ECY34 "Dirty Dozen"--now what?

[secondbase]

About to start a 100% dirty dozen pale ale and I'm still wondering about fermentation timeline for this blend. Am I looking at a month or six months? What is everyone's experience using in primary?

 

[sweetcell]

About to start a 100% dirty dozen pale ale and I'm still wondering about fermentation timeline for this blend. Am I looking at a month or six months? What is everyone's experience using in primary?

http://www.eastcoastyeast.com/wild-stuff.html desribes ECY034 as:

ECY34 Dirty Dozen Brett Blend : Twelve (12) different isolates of Brettanomyces exhibiting high production of barnyard "funk" and esters. Dryness, ripe fruit, and acidity will be encountered over a period of months and over time (>1 yr), may display gueuze-like qualities in complexity. Contains various isolates from lambic-producers, B. bruxellensis, B. anomala, B. lambicus, and B. naardenensis. For those who want the most from Brett yeast, whether a 100% Brett fermentation is desired or adding to secondary aging projects. Suggested fermentation temperature: 60-74 F. Attenuation high.

i'm 4 months into my DD primary beer and will be letting it ride for at least another 8 months. a sample taken at 1.5 months when i racked it to secondary was amazing, but i'm going to sit on my hands for now.

 

[Jumpman]

i brewed my dirty dozen back in october and i just kegged mine last week. ibrewed my farmhouse saison recipe. i did 4 gallons of that fermented it for a month then racked it onto a gallon of spiced apple cider. let it sit for 2.5 months then added 4 pounds of fresh peaces to it. it sat for 5.5 months and it taste beautiful. its fruity still hoppy and got a pleasent funk smell. i will be brewing again with this yeast soon.

 

[masonsjax]

I tasted my 2 month old batch when I racked it to a keg and although it tasted pretty great, I decided to let it sit in the keg for a while. I have a few other kegs on deck so waiting is no problem. Something tells me this will only get better with time.

 

[allouez86]

Just sampled the beer that I have going with the Dirty Dozen as the sole strain. Brewed back in September and it's tasting fantastic. Simple saison recipe. Real nice tropical fruit notes with a little hint of acidity and a hint of tartness, but not much. Going to let it go a while longer yet.

 

[bovineblitz]

I did a couple berliners with 100% ECY34, they came out really clean and highlight the hell out of the fruit I added (gooseberry/redcurrant and key lime/ancho). In a 8.5% 'farmhouse belgian strong' with Schelde as the main yeast, I get an almost pineapple juice-like flavor at it finished around 1.010. Tastes sweeter than the gravity would tell you, it's definitely interesting.

I pulled it off the tap and am letting it age a bit more to see what happens.

 

[inflictor-of-grimness]

So I have a container of this brett blend in my fridge, not sure what to do with it just yet. I also have a dark sour that seems to have kind of stalled out (sitting at 1.011 from 1.047 OG after a year) and was thinking about just tossing in a small amount (maybe a quarter of the container) of this blend to help funk it up and dry it out. After all, there are about 350 billion cells according to east coast yeast.

Any thoughts?

 

[sweetcell]

i'm also about to add some DD to a saison at bottling. no idea what that will yield. can't wait to find out.

i had a bottle of my ECY34-at-bottling saison this weekend, and it was fantastic. most prominent flavor that i got was lemon.

i wasn't paying a ton of attention to the beer, i poured the glass then got busy with other things. i'll be having some more tonight. looking forward to it. will try to pay more attention

 

[Dirty25]

I pitched a vial in a turbid mashed lambic wort back in sep/October I tried it the outer day and it's pretty good. I'll probably blend it in with some of the other lambics that lack brett funk.

 

[Matteo57]

Anyone have any oak cubes/chips that were used in a dirty dozen batch or anyone willing to inoculate some wood and send it over to me since I doubt I will be able to get anymore of this strain for awhile?
If so, please PM me. Thanks!!

 

[Gus_13]

Well I found a vial of this from last year in my fridge. Wonder if it's still any good? I don't know how I over looked this. I never developed a recipe is probably what happened.

 

[sweetcell]

Well I found a vial of this from last year in my fridge. Wonder if it's still any good? I don't know how I over looked this. I never developed a recipe is probably what happened.

if you believe chad yacobson from the crooked stave, brett's viability is lower at fridge temp then it is at ambient... so i would expect low viability but not zero. making a starter and giving it a week is probably the best way to gauge that. alternately use it as a secondary yeast along with some sacch.

 

[Gus_13]

if you believe chad yacobson from the crooked stave, brett's viability is lower at fridge temp then it is at ambient... so i would expect low viability but not zero. making a starter and giving it a week is probably the best way to gauge that. alternately use it as a secondary yeast along with some sacch.

I've wondered, ever since I heard him say that, about leaving my bretts out of the fridge. I wonder if that would work.

This may be a good candidate for a 1 gallon batch then use the dregs for something. The blend will be off kilter but I'm sure it will still brew something nice after the one gallon!

 

[secondbase]

Three months into my Dirty Dozen pale ale and it has formed a nice pellicle. Gravity is down to .0999. The complexity in flavor is really starting to come through now. I'm getting lots of fruit, mainly strawberry and melon with hints of vanilla and pear. How's everyone else's coming along?

 

[masonsjax]

I've made a few beers on this blend. Not a pellicle to be seen anywhere, but yeah, a lot of fruity aromas with full attenuation over time as expected.

 

[sweetcell]

How's everyone else's coming along?

my DD-as-primary batch is in secondary. i doubt that i'll touch it before it's a year old in November.

i also used DD as a bottling yeast for a saison that i bottled 7 months ago. i was expecting the bretts to chew off a few more points than they did, so the beer is a tad under-carbonated. such are the risks of adding brett at bottling. initially it was a lemon bomb, but the citrus is slowly giving way to some funk. a lot of development has happened since i lasted tasted this one about 2 months ago.

 

[inflictor-of-grimness]

I have some Dirty Dozen that I ordered back in February. At this point I think there's certainly not enough viability for a 100% fermentation, so I think I'm going to do a saison using some of the Saison Brasserie Blend that I saved from a previous batch and then do Dirty Dozen in secondary for a few months before bottling.

 

[ShemRahBoo]

I quick soured a 1.042 wort 60/40 pale and wheat with lacto brevis and after three days pitched the dirty dozen blend. This kicked up in under 12 hours and fermentation appears done in just 3-4 days. 2 weeks after pitching the dirty dozen brett I plan on adding a tart montmorency concentrate from kingorchards. 16 oz concentrate is roughly ten pounds of cherries, I'm planning on 20 oz into this and letting that sit two weeks. Should be ready to keg then so about a month on this total. Quick and dirty kriek anyone? Hope it comes out well, previous quick sours have been great (especially a recent one with 15 lbs nectarines). Higher gravity then my berliners and with the bugs eating the cherry sugars I'm hoping the dirty dozen adds a nice character to my quick souring method.

Anyone have any thoughts on my method? I'm just hoping I get something different out of this.

 

[secondbase]

I quick soured a 1.042 wort 60/40 pale and wheat with lacto brevis and after three days pitched the dirty dozen blend. This kicked up in under 12 hours and fermentation appears done in just 3-4 days. 2 weeks after pitching the dirty dozen brett I plan on adding a tart montmorency concentrate from kingorchards. 16 oz concentrate is roughly ten pounds of cherries, I'm planning on 20 oz into this and letting that sit two weeks. Should be ready to keg then so about a month on this total. Quick and dirty kriek anyone? Hope it comes out well, previous quick sours have been great (especially a recent one with 15 lbs nectarines). Higher gravity then my berliners and with the bugs eating the cherry sugars I'm hoping the dirty dozen adds a nice character to my quick souring method.

Anyone have any thoughts on my method? I'm just hoping I get something different out of this.

Your process sounds good. I would definitely let it sit for a few months to allow the Dirty Dozen to develop its character. Might have to steal your idea once I harvest the yeast from this batch.

 

[sweetcell]

2 weeks after pitching the dirty dozen brett I plan on adding a tart montmorency concentrate from kingorchards. 16 oz concentrate is roughly ten pounds of cherries, I'm planning on 20 oz into this and letting that sit two weeks.

be ready for a violent fermentation after you add that concentrate. it's like pure sugar. the yeast will go nutz.

should be interesting to see how this develops over time. ECY claims that DD develops a lot with complexity coming in around the one year mark. i wonder what it tastes like relatively fresh?

 

[masonsjax]

I added some maltodextrin syrup to a fermentor of old not-quite-sour-enough beer one time and had a violent offgassing eruption all over the room. It was really cool to watch, but no fun to clean up. I'd add the concentrate early in the process if it were me. And video record it just in case

 

[ShemRahBoo]

be ready for a violent fermentation after you add that concentrate. it's like pure sugar. the yeast will go nutz.

should be interesting to see how this develops over time. ECY claims that DD develops a lot with complexity coming in around the one year mark. i wonder what it tastes like relatively fresh?

I'm thinking complexity over time like that would occur if used as a secondary strain. Used as primary I'm expecting it to be more similar to other 100% brett beers, where complexity will develop over time but not nearly as much. Now I'm really debating how long I should let this go before I keg (where I'll drink half and bottle half). I'm thinking maybe just a month after adding the concentrate, and thinking it'll be at terminal a couple of weeks before that even.

If I go just a month or shorter I do not think I'll have any issues with bottles exploding, the simple sugars of the concentrate should ferment out completely quickly. If I do this I can try some of this fresh and then stash some bottles to see if this develops any further in the bottle.

On the other hand, if I want to let this sit in primary longer (I wasn't planning on racking into secondary but should I worry about this?) I could also add a little oak for complexity.

 

[bovineblitz]

I'm thinking complexity over time like that would occur if used as a secondary strain. Used as primary I'm expecting it to be more similar to other 100% brett beers, where complexity will develop over time but not nearly as much. Now I'm really debating how long I should let this go before I keg (where I'll drink half and bottle half). I'm thinking maybe just a month after adding the concentrate, and thinking it'll be at terminal a couple of weeks before that even.

If I go just a month or shorter I do not think I'll have any issues with bottles exploding, the simple sugars of the concentrate should ferment out completely quickly. If I do this I can try some of this fresh and then stash some bottles to see if this develops any further in the bottle.

On the other hand, if I want to let this sit in primary longer (I wasn't planning on racking into secondary but should I worry about this?) I could also add a little oak for complexity.

With 100% brett, young it's nice and clean, but it does develop some brett complexity with age. A little more than a single strain all-brett beer. If added as a second yeast it adds a lot of character.

I have a pitch I've been reusing in cider, it's definitely a bit wild tasting and kicks out more acidity than I expected. Works really well.

 

[sweetcell]

With 100% brett, young it's nice and clean, but it does develop some brett complexity with age. A little more than a single strain all-brett beer. If added as a second yeast it adds a lot of character.

I have a pitch I've been reusing in cider, it's definitely a bit wild tasting and kicks out more acidity than I expected. Works really well.

our knowledge of "what brett does" is centered on brux (and clausinii).

DD also contains anomala and naardenensis. this changes the rules of the game...

 

[bovineblitz]

our knowledge of "what brett does" is centered on brux (and clausinii).

DD also contains anomala and naardenensis. this changes the rules of the game...

That's a good point. I suppose I should have said "100% mixed brett culture" or "with dirty dozen".

I popped a bottle of the cider last night, it is crazy good... I think it's the best cider I've ever had anywhere.

 

[mnick12]

I have a "kriek" that I fermented in primary with a wild yeast isolated from germinating barley. Secondary was about 1/3rd of a vial of ecy34, this went in around a SG of 1.01 (OG was like ~1.05something).

At first the 34 was throwing a lot of sulfur off, 3 months later it went onto 9lbs of frozen thawed sour cherries. It smells awesome now, very gueuze like.

I have not done any beers with ecy34 as the primary, but from what I have I would say it really shines as a secondary fermentor.

Also just started a 4-way cider experiment with ecy34 as the fermentor, what did you notice in your ecy34 fermented cider?

 

[bovineblitz]

The cider is bright, quite tart, and mildly funky. Not over the top at all, a pleasant moderate funk.

It took a lot longer to ferment than I'm used to, didn't bottle until 7 weeks, and then carb'ing up took a little longer than usual as well.

 

[sweetcell]

i also used DD as a bottling yeast for a saison that i bottled 7 months ago. i was expecting the bretts to chew off a few more points than they did, so the beer is a tad under-carbonated. such are the risks of adding brett at bottling. initially it was a lemon bomb, but the citrus is slowly giving way to some funk. a lot of development has happened since i lasted tasted this one about 2 months ago.

had another one of these last night, and the carbonation is finally up to something acceptable. still not saison effervescence but it'a at normal beer carbonation.

i can't say that i'm crazy about this beer. it has some tartness, and a little funk... but it's really drying on the palette, almost prickly. i'm not convinced that DD makes for a good bottling yeast, at least not with this particular saison. i may or may not try this again, TBD.

 

[Wes440]

I've pitched ECY 34 DD into a tripel fermented with ECY13 Belgian Abbaye II, a 10.5% tripel that came out absolutely delicious - I still have the other 6 gallons clean. It's definitely drying out what were some very smooth and delicate pear/apple esters into something with a more pungent funk. It has only been 2 months, so quite a bit more time to go, but I would agree with the 'prickly' descriptor that sweetcell used to describe the dryness.

I have a dark saison that I co-pitched DD with ECY08 Saison brasserie, and it hasn't gotten quite so dry, definitely more tartness to that beer, perhaps because the DD got an earlier start. That beer is on month 7 in the carboy, and getting more complex with a spicy and tart funkiness that I am enjoying.

Another 1 gallon of Belgian stout wort fermented solely with DD has much more pronounced tartness and more restrained funk, enough to make one think there could be lactic acid bacteria at work. So many different flavors coming from this blend, all depending on how and when it's used.

I plan to update when these beers get to bottles.

 

[Schumed]

Just kegged a 13 month dark saison ..might be the worse beer ever ..really weird not Brett like flavor ..way too dry probably oxidized too...not sure what went wrong but will stick to what I know when it comes too Brett