WLP644 -Brett B Trois

[Beerknuckled]

I used this in conjunction with Cali IV in a hopped-up saison-style brew, all-grain, which I dipped into during high krausen in order to krausen a previous saison brew for bottle carb (primary on that: WL Belgian blend). After a week of krausen carbing, a pellicle formed in bottle--which had me sweating, as the bottled batch was my first homebrew. I tasted a bottle, though, and it was spot on...minus enough CO2, of course.

Interestingly, while a pellicle is floating in bottle (doesn't look fluffy enough to warrant ID of krausen in bottle neck) no pellicle has formed in primary carboy. The primary showed krausen, and put off strong tropical fruit notes before the Cali IV sulfur kicked up. Weird, magical, mutant strain. I like it.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

No need to worry. I have had this throw a pellicle in bottles but have yet to get one in the fermenter.

 

[gometz]

So WLP644 is now confirmed to be Sacc and not Brett. How can it create a pellicle then?

 

[burninator]

So WLP644 is now confirmed to be Sacc and not Brett. How can it create a pellicle then?

Sacc is, theoretically able to produce a pellicle, but the strains we use in brewing have had this characteristic selected out, if I understand the research.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

So WLP644 is now confirmed to be Sacc and not Brett. How can it create a pellicle then?

It is a wild Sacc strain. As stated above Sacc strains do have the ability to form a pellicle but the ones that are primarily used in brewing do not normally form pellicles.

 

[dinnerstick]

My collab brew with local nano 'Ruig' is now on a few taps locally and in bottle shops in 750ml bottles (bert's bierhuis utrecht, bierkoning amsterdam). It's a 100% trois IIPA called Ruige Haring, and a monster of a beer. Very simple malt bill; 90% pale 10% wheat. No sugar as the yeast is super-attenuative. All C-hops, lots of them. The aroma is all c-hop, the usual citrus and pine. Flavor, you get hit immediately with the trois halfway-between-artificial-pineapple-and-bubblegum fruitiness, and then a huge smash of sweet malty alcoholy body hits your chest. Odd for a beer that finished 1.008. Just when you thought it was going towards barley wine, the sweetness is suddenly gone and you are left with a pleasantly bitter and dry finish. We call it "A double IPA, but not like the ones your grandfather drank".
It was a fun experiment, we didn't do any pilot batches in advance, and i had never used this yeast in a beer this big before. But it did take its sweet time in clearing as Ruig can't cold crash their conicals, and it was a giant PIA to grow up enough yeast for the pitch!

 

[aslander]

My collab brew with local nano 'Ruig' is now on a few taps locally and in bottle shops in 750ml bottles (bert's bierhuis utrecht, bierkoning amsterdam). It's a 100% trois IIPA called Ruige Haring, and a monster of a beer. Very simple malt bill; 90% pale 10% wheat. No sugar as the yeast is super-attenuative. All C-hops, lots of them. The aroma is all c-hop, the usual citrus and pine. Flavor, you get hit immediately with the trois halfway-between-artificial-pineapple-and-bubblegum fruitiness, and then a huge smash of sweet malty alcoholy body hits your chest. Odd for a beer that finished 1.008. Just when you thought it was going towards barley wine, the sweetness is suddenly gone and you are left with a pleasantly bitter and dry finish. We call it "A double IPA, but not like the ones your grandfather drank".
It was a fun experiment, we didn't do any pilot batches in advance, and i had never used this yeast in a beer this big before. But it did take its sweet time in clearing as Ruig can't cold crash their conicals, and it was a giant PIA to grow up enough yeast for the pitch!

Dinnerstick, what temp did you ferment it at? What was your attenuation/OG/FG?

 

[dinnerstick]

Dinnerstick, what temp did you ferment it at? What was your attenuation/OG/FG?

1.080 - 1.008
fermented 22c

 

[aslander]

Good to know, thanks!

 

[gwapogorilla]

Wow, that's really high praise.

Meh, I think chico is over rated.

 

[TheHairyHop]

I can't believe that I read this entire thread.

It sounds like I'm going to make an IPA with an ale starter, no aeration, 75 degrees and let it ferment for 6 weeks. I want that tropical flavor and I'll see if I can get it

 

[TastyAdventure]

I can't believe that I read this entire thread.

It sounds like I'm going to make an IPA with an ale starter, no aeration, 75 degrees and let it ferment for 6 weeks. I want that tropical flavor and I'll see if I can get it

I have posted some negative comments about this yeast on this thread, but I will say that I just drank a 6 month old bottle of New Zealand pale ale with 100% 644 and it was actually delicious. It was very strange bc it tasted almost exactly like the other half of that batch I made with US-05 when it was fresh... With a touch of earthiness to it in the back. Very strange , but very tasty.
That being said, I did not enjoy the 100% 644 half of that batch when it was fresh. It takes forever to floccate and you can taste the yeastiness...

 

[TheHairyHop]

I have posted some negative comments about this yeast on this thread, but I will say that I just drank a 6 month old bottle of New Zealand pale ale with 100% 644 and it was actually delicious. It was very strange bc it tasted almost exactly like the other half of that batch I made with US-05 when it was fresh... With a touch of earthiness to it in the back. Very strange , but very tasty.
That being said, I did not enjoy the 100% 644 half of that batch when it was fresh. It takes forever to floccate and you can taste the yeastiness...

that's odd, because some posters were saying it was some of the clearest beer they've ever made. did you cold crash under pressure?

 

[BrewinHooligan]

The yeast does take forever to flocculate at room/fermentation temps but cold crashing will fix the problem if you give it a little time.

 

[TheHairyHop]

It's well documented by now, but I may as well present my experiences.

I'm making a two step starter. Less than 12 hours into the 1L, fermentation is vigorous and the krausen is large. No smells whatsoever other than typical yeast. I'm shaking every now and then, because I couldn't find my stir bar after I moved back :/

 

[TheHairyHop]

Went 1L to 2L starter. Let it drop out in the fridge for a few days, decanted most of the beer, swirled and pitched into non-aerated wort. There was a krausen less than 3 hours after brewing. These guys are beasts

 

[Atomook]

Im making a starter with this now, and after two days seeing no real visible signs of activity. Do the starters take unusually long times to get kicking or am I looking at a bum deal?

 

[Gus_13]

Im making a starter with this now, and after two days seeing no real visible signs of activity. Do the starters take unusually long times to get kicking or am I looking at a bum deal?

It can take a couple days. How big is your starter? I like to start smaller with something like a 1.020 wort then step it up.

 

[TheHairyHop]

Im making a starter with this now, and after two days seeing no real visible signs of activity. Do the starters take unusually long times to get kicking or am I looking at a bum deal?

I've never had a starter take longer than 24 hours to start up, but surface activity is never a sure sign of fermentation. Depending on the vigor of your fermentation and the shape of your vessel in relation to the wort, you may not see anything. How much wort did you make and what OG?

 

[m00ps]

Im making a starter with this now, and after two days seeing no real visible signs of activity. Do the starters take unusually long times to get kicking or am I looking at a bum deal?

Brett usually takes longer to get going. ALso, the cell count white labs puts in their wild cultures is tiny. Did you make a typical sized starter? if so, probably should started small

 

[sweetcell]

Brett usually takes longer to get going.

true, but WLP644 is not brett....

ALso, the cell count white labs puts in their wild cultures is tiny.

soooooo frustrating that they do this...

 

[TheHairyHop]

fwiw, I did 1L to 2L steps and had a rockin starter. I believe that I aimed for 1.035

 

[desmoinestony]

Regarding these findings do you think I would need to use my Brett dedicated equipment for this strain? Or will it not leach into the plastic equipment since it is Sacch?

 

[TheHairyHop]

I don't want to tell you something and ruin your equipment, but I did not care about using it with my regular sacch equipment. what are you making btw?

 

[sweetcell]

Regarding these findings do you think I would need to use my Brett dedicated equipment for this strain? Or will it not leach into the plastic equipment since it is Sacch?

if i ever use this strain again, i would treat it as a regular sacch.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Just bottled up a saison that was fermented in the same bucket as an IPA I fermented with this strain. No off flavors so far in the saison, I think if you treat like Sacc you will be fine. One of the things I love about the strain. Behaves like Sacc (because it is) but has a decent "brett" character.

 

[Calder]

Regarding these findings do you think I would need to use my Brett dedicated equipment for this strain? Or will it not leach into the plastic equipment since it is Sacch?

It is NOT Brett. Even White Labs calls it a sacc yeast now. It will not contaminate a beer and slowly work like Brett. No need to use separate equipment.

 

[desmoinestony]

Thanks guys.... I was thinking of splitting a batch with one sacch brux trois and a true Brett for comparison... and don't want to make the jump to having even more strictly Brett buckets....

 

[TheHairyHop]

judging from some experiences in this thread if you're looking for brett characteristics, you may want to look elsewhere. I think that everyone who made a saison ended up being disappointed

 

[m00ps]

cant it somehow make a pellicle though? I just would consider it as brett since it behaves like one adn tastes like one. Kind of like how i stubbornly refuse to call a tomato a fruit

I think most people that did a brett saison did 100% brett. All brett beers just come out as super fruity, zero funk