Brett Question

[bigdan]

Alright so I am working on my first wild brew. I brewed a super saison at about 1.084 finished about 1.020 so there's a lot of residual sugars in there. It has a great flavor of leather, fruit and spice. It's a nice dark orange to light amber color. I added just a little oak and pitched the dregs of two Mikkellar bottles of It's alive. It's been about four weeks and there has been no pelicule although I do get alot of foaming if I swirl the carboy. Thinking of pitching apure culture of brett, but am really unfamilar with the different types. I really enjoy the sour tart products I have tried and I like some of the beers that have the horsey character. Although I don't like Ommegang's Beir de Mars, its to much and orval is hit or miss for me. I am not sure if the sour character will match this style of beer and a little horsey charater might be better, but with that much stuff for the brett to eat it might throw off alot of flavor. I am curious if I should be more patient or with what I have done or go ahead and pitch the brett. If I pitch brett which one. It's my understanding the brett brux makes the horsey flavor, brett lambicus make a strong tart cherry, and brett clausini is fairly mild musty flavors (that may not come through in a beer this big). Any thoughts would be appreciated. If people have any commercial examples they can reference the strains in that would be really helpful. Thanks

[Mylo]

Whichever Brett you choose, remember that patience is a virtue. The stuff that you already pitched might be just fine. I just wouldn't expect it to happen faster than 6 months. Brux will give you the horsey/leathery flavor like Orval. Clausenii will give you more pineapple. And you are spot on with the Lambicus. Mraz has said that you get more flavor from stressed out conditions - like underpitching.

BTW, Mike's 100% brett beer at NHC this year was awesome. I think he used Clausenii. It's surprizingly clean when you use it with more conventional pitching rates.

Mylo

[bigdan]

I think my concern with what I have already pitched is that the gravity is not dropping. I would have thought there would be a change in a month, but maybe not.

[SacoDeToro]

I think he used Clausenii. It's surprizingly clean when you use it with more conventional pitching rates.

True dat. I think one misconception about brett is that it will necessarily give out crazy funk under all conditions. If you give brett a "normal" wort that's nutrient and oxygen rich and use, say, ale yeast pitching rates, you'll end up with a very clean beer. It will likely have some background funk, but I've had plenty of all-brett beers that had amazingly clean flavor profiles.

[ChrisKennedy]

True dat. I think one misconception about brett is that it will necessarily give out crazy funk under all conditions. If you give brett a "normal" wort that's nutrient and oxygen rich and use, say, ale yeast pitching rates, you'll end up with a very clean beer. It will likely have some background funk, but I've had plenty of all-brett beers that had amazingly clean flavor profiles.

Depends on the Brett of course.

The bigger misconception (not necessarily by you) is to generalize characteristics to "Brett" when there is monstrous variability from Brett strain to brett strain (even when they have the same name).

Two different kinds of Brett Lambicus may be just as different as two different kinds of Sacc Cerevisiae.

[brewinhard]

I just finished a nice run of 100% Brett C. brews (with Wyeast from last spring). Really enjoyed the clean, crisp profile it gave for a wild yeast. Lemony, some tart citrus, and slight funky, musty background. Would highly recommend although an aggressive yeast it is not. If you don't like Ommegangs Bier de Mars, then definitely don't use Brett B. Depending on the original flavor profile of the saison, you might want to let some of the base beer shine and touch with just the mild (but interesting) Clausenni.

[Gnome Brewer]

I've been growing up a starter from several bottles of Avery 15 (100% brett) for a little over a month now. My plan is to do a run of 100% brews in a couple of weeks once I get a good looking pitch. I emailed avery to see what strain of Brett I'm working with because I've never brewed with brett and it's obviously important to me that I know what the hell I'm working with so I can repeat in the future. I got an email back from Adam Avery himself, he said that he actually grew up the strain that they used from a bottle of Drie Fountainen that he brought back from Belgium (after isolating the bret from the pedio and lacto that was also in there). But he gave me no clue as to what bret strain I've got here. While it has that horse funk flavor, the aroma is definitely pineapple. I know its possible that it's a blend of brets, but I would have assumed that they would probably isolate a single strain for this beer.

So does anybody know what strain of bret Drie Fountainen uses? Or has anybody tasted theAvery 15 and know what bret it tasted like?

[bigdan]

It sounds like you guys are all big fans of the clausini. I was wondering whether this would be good in a sasion. I might just have to try it if the gravity doesn't start dropping with what's in there already. I've heard the clausini is pretty slow even as far a brett strains go. Is that true?