Brett Beer The Year 1000

[djbradle]

Recipe Type

All Grain

Yeast

WLP645

Yeast Starter

1L

Batch Size (Gallons)

4.5

Original Gravity

1.090

Final Gravity

1.014

Boiling Time (Minutes)

60

IBU

29

Color

3

Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)

68F @2 days then low 80\\'s for 4 weeks

Additional Fermentation

all primary then bottled

Tasting Notes

Pineapple sweetness with malty undertones. Dusky with leather. Very complex bgsa.

11 lbs Franco-Belges Pilsen malt
2.5 lbs sucrose
6.0 oz flaked oats
4.0 oz. acidulated malt
4.0 oz. carafoam malt

0.6 oz Magnum 12.4% at 60 mins
2.0 oz Ultra 4.5% at 10 mins


A brett yeast as primary? Why not? I wanted to draw out as much flavor from this yeast as possible. Having done multiple golden strong ales as well as dark strong ales I withheld the limiting temp of this yeast as experimental. Having started at the upper 60's range I upped it shortly after to arrive at the low 80's and held that for a 4 week long primary then into bottles. It was carbed at 3.0 volumes in late April and has been enjoyed more recently after 8 months and is fantastic. I would brew gallons and gallons again if I could. It sticks to the glass like silk and exhibits that strong golden fruity ale flavor I yearn for like Piraat ale or Allagash tripel. Strong is an understatement. It produced some hot ETOH in the beginning but it has smoothed out considerably over time. Being a brettanomyces strain first logged as an infective process of cask conditioned ales from England, this White Labs strain is perfect for a primary fermentor! Attenuation is about 85%. About 10% abv. I believe it has been renamed as Brett Anomolous. Brew up, sit on it, and enjoy. On the descriptives I meant to say "dusty", not "dusky"

 

[djbradle]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1452138910.384734.jpg

 

[IslandLizard]

This looks very interesting, got to try it!
I happen to have a couple bottles of ECY04 Brett Anomala waiting to be pitched. Anomala is related to Clausenii, but not the same from the little bit of information I could find. How much did you pitch, one WL vial without a starter?

I'll make light candi syrup from the sucrose, though, and add it a little later on trying to prevent hot ETOH from forming early on. I'm guessing, aerating/oxygenating at pitching time is out of the question too?

So what stops you from brewing gallons and gallons of this? I'm sure that yeast cake was a healthy one.

 

[djbradle]

They are similar though I couldn't tell you what Brett A. may produce. I tend to underpitch a bit and I never used any O2 or air through a stone but a pouring splash into the fermenter from the kettle. I know that may hamper my fermentation a possibly but objectively I am always pleased with the results. All the yeasts I've used react so differently.

I grew up the vial from White Labs into a 1L starter of low gravity and let that ferment out until a small pellicle appeared. I made a single beer out of the decanted liquid and pitched the starter into my bucket fermenter. I would say whatever you get with a 1.040 wort in a 1L starter will suffice for the batch size I did.

Adding the sugar later is proper technique. I would treat this yeast as a primary strain so all the fundamentals should stay such as yeast population, aeration, temp control, etc. I would not treat it as a secondary Brett attribute to a primary fermented beer. To coax out the primary fermentation characteristics is key for this strain as is my experience and from what I've read, others as well.


That yeast cake was a healthy one indeed though I had at the time several other projects going on and I did not know what to expect from it. I would though start fresh with another vial and build that up since too often after two or more generations my repitches dramatically change. I don't trust my long term handling.