ECY 03 Farmhouse Brett and ECY 02 Flemish Wild and the Brewday from HELL!

So I started off my Sunday all bright eyed and ready to go.  I'd finished one complete week of p90X!  I'd recommend p90X to anyone who's gotten a little loose around the edges from brewing and drinking.  To reward myself (for this small accomplishment) I decided that I deserved a Brew Day!  Remember.... 90 is for 90 days...and X is for Xtreme!  Bring IT!!!

The Disappearing Yeast
In my head I wanted to do a 10 gallon batch of what I had planned on being a Saison Brett experiment that could be drank next summer.   I was going to pit WLP 670 American Farmhouse Blend (presumably The Lost Abbey strain (brett. b.) against the ECY 03 Farmhouse Brett.   I know at one point a few months ago I had that damn vial of WL hanging out in my keezer but for the life of me I could not find it, and it probably was a little old any ways.   That throw a little monkey wrench in my plans.  Luckily I had another vial of East Coast Yeast sitting in my fridge, ECY 02 which is a flemish blend.  I didn't think the Flemish blend would be appropriate for the Hoppy Siason Brett I had been planning so I ended up boiling two separate pots and leaving out the 60 minute hop addition for the Saison turned Flemish Wild Ale (too many IBU's can restrict Lactobacillus).   What started out as a Saison Brett experiment turned into a East Coast Yeast experiment and I can't wait to taste that ECY02 eight to twelve months from now!  So... I had that yeast/changing up my recipe at the last minute issue.

The Stuck Mash
Then I had the whole stuck mash issue.  This was a fun one to deal with...really fun.  I have never had a stuck mash or sparge before in almost 50 beers.  I've heard of them, dreaded them, learned to deal with them from horror stories, but had somehow eluded one for almost 3 years.   This was a 10 gallon batch so it wasn't exactly a small issue.  I don't know why I had a stuck mash since I've used unmalted wheat, wheat, oats, spelt, and lots of gelatinous stuff in my mash's before and never used rice hulls.  My guess is because I threw in a pound of unmalted wheat at the last minute.  I knew that I needed to either do a more complex mash schedule or do a cereal mash on the side if I really wanted to get much of anything from them, but I decided to just throw them in and hope that they create some long chain sugars that would be available for the brett, pedio, lacto, and whatever else is in these yeast blends from Al Buck.   Anyways, as I tried to run off my first runnings the grain bed would get so compact that it would slow my run off to a trickle. Since I usually batch sparge, I ended up switching it up a bit.  As the wort would slowly drain off I would pour some of my hot sparge water in the top and stir it up to hopefully thin out the mash some.   Then I'd vorlauf again and continue the process.  I did this a few times, and eventually it started flowing a little better.   I ended up eventually doing my first pseudo fly sparge as I trickled sparge water over the top of the grain bed.  I ended up with 10 gallons of sugary water in the end so I guess everything worked out.   I made it happen and that's all that matters.

The Truth Will be Told
I heard this quote (not word for word) from one of the brewers on the Surly website at one point and it stuck with me.  "Any brewer can make a fantastic beer under perfect conditions, but it takes a great brewer to make a fantastic beer when everything goes wrong."  Hopefully I prove to be the latter.

My original recipe was a sort of, psuedo Boulevard Saison Brett clone so the Saison portion should be something similar to that.  The Flemish funk portion should be something like a barrel aged Lambic type version of Boulevard Saison Brett.  And then I had an extra couple of gallons of 2nd runnings and added about .75 ounce of 3 year old Celiea hops.  Hopefully I'll be able to pour the dregs and propagate Boulevard Saison Brett yeast for future batch's!

The Wedge - Saison Brett

malt & fermentables

%	LB	OZ	Malt or Fermentable	ppg	°L
60%	8	0	Rahr Pilsner Malt	34	2
26%	3	8	American White Wheat	39	2
6%	0	12	Corn, Flaked	37	1
4%	0	8	Belgian Candy Sugar Light	36	0
4%	0	8	Wheat, Unmalted (Wheat Berries)	34	5
0%	0	1	Carafa III	32	525
	13	5

Original Gravity

1.052 measured

Final Gravity

Color

8° SRM / 15° EBC

(Gold to Copper)

hops

use	time	oz	variety	form	aa
boil	60 mins	0.7	Simcoe	leaf	13.0
boil	20 mins	0.6	Simcoe	leaf	13.0
boil	15 mins	0.5	Amarillo	leaf	7.0
boil	10 mins	0.5	Amarillo	leaf	7.0
dry hop	10 days	2.0	Amarillo	leaf	7.0

Boil: 6.5 avg gallons for 90 minutes

Bitterness

41.3 IBU / 23 HBU

ƒ: Average

BU:GU

0.77

yeast

ECY03 Farmhouse Brett ale yeast in liquid form with low flocculation and 90% attenuation

Alcohol

6.4% ABV

The Great Divide - Flemish Golden Wild Ale

malt & fermentables

%	LB	OZ	Malt or Fermentable	ppg	°L
60%	8	0	Rahr Pilsner Malt	34	2
26%	3	8	American White Wheat	39	2
6%	0	12	Corn, Flaked	37	1
4%	0	8	Belgian Candy Sugar Light	36	0
4%	0	8	Wheat, Unmalted (Wheat Berries)	34	5
0%	0	1	Carafa III	32	525
	13	5

Batch size: 5.5 gallons

Original Gravity

1.060 measured

Final Gravity

Color

8° SRM / 15° EBC

(Gold to Copper)

hops

use	time	oz	variety	form	aa
boil	20 mins	0.6	Simcoe	leaf	13.0
boil	15 mins	0.5	Amarillo	leaf	7.0
boil	10 mins	0.5	Amarillo	leaf	7.0
dry hop	10 days	2.0	Amarillo	leaf	7.0

Bitterness

15.8 IBU

yeast

ECY02 Flemish Ale ale yeast in liquid form with low flocculation and 90% attenuation

Alcohol

7.3% ABV

 ***I mashed high, in the 158-160 range
 
3.20.12 - Sampled it and took a PH reading.   PH is at 3.8.  The taste is a nice funky saison with wheat and hops and tartness all intermingling nicely.  Fruity brett with a little musty brett in the nose.  Very fruity and refreshing in the taste.  

5.18.12 - Added 1/4 ounce Medium Toast French Cubes to both ECY03 and ECY02 versions. 
5.28.12 - Bottled ECY03 Saison Brett version with 7.1 ounces of corn sugar in Champagne and Belgian (750's and 375's) to reach 4 volumes of Co2.

French Saison Brett: Brettanomyces Experimentation...the funky train!

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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!   

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.

French Saison with Brett (C and L)

Batch size: 10 gallons

malt & fermentables

%	LB	OZ	Malt or Fermentable	ppg	°L
58%	9	8	Belgian Pilsner Malt	34	2
33%	5	8	Vienna Malt	36	3
9%	1	8	Wheat, Torrified	36	1
	16	8

Original Gravity

1.040

Final Gravity

1.000

Color

4° SRM / 7° EBC

(Yellow)

Mash Efficiency 71%

hops

use	time	oz	variety	form	aa
boil	60mins	2.0	Goldings, East Kent	pellet	5.0
boil	10mins	0.5	French Strisserspalt	pellet	2.6
boil	10mins	0.5	Czech Saaz	pellet	5.0
boil	1 min	1.5	Czech Saaz	pellet	5.0
boil	1 min	1.5	French Strisserspalt	pellet	2.6

Dry Hop with 1 oz of Amarillo and 1/2 oz Citra hops

Boil: 13.0  for 90 minutes

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

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.

Saison/ Bier de Garde Hybrid and Yeast experiment

I'm a huge fan of Belgian beers, in particular, the farmhouse ales. Both Saison's and Bier de garde are amazing beers in my opinion. Saison's being more hoppy, and yeasty and many times spiced, and Bier de garde's tending toward the malty side with a typical 90 minute boil to give it it's signiture caramel characteristic. I decided to do an experiment with a split batch. It's a great Saison recipe from Northern Brewer and I had done it in extract and loved it last summer. I fermented it last year at upwards to 78-80 degrees and the French Saison yeast is amazing at this temperature with fruit and peppery spice flavors. This year I'm going to let the yeast hang back a little bit by fermenting it at the lower temperatures to see how that effects the Belgian yeast flavors. Start at around 65 for the first couple days and then slowly bring it up to 70 is what I'm thinking. My two yeasts are the Wyeast 3711 French Saison yeast, and Safbrew T-58 (6 gallons split into 3 gallon batch's). The safbrew Belgian ale is one that I got for free from NB at the AHA Surly event. I figured I'd split the batch and taste the difference. I did a long boil, 90 minutes. I'm a big malt head and love the caramel, malty flavors in Bier de garde style, and I typically boil my first runnings when I'm sparging anyways. This tends toward the bier de garde, but since this is a nicely hopped Saison, a malty backbone should work well, hopefully. These will be tasty, and very sessionable summer ales!

The grain bill is Belgian Pilsner, Vienna, and Torrified Wheat.
The hops consist of East Kent Goldings, Styrian Goldings, and Saaz.

I mashed at 150 for an hour
Boiled my first runnings while sparging
Sparged at 165 for 45 minutes
With the very last of the runnings, I boiled a gallon of that down until it was practically a caramel and lightly poured that back into the main boil.
Full 90 minute boil.

Pitched the yeast at 70 degrees and both had nice vigorous fermentation's. I'll let them sit for a couple weeks and then bottle in big bottles!


Salute!

Fermentation and tasting results of this Yeast experiment