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Most of the beer world thinks beer is beer and for the most part...yellow fizzy beer. When I explain Lager yeast, and Ale yeast to a non craft beer drinker I typically get a "does not compute" and overwhelmed look on their face, or they just don't care. Talking Lager and Ale with an unknowing person will certainly put you into "beer geek" status in a lot of peoples minds. Obviously this is very basic shit in brewing and in the craft beer industry. With Ale's and Lager's now you have Brett.
Dank Funk: get your freak on people cause we about to get extremely funky up in this shit!
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Most of the beer world thinks beer is beer and for the most part...yellow fizzy beer. When I explain Lager yeast, and Ale yeast to a non craft beer drinker I typically get a "does not compute" and overwhelmed look on their face, or they just don't care. Talking Lager and Ale with an unknowing person will certainly put you into "beer geek" status in a lot of peoples minds. Obviously this is very basic shit in brewing and in the craft beer industry. With Ale's and Lager's now you have Brett.
Just so you now...
Brettanomyces is also yeast!
I'm about to make another beer in the ever expanding Dank Funk series line up. My first one in the line up is my Flanders Style Red Ale that is currently getting funkier and funkier by the day!
I'm about to make another beer in the ever expanding Dank Funk series line up. My first one in the line up is my Flanders Style Red Ale that is currently getting funkier and funkier by the day!
Now....I'm looking to try some isolated Brett strains to understand their capabilities as funktifyers! I'm a huge fan of Goose Island - Sofie, and Boulavard - Saison Brett...so I thought I'd give it my best shot at creating a funky saison like this.
I do have White Labs Brett C in my fridge though so that will definitely be one of the experiments. I've read from Michael at the Mad Fermentationist that Brett C can give Pineapple flavors to a beer and I think that may work really well with this Saison. Ryan over at Ryans Brews has recommended Brett L. as a nice fruity Brett that I think will also work extremely well with this recipe!
I don't know a ton about Brett, but what I do know is from reading those two "funky" blogs, and also tasting a bunch of commercial funky beers over the last couple of years. Some of these beers have been fantastic, some good, some not as good, and some down right nasty (IMO).
Here is my recipe. 10 gallon batch. 5 Gallons with Brett C, and 5 gallons with Brett L.
Batch size: 10 gallons
French Saison with Brett (C and L)
Batch size: 10 gallons
malt & fermentables
Original Gravity
1.040
Final Gravity
1.000
Color
4° SRM / 7° EBC
(Yellow)
Mash Efficiency 71%
hops
Bitterness
26.8 IBU
Alcohol
5.25% ABV
I'll mash at around 149-150 degrees so I have a highly fermentable wort. I want this to finish really dry!
Here is my plan for fermentation. Create a small starter of Wyeast French Saison to be pitched with the equivalent of one smack pack into each 5 gallon batch. Create a large starter of WLP645: Brett C. and a large starter of Wyeast 5526: Brett L. Oxygenate as usual. Pitch each 5 gallons with a small amount of WY French Saison and the large starter of Brett. I want these to come out funky, and I think that this is the best way to go about it. I'll let these both ferment in primary for about 2-3 months at around 65-68 degrees. Sample and bottle them when they are ready. I may dry hop them depending on how the flavor is at bottling time.
Bottle with sugar to have medium to high carbonation, and bottle condition to age for as long as possible.
3.27.11 - Brew day went really well. Beautiful spring day in Minneapolis. Brewed in the garage with assistant BrewDog - Nala. March pump worked awesome with the shut off on the 'out' side! Mashout, Sparge, all worked great! Evaporation rate was pretty huge and I ended up with only 9 gallons so I split it into 4.5 gallon portions. I had created a yeast starter of French Saison yeast from one smack pack. I like to under pitch this yeast. (basically the equivalent of one smack pack per 4.5 gallons) I also did starters for the two Brett strains but I don't think I got much activity out of it in the two days it had before brew day. Hopefully it woke them up a bit so that they are ready to start eating away at the sugars. Mashed in at 151 and after 70 minutes it was at 149. Sparged at 167 for 20 minutes. 70 minute boil. Didn't take a gravity reading but it's most likely around 1.045. I really hope that this turns out!
***only thing that I'm worried about is that I strained the keggle right after the boil into two Ale Pales with out chilling it first. Then I brought them downstairs and chilled them with the chiller like normal. It only took like 20 minutes to chill both of them! My only worry is that I may have introduced some O2 into them while the wort was hot and draining. I did my best to keep the tubing at the bottom of the Ale Pales and it should be all good!
4.20.11 - Brett L. batch is smelling extremely sour. Brett C. batch is much more restrained. I might blend these in the end. We shall see.
4.27.11 - ONE MONTH since BREWDAY. I smelled my Brett L, and C Saison's last night, and the Brett L is much more complex with fruity, tart, sour smelling, and the Brett C is more barnyardy right now, and not a ton of fruit, citrus, or tartness in the smell. That Brett L Saison is going to be amazing!
5.23.11 - Both have finished at 1.000! Pellicle forming on the Brett L. It smells amazingly fruity and tart with a little bit of barnyard. Tasting the Brett L and the flavor is not as much fruit but more brett and finishes very dry and thin. Brett C. batch doesn't have any pellicle, and has a pronounced barnyard, horseblanket brett smell too it but the taste and flavor is more sweet pineapple and tropical fruit with some funk in there as well. Finishes more sweet then the Brett L. I'm wondering if I should bottle them, and let them sit in the bottle for a long time until they "finally come around" or if I should just dry hop the shit out of them with 75% Amarillo/ 25% Simcoe, and bottle it up!
6.21.11 - Sampled both again. Brett C batch definitely has some tropical fruit, pineapple going on as well as some brett funk. Brett L has massive pellicle now and mixed that up with the dry hops which should help to create a barrier for the oxygen. Not quite sure about this Brett L yet. Definitely funky brett going on. I decided that the orange spicyness of Amarillo would be a good dry hop mix as well as a little bit of Citra which will complement the tropical fruit. Citra smells like pure Mango and I think it'll complement this. Bottling in champagne bottles in 10 days and carbonating to 3 volumes.
7.12.11 - Bottled primarily in champagne bottles to 3 volumes of Co2. Plastic champagne caps seemed to fit extremely tight as well as the cages so I'm hoping for great results and proper carbonation in a couple of weeks. They will carbonate and condition at 75-80 degrees in my upstairs attic until they are ready to drink!
7.27.11- First Sample of the Brett C. version - Fully carbed after 2 weeks in the bottle. Funky cheese in the nose to start off with. A little bit of citrus and fruity hop aroma getting through but not a ton. I did dry hop it with Citra and Amarillo but the brett seems to have overpowered it. The taste is fantastic in the beginning through the middle with caramel, bread, wheatyness and hits you really dry and fruity on the end. Not a ton of brett in the flavor. It finish's a bit weird, maybe astringent (I really don't know what astringent means though) It's got some kind of twang on the very end of the sip. It'll be interesting to see how this ages.
1/29/12 - Only about half of the cheap plastic corks have help the carbonation. These corks from Midwest brew supply don't work consistently for bottle conditioning. They do work for force carbonation though. I pulled All the plastic corks out. About half of them had held their carbonation. For those that were flat, I dropped 3 sometime 4 coopers tabs in them. I had experimented with 2 coopers tabs but they were way under carbed. For those that were still carbonated, I simply pulled the cork out, and crimped a bottle cap on really quickly. These are going to be fantastic in the summer!
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Funk (music): funk is a state of mind...."Mother Earth is pregnant for the third time, cause y'all have knocked her up. I have tasted the maggots in the mind of the universe...I was not offended, for I knew I had to rise above it all, or drown in my own shit."- George Clinton of P-funk
Here is my plan for fermentation. Create a small starter of Wyeast French Saison to be pitched with the equivalent of one smack pack into each 5 gallon batch. Create a large starter of WLP645: Brett C. and a large starter of Wyeast 5526: Brett L. Oxygenate as usual. Pitch each 5 gallons with a small amount of WY French Saison and the large starter of Brett. I want these to come out funky, and I think that this is the best way to go about it. I'll let these both ferment in primary for about 2-3 months at around 65-68 degrees. Sample and bottle them when they are ready. I may dry hop them depending on how the flavor is at bottling time.
Bottle with sugar to have medium to high carbonation, and bottle condition to age for as long as possible.
3.27.11 - Brew day went really well. Beautiful spring day in Minneapolis. Brewed in the garage with assistant BrewDog - Nala. March pump worked awesome with the shut off on the 'out' side! Mashout, Sparge, all worked great! Evaporation rate was pretty huge and I ended up with only 9 gallons so I split it into 4.5 gallon portions. I had created a yeast starter of French Saison yeast from one smack pack. I like to under pitch this yeast. (basically the equivalent of one smack pack per 4.5 gallons) I also did starters for the two Brett strains but I don't think I got much activity out of it in the two days it had before brew day. Hopefully it woke them up a bit so that they are ready to start eating away at the sugars. Mashed in at 151 and after 70 minutes it was at 149. Sparged at 167 for 20 minutes. 70 minute boil. Didn't take a gravity reading but it's most likely around 1.045. I really hope that this turns out!
***only thing that I'm worried about is that I strained the keggle right after the boil into two Ale Pales with out chilling it first. Then I brought them downstairs and chilled them with the chiller like normal. It only took like 20 minutes to chill both of them! My only worry is that I may have introduced some O2 into them while the wort was hot and draining. I did my best to keep the tubing at the bottom of the Ale Pales and it should be all good!
4.20.11 - Brett L. batch is smelling extremely sour. Brett C. batch is much more restrained. I might blend these in the end. We shall see.
4.27.11 - ONE MONTH since BREWDAY. I smelled my Brett L, and C Saison's last night, and the Brett L is much more complex with fruity, tart, sour smelling, and the Brett C is more barnyardy right now, and not a ton of fruit, citrus, or tartness in the smell. That Brett L Saison is going to be amazing!
5.23.11 - Both have finished at 1.000! Pellicle forming on the Brett L. It smells amazingly fruity and tart with a little bit of barnyard. Tasting the Brett L and the flavor is not as much fruit but more brett and finishes very dry and thin. Brett C. batch doesn't have any pellicle, and has a pronounced barnyard, horseblanket brett smell too it but the taste and flavor is more sweet pineapple and tropical fruit with some funk in there as well. Finishes more sweet then the Brett L. I'm wondering if I should bottle them, and let them sit in the bottle for a long time until they "finally come around" or if I should just dry hop the shit out of them with 75% Amarillo/ 25% Simcoe, and bottle it up!
6.21.11 - Sampled both again. Brett C batch definitely has some tropical fruit, pineapple going on as well as some brett funk. Brett L has massive pellicle now and mixed that up with the dry hops which should help to create a barrier for the oxygen. Not quite sure about this Brett L yet. Definitely funky brett going on. I decided that the orange spicyness of Amarillo would be a good dry hop mix as well as a little bit of Citra which will complement the tropical fruit. Citra smells like pure Mango and I think it'll complement this. Bottling in champagne bottles in 10 days and carbonating to 3 volumes.
7.12.11 - Bottled primarily in champagne bottles to 3 volumes of Co2. Plastic champagne caps seemed to fit extremely tight as well as the cages so I'm hoping for great results and proper carbonation in a couple of weeks. They will carbonate and condition at 75-80 degrees in my upstairs attic until they are ready to drink!
7.27.11- First Sample of the Brett C. version - Fully carbed after 2 weeks in the bottle. Funky cheese in the nose to start off with. A little bit of citrus and fruity hop aroma getting through but not a ton. I did dry hop it with Citra and Amarillo but the brett seems to have overpowered it. The taste is fantastic in the beginning through the middle with caramel, bread, wheatyness and hits you really dry and fruity on the end. Not a ton of brett in the flavor. It finish's a bit weird, maybe astringent (I really don't know what astringent means though) It's got some kind of twang on the very end of the sip. It'll be interesting to see how this ages.
1/29/12 - Only about half of the cheap plastic corks have help the carbonation. These corks from Midwest brew supply don't work consistently for bottle conditioning. They do work for force carbonation though. I pulled All the plastic corks out. About half of them had held their carbonation. For those that were flat, I dropped 3 sometime 4 coopers tabs in them. I had experimented with 2 coopers tabs but they were way under carbed. For those that were still carbonated, I simply pulled the cork out, and crimped a bottle cap on really quickly. These are going to be fantastic in the summer!
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Funk (music): funk is a state of mind...."Mother Earth is pregnant for the third time, cause y'all have knocked her up. I have tasted the maggots in the mind of the universe...I was not offended, for I knew I had to rise above it all, or drown in my own shit."- George Clinton of P-funk
Funk (smell): a usually objectionable musky odor emanating from human underarms and genitalia, especially in the male but to a lesser extent the female, resulting from glandular secretions and bodily functions. Infrequent washing and rapid bacterial growth intensify the odor.
Funk (general): Soul + drugs = Funk
Dank: an expression frequently used by stoners and hippies for something of extremely high quality.
