Inspired by Orval & Bringing Belgian Brett into my Brewery

[lancsSteve]

Steve, you gave me a split of your de dolle wash at the Lancaster NCB meet. Am I right in saying this is a mixed culture then? What's in it? Just Saccharomyces or does it have bret, Pediococcus etc in as well?

Cheers

LB

Just tried some from pressure barrel where its still waiting to get bottled currently down at Lagering temps in cellar.

I brewed one big batch of a dark strong using quite a lot of dark candi syrup. Smaller batch fermented with 57$ larger with de dolle reculture. The latter now starting to gain a distinctive rodenbach smell to it after months. Tart acidity balancing sweetness and seems amazing.

Planning to rack into bottling bucket, prime then bottle all of WLP 575 version (12l or so in small pb) then half of de dolle version (25l in pb) then second half of de dolle dose with brett as well and leave on bottling bucket covered at room temp with brett added for a few weeks before priming and bottling and seeing how brett adds to or plays with the other wild ones.
Else may dose 5750s version with brett and compare effect with souring ones in de dolle.

Excited about these! Kind of like McChouffe crossed with tang of Oerbier

[leedsbrew]

sounds good man! I have an FV I will be relegating to 'microbe' duties only!

I really like the idea of one big batch then dose smaller batches with different cultures and conditions and see how they mature!

[lancsSteve]

I'm suddenly very keen to add oak chips in the barrel as I think that will really build the rodenbach hints lb you don't have any of that lump of oak you had spare and chipped do you?

Else might post in wanted or look for supplier (suggestions welcome)

[leedsbrew]

It may well be in the shed matey. I'll have a look when I get up this aft (been on a night shift all night! )

[lancsSteve]

Critch has stepped in and gifting me some.

Added them last night after boiling a couple of times - bottling tomorrow night.

[lancsSteve]

MASSIVE bottling mission last night - though bottling into champagne bottles is both faster and FAR more satisfying than regular beer bottles.

I'll try and add some detail on this brew here in due course. I added a little of the brett from pm (thanks agian!) at bottling time just straight from the tube to half of the batch fermented with wlp575 belgian blend (nothing wild) and also to half of the batch brewed with the de dolle reculture (which has rodenbach heritage) to which i added the oak chips earlier in the week. I.E. ran into bottling bucket, added vanilla sugar solution (sugar + boiling water nuked to sterilise) at 4g/l aiming for around 2.5 vols co2. Half way through bottling I added the brett, stirred again, left a wee while then continued bottling. Same process with the de dolle batch - bottle half, add brett and stir and leave to disipate, bottle more. Don't know if it will work as may be far too little but haven't had time to culture it up - kept a little back to 'do it properly next time'.

All bottles in warm room for a while to carbonate then more maturation (already had 4 months in pressure barrels)

One thing I found (a little worryingly) was that the s30 valve rubber seal had a split in it on the larger pressure barrel. Which raises the weird question with wild beers: is that sourness coming through from rodenbach culture and maturation... or has it just gone off/sour due to long term storage in a not-properly-sealed pressure barrel? I personally think the eal held and the sourness is a hint with a distincly rodenbach tang to it but how do you tell the difference between purposely wild and bad practice sour?

[lancsSteve]

http://www.brettanomycesproject.com/

AWESOME!

This study was conducted to evaluate the pure culture fermentation performance of eight strains of Brettanomyces with the objective to find characteristic compounds produced during fermentation. Colony formation and growth was initially observed on media agars recommended for use in the brewing industry with strong growth observed on MYPG, WLN, and CuSO4 agar medias. Cell growth during semi aerobic batch culture showed 2-phase and 3-phase growth patterns with maximum cell counts reached after 168 to 192 hours of propagation. Pure culture fermentations were conducted with multiple pitching rates and variation was observed in the different strains abilities to achieve adequate attenuation after 35 days. Longer time was needed for most strains except B. bruxellensis (BSI-Drie), which achieved 82.16% apparent attenuation with a pitching rate of 6×106 cells/ml. When the strains were pitched at a rate of 12×106 cells/ml a correlation was observed between final pH and final apparent attenuation, with a lower final pH resulting in greater attenuation. Fermentations were further conducted with wort pre-acidified with lactic acid at concentration of 100, 500, 1,000 and 3,000 mg/l. Higher initial concentrations of lactic acid had a significant effect, increasing the level of attenuation observed in each strain, while generally decreasing the secondary metabolites produced. Compound analysis of the fermented beers showed ethyl acetate, ethyl caproate, and ethyl caprylate were the significant esters produced with no isoamyl acetate detected throughout the study. Of the esters produced, ethyl caproate and ethyl caprylate were produced at levels previously unseen in fermented beer.

[TC2642]

I'm going to sour my RIS once it's fermented out with normal yeast. Got a couple of bottles left with the Brett culture so that's what I'll be using and save the last one for a smoked porter. Should be good for around xmas time!