about when I can bottle this beer? I would like to avoid putting it into champagne bottles, if possible. When will I be past the danger of bottle grenades?

 

[smokinghole]

That would be gravity dependent. I would check the gravity when you think its done and be detailed about it. Then let it sit for at least two weeks and check it again I don't know how slow brett moves when its an all brett beer.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

Could be as much as around 8 weeks to complete fermentation. If you are adding cherries, I would say at least two more months for the cherries. If you are adding fruit you probably want to let it sit for a while to work through the fruit and age a bit.

 

[Steve973]

After three weeks, it is now down to 1.020 which isn't too bad at all. Next weekend we will probably transfer it to secondary and see if it will drop any further over the next month.