WLP644 -Brett B Trois

[berebrando]

In the first email, I would say the mash temperature negatively impacted the fermentation. Also, while the suggested temperature range for this yeast is pretty high, I think that applies to secondary aging rather than a primary ferment. Maybe hit the brew with some amylase enzyme to increase fermentables? (I've never done this before, but it's all I can think of to save this brew)

It is very weird that the second brewer had issues with fermentation during the starter stage. I had a big Sacc-like krausen in my starter. I think something went wrong with the starter prep, as s/he suggests, but I'm just speculating based on the description.

 

[NcBrewer35]

Actually let me correct what I said earlier. We all did + or - 2000ml starters not 1000ml.

 

[bigljd]

OK, I may have a problem unless this brett ferments in cycles. It's been 1 week since I brewed, so I checked the gravity so we have some data on how the brett functions, and my gravity was exactly the same as it was after 45 hours. Its stuck at 1.027. It's very sweet still (cloyingly sweet) since it's only fermented 45% of the sugars. I did mash a bit warmer (156-157) since I expected the brett to rip through everything, but there's no way it should finish this high.

I had been fermenting in mid-70's (room temp at our house right now), which is on the low end of the yeast's range, so I put my seedling heating mat under the fermenting bucket tonight. I also gently stirred with a SS spoon to try to rouse the yeast. I should be able to get it into the 80's I think, so hopefully the warmer temps will invigorate the yeasties to start up again. If not I'll need a plan B.

If anyone has any suggestions (other than the warmer temps) I'm open to them. I suppose it could just need more time, but there is no signs of fermentation (it's starting to clear) and no gravity drop in 5 days. If this were my personal brew I'd consider hitting with some of my Wyeast Brett Lambicus that I have after another week or two of inactivity. Adding another brett should knock down the gravity like adding brett in secondary, but that would completely screw up the dynamics of our experiment (plus it may not be ready in time).

I'll keep an eye on it, maybe it will wake up after i warm it a bit.

I had great fermentation 12 hours from pitching - the yeast ripped thru the first 55% of the sugars, then just stopped. Not sure why. The heating mat has it up to 79 today - there's very little airlock activity. I'll wait and see how you guy's beers do, and give mine some more time. Mabye it's like that DuPont Saison strain that craps out for two weeks and come back to life after that to finish?

The email above is actually mine. Some more specifics about the beer is it's mostly a copy of Tasty McDole's Janet's Brown recipe, only I switched out the 1lb of wheat for a 1lb of quick oats. The SG was actually 1.061 and it's currently stuck at 1.027. Everything I've read suggested that the Brett Trois rips through everything, and most people were getting 80%+ attenuation, so to counter that I mashed a bit higher (156-157) instead of the 154 suggested in the recipe, since I was hoping for some body left in the beer. I pitched a 2 liter stir plate starter that was stepped up 3 times over a week. I didn't aerate other than splashing the crap out of it while cooling and racking to the fermenter. Initial fermentation was strong, but then it crapped out at 1.027.
The recipe does have a lot of carapils and crystal malts in it - that combined with the higher mash temp would definitely leave a normal sacc yeast finishing way too sweet, but I guess I assumed that brett trois would rip through some of those sugars. Looks like I was wrong.
Maybe I'll just rack this batch to a carboy and pitch some Wyeast Brett L and let it sit for a few months, and re-brew the same beer at a lower mash temp for our club experiment. I guess I'll wait to see how the other club beers turn out first.

 

[mhenry41h]

The email above is actually mine. Some more specifics about the beer is it's mostly a copy of Tasty McDole's Janet's Brown recipe, only I switched out the 1lb of wheat for a 1lb of quick oats. The SG was actually 1.061 and it's currently stuck at 1.027. Everything I've read suggested that the Brett Trois rips through everything, and most people were getting 80%+ attenuation, so to counter that I mashed a bit higher (156-157) instead of the 154 suggested in the recipe, since I was hoping for some body left in the beer. I pitched a 2 liter stir plate starter that was stepped up 3 times over a week. I didn't aerate other than splashing the crap out of it while cooling and racking to the fermenter. Initial fermentation was strong, but then it crapped out at 1.027.
The recipe does have a lot of carapils and crystal malts in it - that combined with the higher mash temp would definitely leave a normal sacc yeast finishing way too sweet, but I guess I assumed that brett trois would rip through some of those sugars. Looks like I was wrong.
Maybe I'll just rack this batch to a carboy and pitch some Wyeast Brett L and let it sit for a few months, and re-brew the same beer at a lower mash temp for our club experiment. I guess I'll wait to see how the other club beers turn out first.

Sounds like a good candidate for an weird Oud Bruin! Throw a pitch of Roselare in there and let that sucker sit!!!

 

[bigljd]

Sounds like a good candidate for an weird Oud Bruin! Throw a pitch of Roselare in there and let that sucker sit!!!

I thought about that too, the only problem is the recipe has 50 IBUs so I'm not sure the sour would go too well with the bitter (plus the lacto and pedio would have a tough time working at those IBUs).
I also thought about rebrewing it at very low mash temps, leaving out the carapils and cutting 1/2 the crystal. I should end up with a super dry beer I could blend back with the first batch to balance the sweetness. Then I'd have 5 gals of beer to share with the club, and 5 for me to drink.
Not sure what I'll do yet.

 

[mhenry41h]

I thought about that too, the only problem is the recipe has 50 IBUs so I'm not sure the sour would go too well with the bitter (plus the lacto and pedio would have a tough time working at those IBUs).
I also thought about rebrewing it at very low mash temps, leaving out the carapils and cutting 1/2 the crystal. I should end up with a super dry beer I could blend back with the first batch to balance the sweetness. Then I'd have 5 gals of beer to share with the club, and 5 for me to drink.
Not sure what I'll do yet.

I wasn't thinking about the IBU load...you are dead right...the bacteria won't be happy. Brewing a dry version and blending is a terrific idea.

 

[bogwart]

If you can, just let it ride would be my opinion. I don't have a fancy stir plate so I propped up my starter in a growler. I started with around 1000ml of 1.030 wort for 7 days, then added an additional 1000ml 1.030 wort for another 7 days. My recipe followed Chad Yakobson's recipe in Zymurgy and I mashed at 152. I had strong, active fermentation for roughly two weeks then it tapered off to a moderate but still active fermentation for the third week. It went from a 1.054 to a 1.010. I checked it again at week 4 and it's down to a 1.008. I still have the thick krausen on top of the beer as well. From that same starter, I did pitch roughly 250ml into one gallon of a stout that stalled at 1.026 (from a 1.088). In four weeks, it's only dropped to a 1.020, but it still seems to be active. I'd try to give it some time...you might be in the lag phase and it'll kick back up again soon.

 

[JLem]

The email above is actually mine. Some more specifics about the beer is it's mostly a copy of Tasty McDole's Janet's Brown recipe, only I switched out the 1lb of wheat for a 1lb of quick oats. The SG was actually 1.061 and it's currently stuck at 1.027. Everything I've read suggested that the Brett Trois rips through everything, and most people were getting 80%+ attenuation, so to counter that I mashed a bit higher (156-157) instead of the 154 suggested in the recipe, since I was hoping for some body left in the beer. I pitched a 2 liter stir plate starter that was stepped up 3 times over a week. I didn't aerate other than splashing the crap out of it while cooling and racking to the fermenter. Initial fermentation was strong, but then it crapped out at 1.027.
The recipe does have a lot of carapils and crystal malts in it - that combined with the higher mash temp would definitely leave a normal sacc yeast finishing way too sweet, but I guess I assumed that brett trois would rip through some of those sugars. Looks like I was wrong.
Maybe I'll just rack this batch to a carboy and pitch some Wyeast Brett L and let it sit for a few months, and re-brew the same beer at a lower mash temp for our club experiment. I guess I'll wait to see how the other club beers turn out first.

Something I wonder about this particular strain is whether it will continue to work on the longer chain dextrines slowly over time. I purposely under-primed my bottles because was worried that, even though my batch finished at 1.011 or so, the Brett would keep chewing away. I don't know that this will happen, but I wonder if you left your beer alone for a while you'd see the Brett continue to slowly bring it down.

 

[NcBrewer35]

I really like this little chart you have here. Any information as far as fermentation temperature? I have mine going at 74 degrees (Rye Double IPA), One of the brewers has his at 78 degrees (Old Ale) . Not sure what BigLJD was initially fermenting at I believe he said mid 70's which is similar to mine. I think I am going to bump mine up to 78 degrees to hopefully avoid the lag.

Perhaps we can flush this chart out a little more with additional data such as fermentation temperatures, and the role acidulated malt plays in the fermentation.

We are going to be doing a presentation on this yeast for our club so once it is done I would be more than happy to post the presentation for others to learn from. This chart would go great in it

 

[berebrando]

I really like this little chart you have here. Any information as far as fermentation temperature? I have mine going at 74 degrees (Rye Double IPA), One of the brewers has his at 78 degrees (Old Ale) . Not sure what BigLJD was initially fermenting at I believe he said mid 70's which is similar to mine. I think I am going to bump mine up to 78 degrees to hopefully avoid the lag.

Perhaps we can flush this chart out a little more with additional data such as fermentation temperatures, and the role acidulated malt plays in the fermentation.

We are going to be doing a presentation on this yeast for our club so once it is done I would be more than happy to post the presentation for others to learn from. This chart would go great in it

I think it would be a great idea to add data points for fermentation temp. There are still a lot of holes, but it is a good start. Obviously the more people post their data points and results, the better the collective table will be. Feel free to use it.

 

[diegobonatto]

My data to complete the table:

Brewer: diegobonatto
Beer style: Belgian Tripel
Yeast: WLP644
Starter: two steps, 2 Liters
Details: incubator (shaker) - culture growth @ 28 °C for 6 days (3 days for each step).
OG: 1.080
FG: 1.007

Two weeks in primary, starting @ 18 °C until beginning of fermentation; then the temperature was slowly raised to 21-23° C. After two weeks, temperature was reduced to 1-3 °C and the beer was kept for more two weeks at these temperatures until bottling.

Very interesting results - strong alcohol taste/aroma that is beginning to fade now. Big fruity aromas (banana specially), with a nice malt aftertaste from Pilsen malt.

 

[dcp27]

I'll add my 2 to the list
#1: blond, 2L starter no stirplate, 1.063 to 1.009, started around 64F let get into the 70s for 4 weeks, pretty fruity & banana. accidentally left the lid loose for over a week so it got plenty of oxygen, zero funk or sour

#2: american saison, re-used some of the yeast cake from blond, 1.052 to 1.006, 70-78F for 4 weeks, fruity again but less banana thankfully

Something I wonder about this particular strain is whether it will continue to work on the longer chain dextrines slowly over time. .

I can't say for this strain cuz I haven't had it long enuf, but my other 100% brett beers never continued to work. got a few diff ones over a year old & no gushers

 

[NcBrewer35]

My data to complete the table:

Brewer: diegobonatto
Beer style: Belgian Tripel
Yeast: WLP644
Starter: two steps, 2 Liters
Details: incubator (shaker) - culture growth @ 28 °C for 6 days (3 days for each step).
OG: 1.080
FG: 1.007

Two weeks in primary, starting @ 18 °C until beginning of fermentation; then the temperature was slowly raised to 21-23° C. After two weeks, temperature was reduced to 1-3 °C and the beer was kept for more two weeks at these temperatures until bottling.

Very interesting results - strong alcohol taste/aroma that is beginning to fade now. Big fruity aromas (banana specially), with a nice malt aftertaste from Pilsen malt.

Any data on mash temps? I am wondering if mash temps should be raised to get a less dry beer as compared to using sacc yeast?

Also anyone using acidulated malt? If so at what percentage and are you adding to regular mash or doing a mini mash?

 

[NcBrewer35]

Also what about Krausen characteristics? One of the brewers that was reporting no signs of fermentation as far as a krausen and bubbles out of his airlock did a gravity check and it appears to be fermenting fine.

I haven't checked the gravity yet, because I've really seen no activity and didn't want to expose the wort for nothing. But I'll check it in the morning. I'm using a glass carboy, in a fermentation chamber with a blow off tube.

As for my starter, I went for 10 days with the following step routine:

Day 1: pitched 1/2 vial and 1/2 liter wort with yeast nutrient
Started in 2000mL erlenmeyer flask on stir plate
Day 4: added 1/2 liter wort with yeast nutrient to starter
Day 8: added 1 liter wort with yeast nutrient to starter
Day 10: pitched yeast into wort.

I'll be in touch tomorrow.

When he checked his gravity here is what he said:

Well, this is really interesting. I checked the gravity and its down to 1.025 (from 1.072), so it's been at work. Maybe it's jus the characteristic of the yeast but there was almost no krausen and no visible bubbling in the blowoff.

 

[NcBrewer35]

BigLJD had this to say about his version which also seems to have picked back up again.

I stirred mine a little bit again earlier tonight with my wine thief and activity is definitely picking back up on mine. I just checked the airlock and it's continuously bubbling now. Hopefully it'll stay that way for a few days and get me a drinkable beer. I'm going to leave it be now until airlock activity stops again and then I'll re-check the gravity.
Learning new yeasts is always fun, especially something like a brett yeast that seems to have a mind and a plan of it's own

Most of my initial fermentation occurred in the first 20 hours, and I didn't have much krausen either, so it probably fermented down without you even noticing.
Try to keep it around 80 and be patient and it should pick back up again. Swirling it a little bit to keep the yeast roused won't hurt either. My airlock has been consistently bubbling every 3-5 seconds for the last 36 hours, and my gravity has dropped 4 more points, so I'm back in business again. It would seem our batch of yeast likes to ferment like a bat out of hell for 24 hours and then take a nap for a week before waking back up again to finish the job (I hope it finishes anyways).

So it seems that this yeast can sometimes not really show any traditional fermentation patterns. It seems to sometimes not really krausen and also seems to "take a break" in the middle of fermentation.

It appears as though my Rye 2XIPA is also doing the same thing as BigLJD's right now it does not seem to be fermenting very much any more. Be interesting to see if it follows the same pattern as BigLJD's beer does. The spacing between our brewing time is about the time it took him to see lag. I brewed a good 3-5 days after he did and now my beer seems to be seeing a lull in fermentation activity. Wonder if it will pick back up like his?

 

[diegobonatto]

Any data on mash temps? I am wondering if mash temps should be raised to get a less dry beer as compared to using sacc yeast?

Also anyone using acidulated malt? If so at what percentage and are you adding to regular mash or doing a mini mash?

My mash profile:

Acid rest 38,0 C 40 min
Protein rest 52,0 C 20 min
Maltose 1 63,0 C 30 min
Maltose 2 68,0 C 40 min
Saccharification 1 73,0 C 60 min
Saccharification 2 78,0 C 15 min

Being a Tripel, sugar was added to compose 20% of grist weight, which explain the low FG obtained. Moreover, the beer is not watery or thin, but have a nice medium body, as expected for a Tripel.

No acidulated malt here.

 

[bigljd]

As NCBrewer noted, my fermentation had re-started a couple days after warming the beer up to around 80 and gently stirring it to rouse the yeast. The gravity dropped 5 or 6 points and it was on it's way to finishing. Well, my kid left the window open in the room it was in last night and temps outside were in the upper 40's last night so even with the seedling heat mat under the bucket the temp dropped to 76 and airlock activity had mostly stalled. I closed the window this morning and threw a thick bath towel over the bucket and the heating pad to insulate it a bit and try to warm it back up again. If I can squeeze another 5-6 points out of this fermentation I'll be right where I want to be.
This is purely speculative, but in my case this yeast seems to be really sensitive to temperature variations, especially later in fermentation. Initially it fermented vigorously but for me to get it finish I seem to have to hold it around 80 with no temp variations or activity quickly drops.
I'm curious too, about how many others are using acid malt in their grain bill with this yeast? Chad's research seems to show an improvement in attenuation with a lower ph beer, but if nobody else is using it and getting 80% attenuation then I won't be adding it again. I used 12oz acid malt in this beer.

 

[pohldogg]

I haven't seen real attenuation differences with acid malt. Have used the strain for 3 IPAs, the first went from 1.056 to 1.007 w/o acid malt (also no starter but 2 vials), the second was re-pitch 1.059 to 1.004, and third pitch was 1.053 to 1.008 (only 2 week ferment). The last 2 had almost 10% acid malt addition. What I did see is that the acid malt beers had a better fruitiness from the yeast. Not really scientific because of the no starter for the first, and the fact that the first was a black IPA, the second was a standard IPA, and the third was a white IPA. Those variables could have accounted for the changes in flavor but who knows. All were mashed at 148 to 150. However, this has become my go to IPA strain and will become a 4th batch this weekend.

 

[berebrando]

Well, I'm currently fermenting my third all-Brett Trois beer. So far I have made a pale ale and fermented at 70 F (taste test tonight). Next, I made an IPA that fermented at 65 F.

Now, I have a wheat that will serve as the base beer for a sour. The wheat was brewed a few days ago and put in the fermentation chamber at 60 F, which is where I normally ferment with US-05. Twenty four hours after pitching and it is clearly fermenting. Interesting to see that temperature (at least between 60 ad 70) is not really slowing down the Trois.

 

[JLem]

Well, I'm currently fermenting my third all-Brett Trois beer. So far I have made a pale ale and fermented at 70 F (taste test tonight). Next, I made an IPA that fermented at 65 F.

Now, I have a wheat that will serve as the base beer for a sour. The wheat was brewed a few days ago and put in the fermentation chamber at 60 F, which is where I normally ferment with US-05. Twenty four hours after pitching and it is clearly fermenting. Interesting to see that temperature (at least between 60 ad 70) is not really slowing down the Trois.

Glad to hear this. I'm probably going to brew a batch tomorrow and was thinking of fermenting it down in the low 60s. I was wondering if this would work ok. The last one I made was fermented in the 70s. This time I'm going for a brown ale base that I'm going to add cranberries to. A beer for Thanksgiving. I'm thinking that the fruitiness from the yeast, the tartness of the cranberries, and the the sweetness from the malt will meld really nicely.

 

[bigljd]

Well, I'm currently fermenting my third all-Brett Trois beer. So far I have made a pale ale and fermented at 70 F (taste test tonight). Next, I made an IPA that fermented at 65 F.

Now, I have a wheat that will serve as the base beer for a sour. The wheat was brewed a few days ago and put in the fermentation chamber at 60 F, which is where I normally ferment with US-05. Twenty four hours after pitching and it is clearly fermenting. Interesting to see that temperature (at least between 60 ad 70) is not really slowing down the Trois.

I don't think you'll have a problem with an initial fermentation in the 60's but you may have a problem getting the yeast to finish that cool. It will be interesting to see how yours finishes at the cooler temps. Maybe our batch of yeast is just being a pain in the a**. We just had Lauren Salazar (the cellermaster from New Belgium) talk to our brew club about bretts and bugs, and she laughed (in a nice way) at Chad for thinking he could predict what Brett would do in the real world. The stuff has a mind of its own.

BTW - my Janet's Bretty Brown ale is down around 1.020. Still only like 65% attenuation, but it's tasting a lot better and is not so sweet. I'm not going to re-brew it for now, I'm going with what I've made to share with the club. Hope it drops a few more points yet, but with all the crystal malts and high mash temps, it probably won't. It's a good beer though, so I'm happy with it.

 

[berebrando]

Anyone get bubble gum flavors? The air lock on my Brett IPA smells like straight bubble gum. My Brett pale ale tastes like bubble gum. Maybe it's the interplay of hops and yeast flavors(?).

 

[Quaker]

Fermentation blow-off I could see labeling as bubblegum; lots of ester production with my warm ferments. But none of that in the flavor of the beer.

 

[badlee]

Thats good to hear. I am building up a starter from oak cubes and the small and taste are fantastic!

 

[jgourd]

I'll add my experience with this yeast. On Aug 17 I brewed what I am calling Blonde Soubrette. Here's the profile:

Blonde Soubrette
OG: 1.046 SG
FG: 1.004 SG (estimated)
IBU: 20.8
SRM: 5.0

Grains:
Northwestern Pale Ale malt 8.36# 84.79%
Munich Malt 10L 0.50# 5.07%
Vienna Malt 1.00# 10.14%

Hops:
Cascade 6.4%AA 0.75oz 60min
Cascade 6.4%AA 0.5oz 15min

Yeast:
White Labs WLP644 (Brettanomyces Bruxellensis Trois)
3000mL starter

I aerated this more than usual with O2 (60 seconds). Fermented at 75F (ambient temps in my house in the summer here in Louisiana). Fermentation temps raised to about 82F and stabilized back to 75F for the first month. Temps went down to the low 70s in the second month of fermentation (fall is coming and it is bonfire season!).

I was at 1.015 SG 11 days after pitching. Aromas and flavors were mostly citrus (pineapple) with a little funk. It was pretty crisp and clean for such a young beer. A lot of yeast was in suspension. No krausen and no pellicle.

A week later, I was at 1.012 SG. Same aroma and flavor as before with a bit of a mouth puckering effect. Still a lot of yeast in suspension. No krausen and no pellicle.

Another week later, we're at 1.009 SG. Very dry and quite mouth puckering (tart, not sour). Bitterness is nice and removes the tartness in the aftertaste. A lot of yeast has fallen, but the beer is not clear.

One month after pitching, it's now at 1.008 SG with a profile similar to the previous sample. The level of tartness and funk is still fairly light and hasn't increased. I want more funk, so I decided to let it age a bit more. We're still in the primary on the yeast.

Almost two months after pitching, the gravity is stable (1.008 SG). There is a pellicle that looks like a very thin layer of fat that has congealed (see below). It has a few vivid white streaks. The aroma is much funkier with intense tart notes. Very citrusy aroma and flavor that is mostly pineapple with some orange and mango. Flavor is very tart, but not quite like sucking on a lemon tart. Ctrus is bold and fades to a smooth bitterness. This should be a great thirst quenching summer brew. I decided to let it age another week to see how it does. I will then cold crash for a week and keg.

Comments?

 

[JLem]

hope you guys don't mind a little hubris here, but I just found out that the beer I brewed with wlp644 took 2nd place in the Nordeast Big River Homebrew Competition...they offered a special 100% Brett category! I think there may have only been like 5 entries in the category, but a silver medal is a silver medal, right? I knew it was a good beer, but it's nice to have some validation, especially given the beer's "experimental" nature.

 

[othellomcbane]

Congrats! I think it's awesome that a competition even has a category for 100% Brett beers.

I have two 100% Trois batches finishing up. I really need to devote an hour or so to reading through this whole thread once more to see how my results compare with everyone else's.

 

[bigljd]

The email above is actually mine. Some more specifics about the beer is it's mostly a copy of Tasty McDole's Janet's Brown recipe, only I switched out the 1lb of wheat for a 1lb of quick oats. The SG was actually 1.061 and it's currently stuck at 1.027. Everything I've read suggested that the Brett Trois rips through everything, and most people were getting 80%+ attenuation, so to counter that I mashed a bit higher (156-157) instead of the 154 suggested in the recipe, since I was hoping for some body left in the beer. I pitched a 2 liter stir plate starter that was stepped up 3 times over a week. I didn't aerate other than splashing the crap out of it while cooling and racking to the fermenter. Initial fermentation was strong, but then it crapped out at 1.027.
The recipe does have a lot of carapils and crystal malts in it - that combined with the higher mash temp would definitely leave a normal sacc yeast finishing way too sweet, but I guess I assumed that brett trois would rip through some of those sugars. Looks like I was wrong.
Maybe I'll just rack this batch to a carboy and pitch some Wyeast Brett L and let it sit for a few months, and re-brew the same beer at a lower mash temp for our club experiment. I guess I'll wait to see how the other club beers turn out first.

As a follow up to this beer - I've left it sit for a couple weeks and I didn't notice any airlock and assumed it was finished at 1.018, which is where it was a couple weeks ago. I went to dry hop it today and took another gravity reading and it's now down to 1.012! So even with the 156-157 mash temp and 2.25 pounds of crystal/carapils this yeast still managed 80% attenuation! Pretty impressive.
Guess I should have been more patient - the yeast seems to crank through the first phase of fermentation in like 24 hours, then shifts down into low gear and starts breaking down the longer chain sugars over a few weeks.
The taste is good, although it's a little more bitter now that there is less sugars to balance the IBUs. Once the dry hopping is done and it's kegged and carbed I think it should taste good when shared with our brew club.

It's an interesting yeast, and should work well with beers that you want to end up on the dry side. I think I'll try it next on a nice citrusy IPA where I want the hops to shine through and the malt body to be subdued.

 

[lacticacid]

As a follow up to this beer - I've left it sit for a couple weeks and I didn't notice any airlock and assumed it was finished at 1.018, which is where it was a couple weeks ago. I went to dry hop it today and took another gravity reading and it's now down to 1.012! So even with the 156-157 mash temp and 2.25 pounds of crystal/carapils this yeast still managed 80% attenuation! Pretty impressive.
Guess I should have been more patient - the yeast seems to crank through the first phase of fermentation in like 24 hours, then shifts down into low gear and starts breaking down the longer chain sugars over a few weeks.
The taste is good, although it's a little more bitter now that there is less sugars to balance the IBUs. Once the dry hopping is done and it's kegged and carbed I think it should taste good when shared with our brew club.

It's an interesting yeast, and should work well with beers that you want to end up on the dry side. I think I'll try it next on a nice citrusy IPA where I want the hops to shine through and the malt body to be subdued.

Hopefully I'll have something similar to share.

I brewed a Rye Porter with a good bit of crystal. It stalled/finished at 1.030. So I decided to pitch some washed wlp644. I liked it in a 100% Brett beer will see how it plays with s-04.

 

[mhenry41h]

I just drank the first bottle that had decent enough carbonation. (this thing has been VERY slow to do so) The beer is intensely fruity with a nice soft malt finish. This beer is going to need much more time to reach the high level of carbonation that I primed for as well as drying out to the intended gravity. This beer is going to be quite amazing but it needs time. The fruitiness of ECY09 in conjunction with Trois is quite reminiscent of Victory's Golden Monkey.