Parallel World #2 & Tasting Session

The cat's out of the bag, Trois is not a true Brettanomyces Yeast (As most of you know by now).  It's a Sac yeast with uncharacteristically ale like qualities to put it best.  You can read all about it on the smarter homebrew blogs (most of them are linked to the right of this).  So what about this beer with Trois not being Brett.  Well for one, its still a damn good beer and that's all that matters.

A couple years ago I did my first Brett Trois IPA called Parallel World, this rebrew only shares the same name with the first variant.  New and improved, completely re-engineered from the ground up.  I wanted this to be a tropical fruit bomb.  Inspired by Ed Coffy over at Ales of the Riverwards.  He sent me a fantastic sample of his Not-Brett Riverwards IPA.  Without getting into details, it was wonderful.  I wanted to base this recipe off his idea of what a Trois IPA should be, turning into what I envisioned as the perfect tropical Trois IPA. 

Hold my Hand into the Sunset; Blended Brett Mead & Tasting Session

Everything looks so nice after a San Diego downpour

 *Update 12/11/2014 - There has been a lot of chatter about Brett Trois not containing any Brett.  To see a good story about it, please read this story. 

People seem to love Brett IPA's, Brett Saisons and even some Brett Wheat beers, so always confuses me when Meads are not included into this statement.  Lets go over the facts, meads are perfect avenues for honey to show off fruit and spices.  Brettanomyces during primary fermentation pushes these fruit phenolics and spices.  So creating a fruit forward mead, paired with a fruit producing yeast seems like the perfect combination right?  Well I think so, with some small issues that we can overcome.

If you've seen my other posts you know I love 71B for my meads. Its quick, its easy and it fly's through fermentation when treated right.  However, the more and more I use Brett Trois and Brett C, the more I want to explore what these yeast can do, especially in meads.

This started off as two meads, one clean and one Brett fermented.  The clean mead was a "Quick, lets make this while brewing this other IPA." mead.  The Brett was a little more planned. 

Low-Bush, Brett Belgian Pale aged Blueberries & Oak

Some of the best home brewed beers don't necessarily start off as originally intended.  This beer for example, was planed as a homage to a Belgian Pale ale.  A style I've haven't brewed before. After pitching the yeast and not seeing any activity for 3 grueling days last September, I knew something was wrong.  I also happened to have freshly built up dregs of Logsdon Seizon Bretta ready for another project in my homebrewery.  500ml of solid slurry was way to temping to pass up in a effort to save this unfermented wort.  (I did do a warm fermentation test on the wort, it came back clean, so tossing the batch was out of the question)

I pitched the built up Logsdon Brett (which I named LB-Logsdon internally here at the house) into the 3 day old wort at 65 degrees.  A little colder than I would of normally pitched Brett, but under the conditions I thought it was best to get something into the wort to start the fermentation off as quickly as possible.  The yeast did take a while to get going at this temperature.  Over the next couple of days as the yeast warmed, fermentation quickly caught up.  No pellical was visible while in primary with the Brett yeast.  However when I moved this beer into my plastic sour carboy #6, a pellical started within a week.  This carboy previously contained Brett, Lacto and Pedio for a Flanders Red.  Even though this was cleaned, I fully expected some microorganisms to migrate over into this batch due to the plastic.   Influencing it in some way or another.  This beer sat at ambient garage temperature for 5 months with little to no change.

Yellow Tractor, Brett Session IPA & Tasting Notes

1 teaspoon of flour was added to keep this beautiful haze.

I was born and raised in San Diego, but I spent most of my summers under 12 in Nashville with my mom, sister and Grandparents.  My Mom didn't work while I was in elementary school, so she would fly back east, spending the summer months in Nashville while my Dad worked as a pilot for the US Navy.  For me, this was normal, spending time with my cousins playing in the pool and working the garden that my Grandfather (Popa Charlie) had.  Now, this wasn't a huge garden, but to a 6 year old this was a big plot of land suitable of feeding hundreds of people.  I remember jumping off the diving board, then running over to the table to chuck green beans into a giant pile that my Grandmother would then can for the winter.  After swimming we would venture into the garden looking for tomatoes and watermelon for Popa Charlie.  (He loves to slice them about an inch thick and cover them with salt and pepper before dinner.)  I remember walking through the garden and getting the best smells of hay, ripe veggies, vines and pine needles (from the trees the lined the back of the property.) Popa Charlie needed a tractor to maintain his property, for this he owned a little yellow tractor.  I not even sure of the name, make or model, but it was his and us kids loved it as our own.

Bella Sky C2 Brett Blonde, Tasting Session

Aroma:  Overripe pear mixed with the aromas you would expect walking into a lumberyard.  Small amounts of a gritty hay like hint also linger about. 

Appearance:  A breathtaking golden yellow, crystal clear liquid just asking to be consumed in the tulip.  A perfect lace adorns the top of the glass.  Thin, yet resilient.  The constant bubbles stream up constantly from the D etched on the bottom of the glass. 

Cultured Farmhouse Saison/Tasting Session

Since discovering Logsdon Farmhouse Ales, I've considered myself a pretty big fan of their beers, from the Wit to the Saison (Which they spell Seizon). David Logsdon, the man behind the Wyeast empire decided to join the ranks of a local farmer, brewer and businessman back in 2011 when he created Logsdon Farmhouse Ales leaving Wyeast behind.  Logsdon's Seizon Bretta, which is bottle conditioned with his own Brettanomyces strain coupled with pear juice has become my personal favorite Saison.  The beer is just a perfect blend of funky/clean/barnyard flavors.

Wanting to brew a Brett Saison I picked up a couple bottles for "Testing purposes" and collected the bottle Dregs into a 500ml flask.  This was early 2012.  By December 2012 I had a large pitchable amount of slurry, it was time to get started on a recipe.  That's when it happened, my Sorachi Ace'd Saison stalled out at 1.030.  WLP565 failed me again.  Without pause I knew what I had to do, pitching the Logsdon slurry into the stalled Sorachi Ace'd Saison.

Bella Sky, C2 Brett Blonde

Last April I was lucky enough to get a vile of yeast from BKYeast.  It was his C2 release, sourced from a bottle of 2007 Cantillon Iris.  Dmitri, the man behind the BKYeast website has a home yeast ranch and blog which he explores all sorts of yeast used in brewing.  (Its a great homebrew resource  which I really recommend checking out.) I was lucky enough to receive was the C2 strain for testing.  In return I promised to give Dmitri my brewing notes concerning the yeast and attempt to send a bottle out his way thanking him for his efforts.

The sourced (C2) 2007 Cantillon Iris strain is said to be big on strawberry flavors.  So in constructing the recipe, I paired it with Belma Hops.  The propitiatory new hop from Hops Direct, which is said it have a general melon/strawberry flavor.  (Which I struggled to find in my Saison test batch) Before figuring out the malt,, I knew this beer had to be a Blonde Ale.  As simple a recipe as possible.  Sticking around 5% ABV.  My original though was to add tart cherries into the beer during secondary but that all changed when I tasted the flask holding the starter.

Parallel World Brett Trois IPA, Tasting Session

Aroma:   Sweet Peaches and plums.  Comes in as very sweet, not in a cloying way, just sweet off the nose.  It has a small kids fruit cereal in the nose also.  Can't finger it though.

Appearance:  Very hazy (for the life of me I couldn't get this beer clear), showing a bright glowing orange.  A thin, but solid head with small bubbles in creamy white color rest on top of the liquid. Small bubbles continuously run up the side of the glass. 

Parallel World: Brett Trois IPA

When I started brewing back in 2001 I didn't know much about beer fermentation's.  In fact, I think my 3 year old son currently has a better understanding of fermentation than I did my first year of homebrewing extract beers on my stove.  I was a Mr Beer brewer, basically boiling water with canned wort and letting it ferment.  Hops were out of the equation, as you all know they were inside the liquid malt extract Mr Beer provided.  As I slowly started to grasp the concept of fermentations relating to yeast and its relation to good beer, my brewing excelled.  While the idea of brewing with new and different ingredients was excepted, brewing outside the Saccharomyces yeast family was unheard of until recently.  Most people considered Brettanomyces a souring agent, but in fact, Brettanomyces can fully ferment wort as well or better than Saccharomyces can. 

Going back to my development as a homebrewer, what if Brettanomyces was an accepted yeast strain when I started brewing?  Would it of changed the way I developed a recipe?  Would mouthfeel be the most important part in designing a beer given the great attenuation Brett achieves coupled with the lack of glycerol producing enzymes?  Would oats, rye and wheat be staples in my homebrewing closet?  If the Brettanomyces yeast can create tropical, passion fruit and mango flavors how would hops play into the beer?  Would we of had the hops shortage back in 2007?  All these parallel connections would play into the homebrewer that I am today.

100% Brett Mead? oohh YES

If you wanted to read the Tasting Notes for this please click here

I think I've lost my mind with thoughts of these "Wild" yeasts, but I might not be alone.  Recently I brewed a Brett/Citra Pale Ale after listening to Chad on the The Brewing Network talk about Brettanomyces beers.  After I put up the post, I saw that Jeff over at Bikes, Beer and Adventure brewed a Extra Special "Brett"er.  I'm sure other homebrewers are also "playing around" with solid Brettanomyces fermentation's. 

The traditional thought of using Brettanomyces during secondary fermentation only is slowing changing.  Without a doubt, breweries like Crooked Stave, Russian River, Jolly Pumkin and New Belguim are leading the charge but homebrewers have better ability to play around with small test batches without the financial impact "For Profit" breweries would endure. 

Which got me thinking about the beautiful flavor compounds associated with 100% Brett fermentations.  The passion-fruit, tropical flavors and pineapple aroma of Brettanomyces Claussenii fermentation's should work well in a Mead playing off the honey Backbone. 

Pioneer Series: Cascadian IPA

Early last year I brewed my first 100% Brett beer, (over a gallon size) Pioneer Series: Citra.  Inspired by Chad at Crooked Stave.  Since the start of the project some of my original parameters have changed a little but the goal remains the same.  Creating solid 100% Brett primary fermentation beers.  

This time I wanted to create a beer a little farther off the norm than the first.  I started looking at hops, grains and different styles of Brettanomyces yeasts that I could use.  The more I thought about the flavor contributions I wanted, the more I started drifting towards a darker more robust beer.  The idea of using dark malts in a 100% Brett beer started to grow.  Wanting to staying away from porters and stouts (keeping the series intact) I settled on a Cascadian IPA.   

As of right now I consider Cascadian IPA's to have more dark roast and maybe a little chocolate in the beer compared to a Black IPA.  For Black IPA's, I look for more aroma driven hop flavors with less impact from the darker base malts.  But like I said, "As of right now I consider..."  As these styles are continually evolving and my opinion will likely change.  

Dirty Gnome: Farmhouse Saison #2

Late last year I brewed a Belgian Farmhouse Saison with WLP568 yeast.  Culturing the bugs out of a Rayon Vert bottle from Green Flash Brewing Company, for a secondary fermentation.  This beer was my 1st true soured Brett beer.  Starting it a couple months before my Flanders Red Project with Danny over at Deeper Roots Brewing.  The fermentation was slow and painful taking over a year.  On a positive note, it gave me a deep appreciation of the work involved with fermenting a Brettanomyces beer.

This time around I wanted to switch out the Saaz Hops I used last time for Tettnanger and changing the German Pilsner to Belgian Pilsner.  I am also lowering the O.G. by about 0.005 Gravity Points. For some added complexity, I'm going to age this on spent tart cherries from Scarlett's Mead.

Pioneer Series-Citra, Tasting Update

Its been a month since I brewed my 1st all Brett beer.  I used brettanomyces claussenii for the primary fermentation.  The original post is here.  Today I took a gravity reading and I was still at 1.030.  I am a little concerned that it is not lower 4 weeks into the primary.  I still have some activity, so I am optimistic about the beer continuing to ferment down to around 1.010-ish.  My original goal was a total fermentation time of 6 to 7 weeks. 

@4 Weeks of Solid Brettanomyces Fermentation

Poineer Series: Citra

Listening to Chad the brewer/owner at Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project on The Brewing Network last weekend got my mind spinning.  The research he is doing on all brett fermentation's are top notch to say the least.  I also had the privileged of attending his presentation at the 2011 National Homebrewers Conference.  His Brewery is a 100% Brettanomyces brewery.  Meaning that all of his wort is 1st inoculated with brettanomyces, no primary yeast is used, the opposite of traditional brewing and or souring.

The goal of Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project is to continue his masters project hosted "Open Source" at the BrettanomycesProject.com researching all things Brett.  As noted on the podcast he goes into great detail about trying to pinpoint a Brett strain that ferments like a traditional Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Yeast.  I was unaware that Brett-C (for example) has 100's even 1,000's of different yeast strains within the genome, just like traditional Ale yeast.  The commercial yeast banks like White Labs and Wyeast only sell one of each strain.  Mostly due to the traditional lack of sales associated with Brettanomyces.

WLP645 Brett-C Starter