Mosaic Pale Ale Split: Conan Vs. Drie

I had another quick brew session (~3 hrs for all - grain) as time is quite limited with house projects and the baby. I wanted to make sure I had some hoppy beer on tap for my birthday BBQ. I also have been meaning to brew another hoppy beer with Brett Drie, since I loved my first Extra Special Bretter (ESBrett). Speaking of yeast, I recently was sent some Conan (Alchemist's Heady Topper) yeast from Derek at Bear Flavored Ales and some Brett Custerianus from Ryan at Yeast of Burden. It only made sense to do a large batch and split it to test the yeast.











For the hops, I happened to purchase some Mosaic hops earlier in the year when we were planning our 2nd batch for the barrel (still not brewed). I've read a good amount about this hop and many brewers are using it as a single hop. I thought I'd give it a go since I don't know anything about hop blending anyways.














As for the recipe, I wanted something fairly simple since I want the yeast flavor differences to be obvious and to taste the hops. The recipe is about as basic as possible. I did make one tweak in which I added some rye malt to help build some body that the Brett Only batches would need.

Mosaic Pale Ale

IBU: ~30       SRM: ~7      Batch Size: 10 gal  (5 gal - Drie/Conan, 1 gal Custers) 

O.G.: 1.051              FG: 1.017 (Conan),1.009 (Drie), 1.006 (Custersianus)

Fermentables 

Name                            Amount          Color

American 2-row            14.000 lb         2 L

Munich Malt                  2.500 lb        10 L

Crystal 40L                     1.000 lb         40 L

Rye Malt                         1.000 lb          5 L

Hops 

Name         Alpha      Amount      Use      Time         IBU

Warrior     15.5%        1.25 oz       Boil     30 min      24.8

Mosaic      12.5%        1.00 oz       Boil     10 min       6.2
Mosaic      12.5%        1.00 oz       WP       0 min         0

Dryhop:
Conan - 1 oz  Mosaic for 7 days at 70F, 1 oz Mosaic in keg
Drie - 1 oz  Nelson for 7 days at 70F, 1 oz Mosaic in keg
Custersianus - .25 oz Citra at 70F

Yeast

Conan
Drie - 100 ml slurry
Custersianus - 30 ml slurry

Brewing Process 

Mash at 154 grain for 30 min

Boil 30 min (quick batch and no need for long boil)

Fermentation

Conan was fermented in glass carboys at 63 degrees for 10 days then raised to 68.

Drie was fermented in glass carboys at ~70 degrees
Custersianus was fermented in glass jug at ~70 degrees

Tasting Notes at Kegging:
Conan - Fantastic - huge fruity esters from both hops and yeast, nice firm bitterness and tastes pretty dry with the high F.G. (1.017)
Drie - Aroma is great and full of fruit, taste is a bit strange with some slight tartness that doesn't work with the bitterness, then a phenol astringency in the finish - Not good and I'm pretty sure my pitch of Brett Drie is now going to be retired.
Custersianus - Very fruit forward with that ripe funky nice to let you know its wild. Nicely dry and a bit thin, no astringency or tartness

Official Tasting Notes coming soon (hint: Conan version is almost gone- yum)

Barrel Pilot Batches: 100% Brett Beer Trials

It has taken some time for the group to decide on what to make for the second fill of our Chardonnay barrel. After we emptied the American Saison we noticed there was still plenty of oak and Chardonnay flavor remaining so the next batch will need to go well with those flavors. We are planning to eventually do a pale colored sour in the barrel, but if there is too much wine character still remaining it might over power the beer with the long contact time needed for souring. We thought a hoppy 100% brett beer would work well and really doesn't need much time in the barrel. The only issue is that none of us have that much experience with the style to jump right into a 60 gal batch. Therefore,Steven (the barrel babysitter) and I have been working on a couple pilot batches.

The first batch we wanted to build up and test that new strain of Brett Custersianus (Yes, Custer's anus) sent to me by Don at Small Place Big Brews. Steven had already planned to brew a Belgian Wit beer and both of us thought the description of ECY019 Brett Custersianus sounded like it would work well. So here is the recipe for that beer:


Recipe: Belgian Wit

Batch Size 12.0 gal         O.G.-1.057       F.G.-TBD
IBU-18.6                          SRM-5.4         ABV-TBD

Grain Bill (77% Efficiency):
11 lb Pilsner Malt (52%)
6.6 lb Raw White Summer Wheat (31%)
1.65 lb CaraRed (8%)
.9 lb Acid Malt (4%)
.9 lb Flaked Wheat (4%)

Hops:
.55 oz Pacific Jade, 14.2%, pellet, 60 min 16 IBU
.3 oz Pacific Jade, 14.2%, pellet, 15 min 2 IBU
.3 oz Pacific Jade, 14.2%, pellet, 10 min

Spices:
10 g Coriander Seed
.5 lb Crushed Kumquat
1 g Black Pepper

Yeast:
WLP400 Belgian Wit Ale - 5 gal
ECY019 Brett Custersianus - 5 gal

Mash/Boil Details:
Protein Rest. Temp/Time: 122F @ 30min
Sacc Rest. Temp/Time: 148F @ 75min
Boil Time: 90min

So that plan didn't work too well, the gravity didn't move and no change in taste for a week  We think we tried to step it up to 5 gals too quickly and didn't have enough yeast (This is a time when the brew day was planned before the beer). Thankfully Steven is an extremely clean brewer and nothing else started to ferment. At that point, we talked and decide to add some wine yeast. I've wanted to experiment with wine yeasts in beer (some good info here and here) and this seemed a good time. The wine yeast kicked in and fermented to 1.020 (it is incapable of fermenting maltotriose), so we are hoping the Brett will kick in (per Steven's last check it seems so). This might be an interesting beer that will need some time to finish out. Not sure how this will turn out, so we decided to start another batch.

We decided to go with the Brett Drie strain since I have a good amount of experience with it. The flavor profile we really want to hit with this beer is " intense juicy tropical fruit flavors in a well balanced, medium mouthfeel beer". We have picked out the malt bill to help with building body (Because Brett can't produce glycerol, which helps with mouthfeel). We also wanted some complex sugar (from CaraMunich) because in my experience that helps Brett Drie produce more fruit esters. We plan to mash a tad high at 153-154 to prevent the beer from drying out too much.

Next the hop bill, we want to hop burst this for max flavor and aroma with just enough IBUs to help balance the beer. I'm thinking around 30, since Brett seems to accentuate bitterness and we will have some "perceived" bitterness with the flameout and dry-hopping. We are thinking of a blend of hops:

• Belma for its round tropical notes and it's cheap ($5/lb when it was available)
• Citra for the melon notes
• Nelson for the passion fruit (matches well with the esters from Brett Drie).

I found both Citra and Nelson in bulk, so we'll have plenty when we step it up to the barrel. I got them from Label Peelers, which also had some Amarillo and Mosaic so those will find themselves in some beer soon. I'm think of making a series of single hop pale ales to have on draft. I'm think they will be super short brew sessions with extract, a 15 min boil, and lots of late hops - my goal is to brew under an hour.

Recipe: Hoppy Brett Beer

Batch Size 5.0 gal         O.G.-1.065          F.G.-TBD
IBU-33                          SRM-7                ABV-TBD

Grain Bill (77% Efficiency):
2 Row Malt Grain 8.000 lb
Wheat, Flaked Grain 2.000 lb
Caramunich Malt Grain 8.000 oz 56 L
Oats, Flaked Grain 16.000 oz
Acid Malt Grain 6.000 oz

Hops
2 oz Belma 9.8% -15 min 23 IBUS
1 oz Nelson Sauvin 12.5% - 5.000 min 10.2 IBUs

Whirlpool
0.5 oz Nelson Sauvin 12.5%
0.5 oz Belma 9.8%
0.5 oz Citra 12.0%

Dry Hop
0.5 oz Nelson Sauvin 12.5%
0.5 oz Belma 9.8%
0.5 oz Citra 12.0%

Yeast:
Drie Brett

Mash/Boil Details:
Sacc. Rest 153 F

As we I'm writing this, we just decided to make this a 10 gal batch and try the Alchemist's Heady Topper, Conan yeast that Derek at Bear Flavored Ales sent me recently.

I'll post tasting notes of the two pilot batches soon.

Dark Rye Super Saison

I brewed this beer almost 2 monthes ago before the craziness of the new house started. I thought I posted about this beer, but apparently not. I had a lot of fun with designing the recipe and my fingers are crossed that it tastes good (I still haven't tasted the beer, it's still in Dan's Cellar).










Last year's Dark Saison had a clear focus on dark fruit - by using Special B and treacle for the fruit flavors and a higher kilned base malt to help with the richness. After many months the flavors came together and it's one of my more favorite homebrews. This year however, I wanted to try a much different flavor focus. From reviewing my last few Saisons you can see I'm experimenting with new (to me) adjunct grains. (Oats in Table Saison, Spelt in Traditional Saison). For this beer I wanted to go big on the rye. To be honest, I have a difficult time picking out this flavor in commercial styles I've tried. I read about the "spicy" notes, but it hasn't registered for me. With this beer I wanted to make sure I included plenty of rye, I ended up around 30%. To build on this "spiciness" I also included a decent amount of late hopping with Saaz.

The other big component I wanted in this beer was a distinct roastiness. (Side story: I do a lot of recipe generation in my head while I'm bike riding. A group of us ride each Wednesday night and after these rides, it is our tradition to share homebrews. At the time of this recipe, it was pretty chilly (we are talking 50s in San Diego) and I really just wanted to drink something with a rich roastiness.) What better way to get the roast in this beer than to use a new malt I have been wanting to try - Chocolate Rye from Weyermann. And try a new technique for me - Cold Steeping. Two days before brew day I boiled and cooled 1 gal of water. I added about half to a 1 gal container and then poured in my 2 lbs of Chocolate Rye malt. I topped up the water, gave it a good swirl to make sure all the grain was soaked and left it in the fridge. On brewday, I just poured the 1 gal container into the boil kettle and used a colander to catch the grain. (I took a sample taste of the cold steeped liquid and it was delicious on its own.) I dumped the soaked grain on top of the mash before sparging.

Just like last year's version, I wanted to make this a big beer. With an O.G. at 1.080 I'm hoping to get around 10% ABV. I soured a portion of last year's and the sourness really disguised the alcohol (the dryness helped also). I ended up calling that beer the "Widow Maker" since all the guys drank way too much during Halloween and the wives wanted nothing to do with us. I'll probably end up souring some more this year, but haven't decided on what bug cocktail to use.

As for yeast in this batch, I wanted to continue my split batches. I ended up making starters for ECY 08 and my harvested Dupont yeast. I also did a gal with Brett Drie to test the alcohol threshold of the strain.

Recipe: Dark Rye Super Saison

Batch Size 10.0 gal        O.G.-1.081                       F.G.-TBD
IBU-30                             SRM-24                             ABV-TBD

Grain Bill (77% Efficiency):

22 lb Pilsner Malt (69%)
6 lb Rye Malt (19%)

2 lb Flaked Rye (6%)
2 lb Chocolate Rye Malt (6%) - cold steep

Hops:
1.5 oz Super Styrian, 9.5%, pellet, 90 min 30 IBU
2 oz Saaz, 4.5%, pellet, Whirlpool

Yeast:
Re-used Cultured Dupont dregs - 5 gal batch
Re-used ECY08 - 5 gal batch
Re-used Brett Drie - 1 gal batch

Brew Day:
Brewed: 9/30/12

Water:
50/50 Blend of San Diego tap water and Distilled

Mash Details:
H2O/Grain Ratio: 1.0 qt/lb
Sacc Rest. Temp/Time: 148F @ 60min
Sparge Temp/Time: 170F

Boil Details:
Boil Time: 90min

Ferment Details:
Ferment Temp: pitched at 70 and allowed to free rise. No temperature control. In Dan's cellar.

The Dupont version was off to an explosive start and all the beers seemed to finish up pretty quickly. These beers are sitting in carboys just waiting for an empty keg. I need to start drinking some beer. I should have some tasting notes posted as soon as I have time to get these packaged.

Homebrew Tasting: Great Saison Experiment + Extra

The Great Saison Experiment (Part 1, Part 2) went marginally. I'm not having the best of luck with my experiments lately (The Great Wood Experiment was crashed by Brett). The positive spin is that I'm learning more about experimentation. The Saison Experiment's problem was that I tried too many new things in one test. Mainly, I used a huge dose of oats in the beer. Also the lower starting gravity of the beer and high percentage of simple sugars resulted in flat tasting beer. These 3 things are my only explanation as to why these beers don't have much flavor  And without much flavor it is difficult to pick out differences in yeast. So next year, I'm going to stick with a more straight forward and tested recipe to use as the canvas for these yeasts.

There were some subtle differences, but not nearly what I was expecting from this experiment. Therefore I'm going to hold off another month on an official tasting to see if I can get some more flavor development and a greater spread between each sample. As a result of not being all that excited about the results, I ended up splitting these batches even more. Below is a list of all the beers made from this single 20 gal brew session:

1. French Saison Wyeast 3711 - harvested from last year's French Saison - 5 gal batch
1. Plain (1 gal) - bottled
2. Farmhouse Pale Ale #1 (2.5 gal) - Dry-hopped with 1 oz Citra - brought to QUAFF
3. Farmhouse Pale Ale #2 (1.5 gal) - Dry - hopped with 1 oz Chillindamos' Centennial hops
2. Saison Dupont - harvested - 5 gal batch
1. Plain (1 gal) - bottled
2. Farmhouse Pale Ale #3 (2.5 gal) - Dry-hopped with 2 oz Saaz Whole leaf - drank during the Barrel Project
3. Farmhouse Pale Ale #4 (1.5 gal) - Dry - hopped with 1 oz Chillindamos' Centennial hops
3. Brett Drie - used yeast cake from ESBrett - 5 gal btach

1. Plain (1 gal) - bottled
2. Pink Version (1 gal) - 1 liter of homemade Prickly Pear syrup, 1 oz Hibiscus flowers - bottled
3. Go-Go Juice (1 gal) - 1 lb dates, 1 lb figs - carmelized
4. Farmhouse Pale Ale #5 (2 gal) - Dry - hopped with 2 oz HBC 342 - weak, added 1 oz Calypso - currently on tap (10/5/12)
4. ECY03 - 1/2 vial - 1 gal batch - bottled
5. ECY08 -  1/2 vial - 1 gal batch -  bottled
6. Lost Abbey Red Barn - harvested -  1 gal batch -  bottled
7. Southampton Saison Deluxe - harvested -  1 gal batch - bottled
8. Logsdon Seizon Bretta - harvested -  1 gal batch -  bottled

Farmhouse Pale Ale

This might be my new summer beer. This is going to be brewed every year. I have never gone through kegs that fast and had so much great feedback. I took Farmhouse Pale Ale #3 (Dupont-Saaz) to our Chardonnay Barrel Project brew session and it went over very well. So well, that there was only a super cloudy pint went I got back home. Farmhouse #1 (3711-Citra) was taken to my monthly QUAFF homebrew club meeting and seem to be well liked by most. We usually don't get too much feedback about beers because the meeting is so big, but multiple people asked about it after the meeting. Then #2 and #4 were just a showcase for Sean's (Chillindamos) homegrown Centennial hops. These hops were so aromatic with a great blend of piney and lemon citrus falvors. The yeast character on the 3711 version boosted that lemon character even more.

Right now I'm working on my Farmhouse IPAs which are dry-hopped versions of my Spelt Saison.

I do have one formal tasting sheet filled out on my Brett Drie Table Saison with Prickly Pear and Hibiscus.

I'll be tasting all 8 plain versions side by side in the next month. Contact me if you are interested in participating.

Brett Drie (Trois) Overview + Spelt Saison Results

First, a confession - I have become slightly obsessed with a single cell organism.

 I have posted my experience with Brett Drie (WLP644 - Brett B Trois) (Avery 15 Brett) in a couple different online sources so I thought I would compile some of the information.

WLP644 -Brett B Trois - Homebrewtalk Thread

WLP644 - Babblebelt Thread




I have been brewing with this strain for about a year and a half. The back story is that one of my homebrew friends cultured this from a bottle of Avery 15. The yeast is referred to as the Brett Drie strain. If you have read through Chad Y's paper and website he discovered that there are actually 2 strains present (Chad still uses these strains at Crooked Stave in addition to others he has isolated). They were each used in his thesis experiment and the fermentation is well documented.

My friend, Adrian, gave me a vial and Neva at White Labs one too. It took White Lab's quite a while to come out with this yeast and not sure how well it relates to what I have been using. Did they isolated one strain or do any manipulation?)


I do know that I get the flavors and attenuation that others have reported from using WLP644. After my first time using this Brett I was hooked. The tropical fruit notes were great, they literally filled the room when I was bottling.

Best Bitter with Brett Drie -  1.048 - 1.010 - 79% Apparent Attenuation - Mashed 154 - 8% crystal malts  - 30 IBUs -no aeration - big tropical fruit - nice w/ Goldings

I have tried it in several different styles of wort since that first test batch (link above) and consider it my house Brett strain. I mostly use it in Primary as in the examples below. (I have also used it at bottling in some Saisons and was not all that impressed with the results - mostly some light traditional Brett funk flavors.)

Old Ale wort -  1.079 - 1.014 - 82% Apparent Attenuation - Mashed 154 - 7.5% Crystal Malts, 8% Turbinado sugar  40 IBUS - 8.6% - aerated - sour and decently complex in 3 months - one of my favorite beers I've ever made or tasted.

Hoppy Bitter (Extra Special Brett-er) - 1.049 - 1.006 - 20 IBUs - Dry-hopped w Nelson - testing it with a Hoppy wort - no aeration - fermentation fruit notes played really well with tropical fruit notes of the Nelson hops - my best hop forward beer I've made.

Table Saison with Rolled Oats - F.G. (.999) - 103% Apparent Attenuation. Mashed at 147 with 80% Pils, 15% Rolled Oats, 2.5% Acid Malt, 2.5% Piloncillo sugar - very clean on first taste, going to dry-hop half with HBC 342 hops (aroma and taste was weak) and now added 1 oz of Calypso hops


Aeration:
The Brett will produce some acid (acetic) if you aerate it well, the acidity is just enough in my opinion to give people the idea that it is a wild beer, but no where near a sharp bite. If you do not aerate, then the yeast will still produce the fruit flavors, but with little to no acidity and a very "clean" taste.

Fermentation:
I get a very quick fermentation from this yeast, but I'm making large starters. I usually start with some saved yeast in a White Labs vial that is 1/8 full of yeast. I do a 4 oz 1.020 starter , then a 32 oz 1.040 starter, then 64 oz 1.040 with a week between each. According to my estimates (very rough) and this calculator (http://yeastcalc.com/ - based on Sacc), I had some where around 220 billion cells. The majority of the activity seems to be done in a few days and then I get some residual for another couple weeks.











As for temperature, my first batches were all fermented in the 68 - 72 range. Well, for this most recent batch of Spelt Saison I wanted to test this temperature dependence. I split the main batch wort into 2 - 1 gal batches. One batch was fermented with a normal Saison temperature profile (start in the low 70s and free rise into the 80s and held for a week). The other batch was temperature controlled in the fermentation cabinet at 63-65 for 2 weeks and then brought up to mid 70s. The fermentation looked complete after 2 weeks.

Results: 
Saison Profile - 1.000 - nice spicy notes, Belgian phenols and light fruit notes
Low Ale Temps - 1.000 - nice spicy notes, Belgian phenols and light fruit notes

I was surprised by the results, both were 100% Apparent Attenuation and 7.9% ABV. These both were allowed to ferment out for a total of 3 weeks before bottling. I'll do an official taste test in the following weeks.

Flavor Progression:

The beer starts very clean (no noticeable acidity if you don't intentionally aerate) with huge tropical fruit flavors. I refer to the flavor as POG (Passion Orange Guava). After a month or so that flavor starts going toward over ripe fruit with a bit of funk. And long term the beer has gotten progressively more sour (I may not have a pure culture), but not more than a mild tartness. And the tropical fruit flavors remain and are mixed with more traditional Brett funk notes.

Bottling/Packaging:
Nothing to worry about if you are kegging, but for bottling I have been waiting about 3 -4 weeks. And the stability in the bottle is great. You can use standard priming sugar amounts. This Brett strain and most of them have very low flocculation. You may need to assist the yeast to floc out with a cold crash and a bit of pressure. Also gelatin and racking will greatly help.

Notes:
One thing I have just noticed in my latest Table Saison with 100% Brett is how clean the fermentation profile turned out. The beer was mashed at 148 with 20% rolled oats. This beer fermented from 1.044 down to 1.000 in about a week. I am thinking that without very many complex sugars (from a higher mash temp or crystal malts) that the Brett does not produce the same esters. Also it did not have a lot of hop compounds to play off either.

Please feel free to ask questions and suggest ideas for future experiments. (I am interested in seeing the fermentation limits of this yeast - 20% Brett Beer anyone?)

The Great Saison Experiment: 8 Strains - Part 2

Part 1 Malt, Hops, Mash ....Continued

So with the malt bill and hopping already covered we can move onto the part that matters the most for Saison - Yeast. There are several yeast forward beer styles (hefeweizen, wit, all other French/Belgian beers with the exception of Biere de Garde), but Saison stands out. The malt and hops just provide a foundation (mouthfeel, background flavors) for the yeast derived flavors to build on. So for me the most important ingredient for my Saison is what yeast I use.  My next step was to hunt down the best yeasts. I did some important research and narrowed down my choices to 8. (I may do another round next month because there are more I want to try - many more)

No yeast was (directly) bought in the making of this beer

1. French Saison Wyeast 3711 - harvested from last year's French Saison - 5 gal batch
2. Saison Dupont - harvested from a 750 ml - 5 gal batch
3. Brett Drie - used yeast cake from ESBrett - 5 gal btach
4. ECY03 - 1/2 vial (birthday gift from a homebrew friend) - 1 gal batch - If anyone knows more about the actual yeasts in the blends please leave a comment.
5. ECY08 -  1/2 vial (birthday gift from a homebrew friend) - 1 gal batch -  If anyone knows more about the actual yeasts in the blends please leave a comment.
6. Lost Abbey Red Barn - harvest from a very fresh 750 ml -  1 gal batch -  hope it's the same yeast as Carnevale which is sweeping competitions this year.
7. Southampton Saison Deluxe - harvested from a 1 yr old bottle -  1 gal batch - Phil Markowski literally wrote the book on Farmhouse beers
8. Logsdon Seizon Bretta - harvested from 750 ml -  1 gal batch -  Have heard great things and enjoyed the interview over on Embrace The Funk

For all the yeast (except the Logsdon, pitched directly), I made a 4 oz - 1.030 starter which was poured directly into the bottle. Then 3 - 4 days later I added another 6 oz - 1.030 starter to the bottle. (For the 1 gal batches, that was the limit of the stepping up.) For the Saison Dupont and French Saison, I started stepping them up about 3 weeks before brew day. After the 6 oz starter, I added 32 oz - 1.030 starter to a 1 gal container and poured the entire contents of each starter bottle. Then 3 days before brew day I added an additional 32 oz - 1.030 wort to the Dupont, French Saison and old Brett Drie yeast cake. All the starters were showing nice krausens by brew day.

As for fermentation profile, I am going to keep this round simple instead of the preferred temperature ramping I normally do. All 20 gals were pitched at ~ 70F and kept in ambient closest conditions (~75F). I did not use any exterior cooling or water baths, I allowed all the beer's temperatures to free rise during fermentation. The next round of testing will experiment with higher fermentation temperatures (using heating blankets).

5 Gallon Batches (Brett Drie in corny, French Saison, Dupont)

Day 2

Day 5

 1 Gallon Batches (Lost Abbey, SoutHampton, ECY03, ECY08, Logsdon)

Day 2

Day 5

 I tried to emulate my water profile to the one listed in Farmhouse beers. Basically, the Saison water profile is low in all minerals except Sulfate and Bicarbonates. The higher sulfate level will help to enhance the dry and bitter mouthfeel. I do not pretend to be an expert, I just created a close approximation of the profile with San Diego water cut with R/O and some other salts added (see below).

Active fermentation took off for all the batches after a short lag time with the exception of the Logsdon yeast which did not have a starter, activity took about 36 hrs. The next phase of this experiment will be tasting notes, which I will try to get a panel together for.

Brett Series: Extra Special "Brett"er

If you have followed me for any length of time you will have noticed that I'm not into naming beers. But I have finally named a beer and I think it was pretty creative, Extra Special "Brett"er.

I have not been so excited about a beer in a long time. This beer has been in my mind for a while and I just decided to brew it a few weeks ago. It is funny how stuff happens, as soon as I brewed this beer, then I started seeing others talk about Brett Only beers

• Chad Y of Crooked Stave was on the Brewing Network's Sunday Session the following night
• Lewy Brewing was inspired and brewed a similar beer (which I can't wait to try side by side mine)
• Embrace the Funk had another Brett only beer that focused on Citrus/Fruity flavors.

It would be nice if these styles took off as I think they open up so many new flavor palates. For this particular beer I had a very focused flavor profile I was going for. From previous experience with Brett Drie in my Best Bitter (almost a 1.5 yr ago), I know it produces some huge fruit flavors when young. Especially tropical flavors like guava, mango, papaya (think the popular Hawaiian drink POG). To follow-up with this, there are two main ways you can go with flavor blending - contrasting or complementing. I decided to go for something that would re-enforce the tropical fruit flavors - Nelson Sauvin hops.  My first exposure to these hops was in Alpine Brewing's Nelson, which is wildly popular. My first time trying it, it took me by surprise because I was expecting a big citrus hop flavor typical of many West Coast IPAs and this beer has a soft fruit flavor. And at that point the "Sauvin" in the name started to make sense because of the relationship to white wine flavors.

I was not overly concerned about the malt bill for this beer because the hops and yeast flavors are going to be so dominant. The mouthfeel may be a bit lacking because of the way that Brett does not produce glycerol, but I'll wait to see how that affects the final beer.

This beer used the second runnings from my 2012 English Barleywine. I capped the mash with 1 lb of acid malt, which has been proven in Chad Y's research to help with Brett Only fermentations. I also added about a lb of Extra Special Roast on top to help with color and a little malt complexity (I'm not sure if it will make a difference).









Extra Special "Brett"er

100% Brett Drie / 100% Nelson Sauvin hops
O.G.-1.048  F.G.-1.007   IBU-19 
Size -5.0 gal    SRM-12   ABV - 5.5%   

Grain Bill :
2nd Runnings:
22 lb Golden Promise Malt (96%)
8 oz  Crystal 155L (2.4%)
8 oz Crystal 55L (2.4%) 


Mash Cap:
1 lb Acid Malt
1 lb Extra Special Roast Malt

Hops:
.25 oz Nelson Sauvin, 12.5%, pellet, 60 min 14.4 IBU
.5 oz Nelson Sauvin, 12.5%, pellet, 15 min 7.7 IBU 
.1 oz Nelson Sauvin, 12.5%, pellet, Dry Hop - 2 weeks
  
Yeast:
Brett Drie 
4 oz -> 16 oz -> 32 oz 1.040 Starters each for 6 days
Brew Day:
Brewed: 4/15/12

Water:
50/50 Blend of San Diego tap water and Distilled


Mash Details:
H2O/Grain Ratio: 1.25 qt/lb
Mash Volume: 6.5 gal
Sacc Rest. Temp/Time: 152F @ 60min
Sparge Volume: 2.5 gal
Sparge Temp/Time: 170F

Boil Details:
Boil Volume: 6.5gal
Boil Time: 60min
Post Boil Volume: 5.0 gal

Ferment Details:
Ferment Temp: 68

If you want to try some please let me know. I plan to drink this beer while it is fresh and it should be done in a couple more weeks after I let the dry-hop finish.

04/29/12 - 1.007 

Added 1 oz of Nelson Sauvin hops. Took a sample and this beer is what I was hoping for. It has that same POG flavor I remember. The beer is still very cloudy and will need some cold crashing.

Dreg Series: Old Ale with Avery 15 Brett

Since I was just blown away with my results with these Brett strains in the Avery 15 / Drie Bitter I had to do another batch. And also since this is a Brett Only beer with no other bugs, I'm not too concerned with super attenuation. I am still letting these beers sit for a couple months before bottling but not the normal 12 months I would with other sour beers.









I am still waiting for the Bitter to carbonate before I do a review but just from the smell and gravity sample I know this yeast gives off a lot of fruit flavors. So when I was constructing my Old Ale recipe and thinking about how I want the some dark fruit flavors I knew I had to try this yeast on some of the wort. I'm thinking this beer is going to give me a delicious thick FRUIT CAKE beer.

The yeast took off again, with activity within a couple hours even with this higher alcohol content. It appeared to be fully fermented in a week.

 
02.17.11 Gravity at 1.020 (that is 7.2% ABV, and 73% Apparent Attenuation)
The taste is fantastically sour. This beer tastes like a year old beer. It is not quite as complex as I want it and the malt flavor is hidden a bit behind all the sour fruity notes. Has a nice mouthfeel and is not too sweet. But easily one of the better sours I've had and only after a month!
Add .25 oz French Oak cubes and 3 oz Turbinado Sugar (adds 8 pts or 2% alcohol)

07.22.11 Gravity 1.014. Overall beer went from 1.071 + .008(sugar) = 1.079 = 8.6% ABV and 82% Apparent Attenuation. Bottled to 2.5 Volumes. Nice sweet and sour balance. Then carmel and toffee flavor. Also a decent amount of sourness for Brett Only.