East Coast Yeast 03 Farmhouse Brett

[smokinghole]

Well I was fortunate enough to swing by Trenton Homebrew on my way home from a wedding. I picked up some of this strain and it's going into a rye saison that I brewed up today.

Anyone else have experience with this yeast?

 

[Oldsock]

I wanted to get it, but ended up with his Saison Brasserie plus Brett Blend #1 in my rye saison. Interested to hear how it turns out.

 

[smokinghole]

Well the starter went absolutely nuts last night. I don't even think I needed one even for 8/9 gal of 1.052 wort based on how dense his culture was.

 

[BootsyFlanootsy]

I've used it twice! It's great! Though I think, ( as with the best of Saison strains), it does take time for the flavors to develop. The last batch I made was mainly just pils, though a bit of wheat and a smidge of munich were also in the mix. I aged in for a total of about 2 months then gave it about a month and a half'ish on 2oz's of hungarian med toast oak cubes. I bottled it in 750ml and 350ml bottles and corked it. So far, they've been in the bottle for about a month. I cracked on open this past saturday and it was great. Big 3' white rocky head that went down about a 1/4 inch and more or less stayed there the whole time, and definite lacing. The smell is very interesting,.... there's a faint wiff of some sort of a fruity, almost coriander'ish character, ( i'm guessing this is the brett?), a faint whiff of funk, some definite oaky notes, and a nice yeasty aroma I'd expect from a good saison. The first pour was golden and sediment free. It was good but I think the oak needs a little time to settle down, tasted a bit more like a golden strong ale to me than a saison. However, what I noted was that on the second pour when the sediment got stirred up, thaaaaaaaaat's where the saison flavor was hiding out. So good. That sort of odd, punch of spicy sour grapefruit came shining through. The only thing I'd do different next time was not use the 6%AA Spalt hops I had for the bittering addition, something just wasn't right in regards to them, though I'd think they should be fine. Definitely going to stick to Saaz, Tettnang or EKG's from here on.

Can't wait to pick up some more of this stuff.

 

[BootsyFlanootsy]

ummmm, that was supposed to say 3" rocky head, not 3'!!!

 

[smokinghole]

I used Styrian Goldings and Strisslespalt hops in this brew. Everything smelled great going in and the fermentation smells fantastic. It went pretty fast to high krausen and then dropped back down by morning. There's an airlock on the fermentor now with some decent activity still. I think the highest the temp got was 75ish but possibly up to 80 during high krausen. I didn't get a temp reading at the highest activity because I was sleeping. The water bath temp was 73.5 when I checked Tuesday morning.

I mashed this at 147 for a while but then did a dextrinization step at 158. That should give the brett something to work slowly on for a few weeks till I'm happy with the gravity. I will also be bottling in lots of corked bottles but also in ceramic topped brown grolsch bottles.

 

[smokinghole]

Just stole a large pipette sample of the saison. It has a spicy banana scent and smells a lot of yeast. The taste is on the dry spicy dry side thanks to the rye malt. It very much reminds me of a fresh witbier at this point. It should finish out and condition quite nice. There is also a slight juicy fruit type flavor which is quite enjoyable. I can't wait to get this in bottles.

 

[WolvinMaine]

I bottled up a beer made with this strain a few weeks ago. It was in primary for about 1 month, before I bottled it. Went from 1.064 to 1.005 in under 2 weeks. The brett was pretty mellow at first, the the longer it sits in the bottles, the more it comes out. I got plenty of the tropical fruit going on, but there is definitely some funk creeping out in the back. I am very curious to see how this ages. I gave some yeast too some other guys in my club, so I am eager to hear what they have to say. I am thinking of using the heat of July/august to my advantage, and making another saison, perhaps a dark one, for the holidays.

 

[smokinghole]

Well it's been a month and a half since brewday and my rye saison is down to 1.004. I may bottle within a week. The brett may keep going a bit further but I am bottling in heavy bottles so I'm not too terribly concerned if a get a little extra fermentation from the brett which I will figure for. I will bottle for 2.5 volumes with sugar expecting at least 1 volume from continued fermentation. This method has been working for me very well.

Next up the exact same hops and base recipe with the rye swapped out for some spelt.

 

[jtakacs]

rye saison... mmmm... love this board. what temp did you mash in at? i'm assuming pretty low.

 

[smokinghole]

147 for the conversion but then I bumped it to 158 via a pseudo decoction (just pulled wort to boil and add back) to dextrinize as described in Farmhouse Ales. It was my first time doing mash like that and I think I like the technique. I did not do a mash out step and just left the wort to denature in the kettle. The initial fermentation seemed to have stopped close to 1.010 and slowly came down to my 1.004.

 

[jtakacs]

cool - thanks... was hoping to brew on tuesday and was thinking black saison...

 

[smokinghole]

This beer is bottled. I checked gravity two weeks ago at 1.003 and again yesterday at 1.003. I will repost when I actually taste the finished carbonated beer. It went from 1.052 to 1.003 for 94.2% attenuation.

 

[brewtoomuch]

Well it's been a month and a half since brewday and my rye saison is down to 1.004. I may bottle within a week. The brett may keep going a bit further but I am bottling in heavy bottles so I'm not too terribly concerned if a get a little extra fermentation from the brett which I will figure for. I will bottle for 2.5 volumes with sugar expecting at least 1 volume from continued fermentation. This method has been working for me very well.

Next up the exact same hops and base recipe with the rye swapped out for some spelt.

I just got done a round of saison with rye, spelt and buckwheat. The spelt was really nice after a little aging. I think the rye was my favorite though.

 

[smokinghole]

I can see that I already like this recipe with the rye a whole lot. I am eager to use the spelt, and I doubt I'll go the buckwheat route very soon. I have a bunch of recipes to brew up in the coming weeks once my patio is finished. Damn rain and all put my construction project on hold. Should be able to finish this weekend and get back to brewing!

 

[dstar26t]

What % Rye did you use and would you change that amount if you brewed it again? I have a Saison coming up that I wanted to use Spelt and Rye in. Was planning on 5% Spelt and another 5% Rye...maybe more Rye?

 

[smokinghole]

I used 27% rye. When I brew it again I will up the rye a little bit or drop the rye down a little bit. As it stands I think it's about right however I do not have anything to judge against. I used the McKenzie's Saison recipe listed in the BYO article as a guide for my recipe.

 

[smokinghole]

Okay here we are in November. The bottles have all slightly built up more carbonation due to the brett. However the brett is VERY subdued. I hope the beer develops a little more brett character through the winter/spring.

Today I finally got around to brewing the same base recipe with spelt grains. Everything is sitting with a protein rest right now as we speak. I debated doing a cereal mash which in retrospect I maybe should have. I got caught up in the moment this morning and dumped the finely ground whole spelt in my grain bucket. I had half whole spelt and half flaked (wanted all flaked but the store only had 2lbs worth).

 

[smokinghole]

Well between the protein rest, 148F mash temp, and the 158 dextrinization step I got full conversion. No need for a cereal mash I guess with spelt.

 

[WolvinMaine]

My saison with this yeast strain has a very strong funky nose, and the washings I gave to other guys to try all had a pronounced brett aroma. I am surprised you did not get much brett.

 

[smokinghole]

I don't know. Maybe I just can't smell/detect it. I sent one off to KingBrianI from this board. I think he's drinking it today maybe he'll detect something. Don't get me wrong it has brett character but it's just very hidden. It's not like drinking a 1yr old bottle of Orval if you know what I mean. Hell it's not even half the flavor of what orval is in terms of brett.

 

[SnakeAnthony6375]

Any updates on this beer? I have some ECY Farmhouse Brett. Brewing in a couple weeks. Any more Brett character come through with time? I know Brett can take a while to develop...

 

[Coff]

Id be interested as well, Ive been sitting on a vial of ECY03 for about month. Im thinking of brewing with it as soon as I feel like I can keep temps a bit higher, my basement brew area is a constant 62 atm.

Would making a starter effect the culture at all, or is that only the case with some of the other mixed strains from ECY?

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

Well between the protein rest, 148F mash temp, and the 158 dextrinization step I got full conversion. No need for a cereal mash I guess with spelt.

Spelt is a form of wheat and wheat gelantinizes at 125-147F so you hit it with either the protein rest of beta rest. No need for the cereal mash.

 

[smokinghole]

Well the ECY03 with the rye is starting to show a bit of brett. It doesn't have the in your face horsey character like Orval because well it's not the same brett. However the bottles have dried out nicely and it is quite nice. I have a full case of grolsch bottles I'm sitting on until spring/summer. I opened a 750ml at saturday's club meeting and it was gone in NO time. The beer is nice and dry with a touch of acidity that seems to be increasing slightly over time. At this point I think it's been in the bottle since August.

I'm bottling the spelt version of it soon and will track how that one develops compared the the rye.

 

[smokinghole]

Id be interested as well, Ive been sitting on a vial of ECY03 for about month. Im thinking of brewing with it as soon as I feel like I can keep temps a bit higher, my basement brew area is a constant 62 atm.

Would making a starter effect the culture at all, or is that only the case with some of the other mixed strains from ECY?

If you're not opposed you can always use a party tub and drop the fermentor in there with an aquarium heater. That's how I do my saisons in the fall/winter/spring.

I don't think a starter will have any negative effect on the blend since brett grows so slow. You'll just end up with a very increased cell count of sacch and a ever so slightly increased cell count of brett. I did a starter and it was fine. I'm about to brew a third "generation" off my spelt batch.

 

[SnakeAnthony6375]

Good to hear it's coming along well. I'm going to take a stab at this soon. No rye, though. Does anyone know what strains of Brett are in this?

 

[WolvinMaine]

I think it is a strain he isolated from Fantome.

 

[smokinghole]

So the third pitch of ECY03 is basically finished fermenting after 2.5 weeks. The first pitch I was looking at 3-4 months. The second was done in about two, this one is done in around 3 weeks it seems. Also the banana heavy flavors it tends to throw out in the beginning disappear much faster now also.

 

[smokinghole]

As I sit here drinking a beer from my first pitch back which I bottled back in August I can't help but think the culture is fermenting faster because of it being a blend. I think one of the yeasts in the blend is supposed to be a French sourced strain. My guess is my culture is driving from the original blend ratio, but I will let it roll as it's still making delicious beer.