TYB Funktown Experiences?

[TheZymurgist]

I only saw one other thread on this, so I thought I'd see if there are more experiences out there.

On January 3rd, I brewed a 5 gallon batch of 1.065 wort mashed at 158º. Half got TYB Lochristi Blend, half got TYB Funktown Pale Ale. Grist was 93/7 2-Row and Honey Malt.

The Lochristi batch fermented out to 1.008, but the Funktown batch is still sitting at 1.021, and there's no Brett character whatsoever. It makes me wonder whether the Brett was viable or not, but maybe it just needs more time. It's dropped pretty clear and has been at a stable gravity for almost a month.

I'm thinking about pulling some dregs from the Lochristi batch and throwing it in there. Anyone else have experience with Funktown? Should I let it sit, or throw more Brett in?

 

[badlee]

Watching
I have some FT on the way from England.

 

[tagz]

I wouldn't expect much Brett character at this point. I haven't used funktown but give it a couple months.

 

[Biobrewer]

The Brett character will be strong on the fruity end of the spectrum and low on the Funk. Definitely expect this to finish out over time with strong fruit character and minimal funk.

Cheers!

 

[badlee]

@Biobrewer's comments are what I was expecting: fruit explosion

 

[geoffey]

It's a bit early for Brett character, but your FG is pretty high. When I used this yeast last year in think it came down to around 1.014 within a couple weeks.

 

[TheZymurgist]

It's a bit early for Brett character, but your FG is pretty high. When I used this yeast last year in think it came down to around 1.014 within a couple weeks.

What'd you mash at? Mine was pretty high, which would explain the higher FG. I guess my concern is that the gravity has been stable for almost a month now.

 

[geoffey]

I mashed pretty low as half of the batch became an IPA. I checked my notes but I couldn't find what the FG was at one month. The batch with Funktown ended at 1.012 though. If I were you I'd just leave it a while and hope the Brett brings it down closer to what your intent was.

 

[finsfan]

Im not sure you will see more drop in FG. You mashed at 158 and used brett in primary fermentation. Brett attenuates like normal sacch when pitched in primary. You have to keep mash temps in consideration when only pitching brett in primary. For instance, if you just pitched their vermont ale yeast in that same wort, you wouldnt be surprised if it stopped at 1.021 since you mashed at 158. That is essentially what happened here. And I wouldnt expect much funk from this either. Primary fermentation with brett leads to less or no funk and all fruit like others have said already. I dont have experience with this particular blend, but have used brett in primary.

 

[TheZymurgist]

Im not sure you will see more drop in FG. You mashed at 158 and used brett in primary fermentation. Brett attenuates like normal sacch when pitched in primary. You have to keep mash temps in consideration when only pitching brett in primary. For instance, if you just pitched their vermont ale yeast in that same wort, you wouldnt be surprised if it stopped at 1.021 since you mashed at 158. That is essentially what happened here. And I wouldnt expect much funk from this either. Primary fermentation with brett leads to less or no funk and all fruit like others have said already. I dont have experience with this particular blend, but have used brett in primary.

This is a mix of sacch and brett. It's their Vermont Ale with a strain of brett added.

And I'm not sure that's correct on brett attenuation. Regardless of when it's pitched, most brett strains are going to attenuate the same, unless inhibited by alcohol or pH. My 100% brett portion (from the same batch, so same mash temp) finished at 1.008, which is exactly what I would expect from brett, since it can chew through the long chain sugars much more effectively than sacch.

I've only recently seen the notion that 100% brett fermentation will attenuate the same as sacch, and I'm wondering where that idea came from.

 

[MileHighBrewer]

Um....we still calling this one "brett"?
Iirc it was the trois/drei formerly known as brett , that is under review

 

[TheZymurgist]

Um....we still calling this one "brett"?
Iirc it was the trois/drei formerly known as brett , that is under review

Drei is Brett, Trois is not. Do you have any information that the brett strain in Funktown is Trois?

 

[TheZymurgist]

The Brett character will be strong on the fruity end of the spectrum and low on the Funk. Definitely expect this to finish out over time with strong fruit character and minimal funk.

Cheers!

Um....we still calling this one "brett"?
Iirc it was the trois/drei formerly known as brett , that is under review

Nick, I'm sure you won't (or can't) tell us exactly what strain it is, but can you give any insight or hint as to whether the brett strain you use is or could be Trois (or even just Brett)? That would give me a better idea of what to expect from this blend.

 

[MileHighBrewer]

Drei is Brett, Trois is not. Do you have any information that the brett strain in Funktown is Trois?

Could've sworn they're two names for the same thing, drei is only available to commercial brewer via BSI

 

[TheZymurgist]

Could've sworn they're two names for the same thing, drei is only available to commercial brewer via BSI

No, they're definitely different. Ed Coffey (HBT user Coff, http://riverwards.blogspot.com/ ) is currently doing a side-by-side comparison of the two. Check out the Facebook page Milk The Funk, he's posted about it there.

 

[MileHighBrewer]

Not seeing anything on his page indicating they're different

 

[MileHighBrewer]

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2012/07/100-brett-trois-ipa-recipe.html?m=1

Oldsock has them as the same. Its like. 001 vs 1056, different sources of the same general isolate

 

[TheZymurgist]

Not seeing anything on his page indicating they're different

He hasn't posted anything on his blog, but check out the FB page. Also other posts on that page and others indicate they're definitely different. Users state getting classic brett character from the drie. Not sure where they're sourcing it from, though.

EDIT: And anyway, this is beside the point from my original post. Again, do you have any info that indicates Funktown Pale Ale uses Brett Trois?

 

[MileHighBrewer]

Nick said something about it in that gigantic trois thread.

 

[TheZymurgist]

Ok, just found it, after searching through his posts. Now I don't really know what to do. So far, all the advice has been assuming it's Brett. Given the fact that it's Trois, I'm not sure the gravity will be dropping anymore. At this point, it tastes exactly like my IPA that uses Vermont Ale (exact same recipe, lower mash temp).

 

[TheZymurgist]

Ok, so I'm just going to let this sit and watch the gravity for the next two to four weeks. I'll probably end up adding some brett even if it does attenuate, since I would like a mild level of funk, unless the taste is just truly outrageous.

Nick said something about it in that gigantic trois thread.

MHB, here's an excerpt of the conversation on the Milk the Funk FB page:

Me: Ed, there seems to some confusion as to whether these are two different strains, or whether they are simply different names for the same thing. Is the purpose of your side-by-side to test this?

Ed C.: They are deffinitely not the same, ones Brett and the other is Sacch. Just interested to see them both side by side bc people thought they were the same for a while. By aroma alone they aren't even close.

Chris C.: Some of the confusion probably stems from page 183 in American Sours. Tonsmeire says "the most popular strain for primary fermentations at commercial breweries is Brettanomyces Drie (aka Brettanomyces Trois, Dr. Drie)". Then it goes on to say "pitches are available from White Labs as WLP644 Brett Brux Trois". So this information is incorrect right?

Maxime C.: Well "Drie Fonteinen" means "Trois Fontaines" that sure can bring some confusion. The culture for Trois is supposed to be from Drie Fonteinen but there is definitly multiple types of life in their wild culture. Not surprising that there are different organisms going around sourced from the same melting pot. The "Drie" is from BSI I suppose?

Kevin P.: There has been a lot of work done by folks here and other places that has shown Trois to be a strain of Saccharomyces and Drie to be a strain of Brett.

 

[MileHighBrewer]

After tasting a sample at work Monday, i think i definitely concur. It was bretty as can be, that was the sole pitch (bsi drei)

 

[masonsjax]

I have a pale ale tapped now that used funktown. I made the same beer several times using different yeast and drank them side by side. I used Funktown, Conan, Kolsch, and Pacman. At a young age the Conan and Funktown tasted nearly identical.

I wanted to see how it developed over time, so the batch I'm drinking now sat in primary for 6 months and it definitely attenuated more. It's thin bodied and has a bit of over-ripe fruit funkiness that's almost lost in the tropical / peachy notes of the Conan and Citra combo. It's a good beer, but if you want real funk, you'll need to add another brett strain.

 

[andrhamm]

I've had an IIPA in primary for 1 week with TYB Funktown blend and it is at 1.028 (down from 1.080 when I pitched a big starter) with little to no activity in the airlock. Hoping it keeps on chugging to dry out a bit and doesn't take forever and negatively affect the dry hopping. Even now though, there is already a ton of fruity aroma and flavor. Sample tasted quite juicy, partly from the Citra and Galaxy (first time using these hops), but some of that fruitiness is definitely "ripe" fruitiness from the Brett.

Has anybody used Funktown in a higher gravity IPA? Any tips?

 

[Helms]

Has anybody used Funktown in a higher gravity IPA? Any tips?

My only batch with Funktown to date was a relatively big IPA (OG 1.075). I did a 60 minute mash at 150 and also tossed in 8oz of dextrose at the end of the boil. I pitched a 3 litre starter and fermented at 68 for the first few days before bumping the temperature up to 72 for the remainder. I let it ride for 3 weeks, then dry hopped for a week and bottled. It finished at 1.013.

I'm going to be using it again soon for a bigger beer around the 1.090 mark. I plan on doing a 90 minute mash at 149 and upping the dextrose to 1lb. That's what I normally do for an IPA of this size though.