Belgium Brett C

[smdjoachim]

Nice recipe, sounds like it turned out well. I think I'll be diving into the wild/sour side of primary fermentation soon. I'm currently waiting on 5gal of orval dregs-spiked beer to ferment out but it's taking forever. 6 weeks and only a 0.004 drop in gravity.

Is the wildbrews book good? Does it have much info on sour mashing to make berliner weiss no-boil style beer? I would love to make a Crooked Stave Petite Sour style beer, sounds delicious.

Orval Bottle with Brett.
Wild Brews is a great book about style Belgium beers.
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/20 ... brews.html

[Dunk]

I'm currently waiting on 5gal of orval dregs-spiked beer to ferment out but it's taking forever. 6 weeks and only a 0.004 drop in gravity.

As a newcomer to Orval and Belgian beers in general, I'd love to hear more about this dude? Recipe or link at all?

The recipe is very similar to the Belgian Specialty Ale recipe from the Brewing Classic Styles book (reportedly an Orval clone), but I used Orval dregs instead of a commercial brett culture for the secondary.

Primary fermentation was with Wyeast Belgian Ardennes (a sacc. strain) and the dregs of two bottles added in secondary, but the action in secondary has been very slow. 1.014 - 1.010 in 6 weeks. I'm fearing the brett has just not taken and the last 4 points of gravity drop are simply the primary strain finishing out... I heard a vicious rumour that orval have stopped bottling with brett too....!

I'm looking forward to drinking this as the samples have shown really nice yeast character and should improve even more after dry-hop, chilling and carbonation. Fingers crossed.

[seymour]

...I heard a vicious rumour that orval have stopped bottling with brett too!

Woah, I sure hope that's false!

[Dunk]

It was on the internet, it must be true

[seymour]

It was on the internet, it must be true

I would agree that labelling Orval "a brett beer" is misleading. It is (or was, anyhow) primary fermented with their own Trappist ale yeast, a fairly neutral one actually, then dry-hopped and brett is added immediately before bottling. When people drink it fresh, there is understandably no distinctive brett character at all; nothing in comparison to lambics or other beers allowed to express complex brett character long before being bottled and distributed. But if you let Orval age, the low concentration of brett continues to mature and further condition the "finished" contents for many years. Hopefully someone just drank it too early and assumed the brewery no longer uses any brett? I guess only time will tell.

[crookedeyeboy]

but the action in secondary has been very slow. 1.014 - 1.010 in 6 weeks. I'm fearing the brett has just not taken and the last 4 points of gravity drop are simply the primary strain finishing out... I heard a vicious rumour that orval have stopped bottling with brett too....!

This sounds about right for Brett. It is nothing like a primary strain when it comes to fermentation, 6 weeks sounds about right for a 4° drop.
These things take time