Hi Everyone,
I was thinking of trying out the Wyeast private collection offering of the Old Ale Blend. After reading about this I see that it has a little bit of Brett in the blend, so I was wondering if I would need to be careful with this and use separate equipment etc to ensure future batches aren’t contaminated or if the amount is so small as the effect would not be enough to worry about.
Thanks in advance!
I think that I’d be worried about spreading the brett around no matter how small an amount was included in the blend.
I used it last year, made the best old ale I ever had! Only “special precaution” I used was to use an old racking cane. This was over a year ago, with no issues in the dozens of meads, ciders, and ales I have made since. Proper sanitation, discard the plastic tubing after use, no worries.
Anyone know what strain of Brett is in this blend?
I believe it is Brett C
The strain is Brett Bruxellensis. That’s straight from Jess Caudill at Wyeast Labs
Made a brew using this yeast March of 09 -
The OG was 1.110 the FG around 1.039 - It took around 3 months for Brett character to kick in.
Once you see the pellicle form, then you know the Brett has done it’s thing.
Really great example of the sweet & sour you can get with the right balance of a big beer and brett
Scored a 38 in this year’s NHC under 17C (Flanders Brown/Oud Bruin)
I thought it was Brett B. I emailed Wyeast to confirm, but hadn’t heard back yet. Brett B seems an odd choice for making an “old ale,” I would think A or C would be more appropriate, but I haven’t seen much feedback either from people who have used this yeast to make old ale/barleywine/imperial stout.
Are you saying you entered that massive beer as a Flanders Brown? And even after aging, it only finished at 1.039? That seems really high.
I agree, it was too big for the style, but it’s a unique way to get that sweet/sour balance in a beer without resorting to using lactobacillus (Which I don’t really care for)
Next time around I will try it with “only” 16lbs of Maris otter (vs. 20) to bring out more of the Brett character.
I have 6 bottles left and I will enter 3 of them in next years NHC under 19A - old ale…
Oh, and yes, I did throw the dregs of this yeast on top of a gallon of Russian Imperial Stout, and I do not recommend it. I can understand why there are no sour stouts around. The combination of lots o hops, sour and roasty notes is not good. Blech.
I’ve had one that I can remember, a commercial Belgian Stout that was definitely sour. I agree, it was not pleasant. :-\
A little bit of brett might turn into a little more brett so I would handle it as such. In other words, I would qaurantine the beer by using dedicated equipment (fermenters, etc…).
I have worked with brett for four or five beers and I have the Old Ale yeast. I also made a beer with the Belgian Blend that has Brett and the Imperial Blend. Never had any problems. I agree with stlaleman, all you need is good sanitation, and anything plastic that the beer touches has to be used for only sour beers. Glass or metal can be cleaned with PBW and Star San. That is what I use and like I said I have had no cross contamination. Some crappy beers, but no infection. 
I used this in an old ale that I made about a year and a half ago. It really is very good. Just a bit of sour but definitely not too much. It is the only old ale Ive made so I wish I would have pitched something a little more neutral in one of the fermenters so that I would be able to compare between the two.
Thanks for all your responses very informative.
So my next question is that if I wanted to brew an old ale but not use the Wyeast blend could I come up with something similar using White Labs products? Would I be able to use a traditional “British Ale” strain for the primary and then add a bacteria culture to the secondary to give the funkiness? If so how much of the brett would I need to add in the secondary (1 vial / make a starter ) and which brett would be the best choice?
Thanks again for your advice.
I have used the White Labs Brett C in a historical stout. Brett C isn’t a super attenuator, but you do get a nice character from it that I think works well in english styles.
So for your historical stout did you pitch the brett into the secondary or did you pitch into primary along with the “main strain”?
I don’t know which strain of brett it was but it made an aweosme old ale for me last year. Lots of “cherry pie” character.
I recently made up a big starter using the 9097 wyeast . I am making an old ale / barley wine this weekend. Since my ability to create a recipe from group zero has turned out poorly so far (experiments failed and were dumped but i was trying) i am using the kit for the Northern No1 from Northern brewer. I wanted to make a beer that i could age long period of time and give to my friends and family as gifts. Hey some people do wine i do beer.
saturday brew day is looking good already
Ok so I went ahead and purchased some of the Wyeast Blend so my (hopefully) final question is do I use a secondary with this blend and then just let it sit there for a good long while and let the brett do its stuff or will primary only suffice and then let the brett kick in, in the bottle or is that asking for bottle bombs?
Thanks in advance for any advice!
I secondaried mine in the keg. If you don’t keg I would recommend at least a 6 month secondary in a carboy. This is one of those beers that needs to age in bulk.
I made the old ale recipe from Northern Brewer last year and still have about 3 gallons aging in a keg. Changes a little everytime I try some.