A group of 12 of us met on December 19th in the back room of KnB Wine Cellars to taste the first round of bottles for the Great Brettanomyces Experiment. We had a very ambitious goal of trying all 20 strains in one sitting. It wasn't the optimal way of doing the tasting, but really the only practical way when trying to get 12 tasters together at one time (the free beer helped). Our palettes were definitely fatigued by the end and I think the ideal situation would be 2 sessions on back to back days if you want to taste all 20 strains. We had a nice mix of craft beer enthusiasts, BJCP judges, and sour/wild beer homebrewers. Well enough about the tasting lets get to the results.Results:
These tasting notes and rankings were summarized from all the tasting participants.
Conclusions:
I think this experiment was a success (and we will continue to see how it goes). The base recipe really let the yeast strains shine (or not) while still providing enough substance to make the drinking experience enjoyable. I plan to use these results not as a these are good strains and these are useless, but as guidance to what beer styles or situations they may work well in.
Next Steps:
I'm going to follow-up in a couple different ways:1. All the strains are going to get a second chance as a bottle conditioning yeast in a recently brewed Beire de Garde.
2. I'm going to create some custom recipes based on the flavor profiles of my favorite strains. I'll probably end up blending most of the strains together based on their flavor profiles.
3. I will also be compiling the results others are logging on the Google Form to compare and get a better idea of each of the strains
As always let me know if you have feedback or questions. We will be holding another tasting in a couple months, so let me know if you are interested.
Jeff,
ReplyDeleteIt was a great night of tasters. Your right on about the pallet at the end of the night. I almost want to redrink the last 5 beers or so. I agree with you also #8 was a solid winner. Keep the information rolling in....
It was a good night. I might try to figure out something else for the 6 month tasting.
DeleteThat won't be the last time you try a beer with EBY 008 in it.
Thanks for sharing. EBY021 is one of my favourites as well. Played around with this strain a couple of times already and makes some great beers. I am quite surprised that the different Cantillon strains perform differently. Who would have thought.
ReplyDeleteJudging from the results I have so far: different people judge strains differently. Some like EBY008, others don't.
Lets hope more people log their results in the google doc. I only have 32 entries so far...
I'm pretty curious how different results will be from each person. I still need to upload my results to the google doc. It was taking too long to go page by page, but I found out I can copy and paste into the spreadsheet.
DeleteI should get the 2nd phase of testing (bottle conditioning) completed soon and then let them sit for a while. I'm thinking 6 months.
I followed the same format for the tasting as you, and with only 10 to try, palates were still fatiguing. I also worry about the tasting order bias. I will randomize the order next time, and depending on how many people I have tasting, have 2 groups tasting in a different order. I made sure that nobody knew which strain they were tasting as well.
ReplyDeleteGood thoughts on taking bias out of the testing. Our tasters didn't know the strain until after tasting, but I also don't think that would influence anyone too much.
DeleteHave you posted your results? Do they seem to match up with mine?
I got 002, 005, 014, and 019 but haven't brewed with them yet. 2 of them leaked in shipping and grew a strange scooby once I proped them up. I need to brew my batch soon, I've been slacking. Some of your tasting notes sound awesome, very cool idea to try them with a group.
ReplyDeleteWell, let me know if you want some others. I owe a few other people some yeast and should be getting them packaged shortly.
DeleteTasting with a group is the only way to make it work. We all got 1 oz pours and that was enough to get a good impression.
It's really interesting to see the results categorized. When we were tasting, it was sometimes hard to make distinctions between strains on the spot-individual strains start to meld together. Your write-up makes clear some of the specifics that get lost in the moment. Props to you for putting it all together. It was super fun and really informative.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the write up! Interesting results, wish I could have joined the tasting.
ReplyDelete