I’m thinking of brewing an all-brett beer. No spontaneous fermentation with entero/lacto/pedio stages, but simply using brett for fermentation. I was thinking of a crisp, sessionable beer that might also be the basis for adding fruit. Mike Tonsmeire has a few recipes on his website (e.g., 1st 100% Brettanomyces Brew | The Mad Fermentationist - Homebrewing Blog), but they are all 10 years old, so I was wondering whether there are new insights. I would like the beer to be ready in under three months, if possible. And I would be very curious to see what low oxygen brewing will do with this beer, if that would make sense at all.
That recipe shows a generally correct approach to making an all-Brett beer. However, I would not crash cool a Brett starter because the Brett takes a really long time to get going again. The better approach is to pitch the entire starter. Also it isn’t necessary to ferment in the 80s.
Any of your options are fine. An all-brett beer should reach a stable FG in under two months.
All-brett beer recipes basically follow the same rules as any sacc beer. The only meaningful difference IMO is brett beers can be somewhat flabby and really benefit from some bitterness and tannins, like a brett IPA, or a moderate amount of acidity. If you’re adding sour cherries then you’ll likely have a good amount of acidity and tannins, particularly in a pale grist.
Have been reading a bit in MT’s American Sour Beers. There’s a reference to Oxbow Brewing Company, that ferments beer first with Brett Drie, and when 1016-1020 SG has been reached, finishes the fermentation with a saison strain, which adds some glycerol to the beer. That way the beer will not be excessively thin. Has anyone tried that?
I’ve done some reading on glycerol in wine after blindly parroting that same information about WY3711 for some time. From what I’ve read, it seems that the amount of glycerol being produced by Sacch doesn’t actually reach a high enough concentration to give a perceivable increase in mouthfeel.
In the instance of 3711 (not sure if this is the saison strain used at Oxbow, but it is the one I most commonly hear referenced as a high glycerol producer), I think it is the increased acidity that it produces which helps the mouthfeel.
tl;dr - I think the saison idea is a solid one, but I wouldn’t chalk it up to glycerol.
OK, a plan is starting to unfold: pale grist (maybe no wheat at all), ferment with Brett Trois, finish fermentation with French Saison, then add a small amount of sour cherries for some acidity and tannins. And then I’ll call it Instant Kriek. That will piss off a lot of people here in Belgium!
I liked the brett as a stand alone. It really surprised me.
I like some of the kettle sour beers. If that’s the route you’re looking at then I would go for 5% flaked grain. Either rye wheat oats barley. I suppose that’s my preference to have a little ‘softness’ from flaked grains in my sours.
If you want a kriek I say go all out as be a traditional as possible. It’s yet something I have committed to.
Why finish with French saison if you plan on souring?
I wouldn’t say the lowest. However it may be problematic and unnecessary like. If you are going to sour then the French saison strain may lose its purpose.
Low 3 ph (about 1/4 stick of ph range) but you need to pitch like it’s a lager and give it time. Could probably pitch less if the yeast are active from a SNS starter.
If you’re going to go that route, then why not go all-in on the faux kriek? Start with a kettle sour, then dual-pitch Sacc and Brett. Rack it onto some cherries after a month or two. Bottle once your FG is stable. You can be sipping on “Kriek” in a matter of months.
White labs’ old “Brett Trois” turned out to be a wild Sacc strain. It’s good for “Brett” IPA’s, but doesn’t give much Brett character as a secondary yeast. There is a “real” Brett Trois out there that is actually a Brett strain. I’m not sure which one we’re talking about for the OP.
Most of those compounds produced are when the brett is stressed (ie low pitch in a secondary ferment with minimal residual sugars remaining). Most of the 100% brett beers I have done have actually been pretty tame.