People with experience, how long are we talking here? On Teach a friend… As a club we made a big Am. Barleywine (OG 1.109). Since no one was claiming the second runnings and was basically going to be dumped I collect it and brewed up a smaller beer (OG 1.044). I pitched a packet of Wyeast Bret Lambicus and has been sitting in glass since. I don’t really see the typical wreath as I do with saccharomyces but the air lock looks as though it has pressure.
Yeah - the commercial examples of 100% brett beers have been fairly mild. “Brett Beer” from New Belgium / Lost Abbey is what comes to mind. If you told me it was a Kolsch, I wouldn’t have argued. Soft, dry, and fruity. Really nice beer.
Brett is a different beast as a primary and a secondary yeast. I could go into detail, but I’d just be quoting Chad Yakobsen:
I’ve made a number of 100% Brett beers, and I love them. I pitch a big starter and aerate the wort. Most are done in 3 weeks or so, and get to 80-90% attenuation. The beers tend to have a lot of tropical fruit and a light tartness that is very appealing. I’ve mainly used Brett c. One character I’ve noted consistently is a brilliant clarity in the finished beer that is hard to achieve in a Sacc fermentation.
So, can you make a traditional style with it, for example, a porter or a pale ale, or are the beers on the sour side? Tropical fruit sounds good in an English bitter or an APA, but sourness, not so much.
Hehehehe, you ABSOLUTELY can. Especially since Brettanomyces was named after British ales because the Brett flavors were typical for them about 100 years ago. I noticed that some Brett strains have a buttery feel and taste to them (probably diacetyl) which is also acceptable in English styles.
I know this is an old thread, but I’m hoping to get some feedback from it. I kettle soured a Flanders Red and used Brett Lambicus as my primary yeast.
I built up the starter in two steps, first in 1/2 L of starter wort, then up to 1.25 L of starter wort. It smelled great in the starter and looked ready come brew day.
After pitching my starter of WLP653 and holding around 80 F, the fermentation took off like a rocket. I used a blow off tube and the foam quickly blew over a 6.5 gal carboy on the first night of fermentation. After four days, the fermentation calmed down and seems to have halted out (no more bubbling through blow-off or visible floc). I pulled a sample to test the flavor and gravity. The beer tastes and smells great, not really showing any signs of the cherry-pie aroma or flavor the starter had, but it still has a good balance of funk. The only problem is the gravity is only reading 1040. The OG was 1060 and I wanted to get this one down, close to 1010.
Will the yeast continue to work? It seems like everything is dormant (visibly), even when I rock the fermenter once or twice a day to re-suspend the yeast. Am I being too impatient, or has this pitch of yeast done all it will do? I have a pack of US-04 dry yeast on deck in case I need to finish off the beer. I will give it another week or so and take another gravity reading. Judging by the bubbling, it doesn’t seem like this beer is going to move anymore. This is my first attempt at a quick kettle sour, so I’m not too sure what to expect.