2018 Advent - December 28 - Short Division - (Hoppy?) Brett Saison

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2018 Advent - December 28 - Short Division - (Hoppy?) Brett Saison

Post by mumblecrunch » Sat Nov 24, 2018 4:52 pm

Here's the original recipe out of Craft Beer & Brewing magazine from Transient Artisan Ales in Michigan for a beer called Obelus. It's designed to show off the hops in the first month or so and then, as the hops fade, the Brett comes forward. I made it with Galaxy hops last year and it worked pretty much as described. I used the dregs from a couple of bottles of Stillwell 3 plus an expired pack of Wyeast Brett (brux, i think). I called it Short Division because "obelus" is the name of the symbol you know from elementary school for infix division: ÷

This year I decided to do it with Huell Melon instead. For Brett I used dregs from 3 bottles of the original batch plus dregs from one bottle each of Stillwell 3 and Stillwell 4. It was brewed way back on September 22. I used the newish Safale BE-134 Saison yeast because it was in my fridge and I didn't have time to do a starter. The Brett was added once the beer was fermented out (FG 1.008 or so) and sat for several weeks at 23-25ºC. The dry hop was 100g of Huell Melon added about 3 weeks ago, at which point I let the temperature drop to 16-18ºC. By the time I bottled it was 1.000 or 0.999 so it's probably good that my OG was 10 points low at 1.052. Estimated ABV is 6.9%.

Carbonation is intended to be in the range of 2.8 volumes. I would have gone higher, but I didn't have bottles I felt comfortable going there with.

As I was drinking it during bottling it was quite flat, but I would say the Brett is totally dominant. I'm not sure I can taste any yeast character anymore and I'm not sure whether the hops just complement it really well or they're entirely overpowered by the Brett. That Stillwell culture is pretty gorgeous and we're lucky to have it around to play with.

Cheers Everyone!

*** NOTE: These are bottle conditioned and were only bottled on November 21st, so please keep them at room temperature until December 12 or so ***

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Re: 2018 Advent - December 28 - Short Division - (Hoppy?) Brett Saison

Post by mumblecrunch » Sat Nov 24, 2018 5:02 pm

Here are a couple of pictures from bottling day:
short_division_ - 1.jpg
short_division_ - 2.jpg
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Re: 2018 Advent - December 28 - Short Division - (Hoppy?) Brett Saison

Post by wcturnedec » Mon Nov 26, 2018 9:45 am

Sounds awesome, what were you thoughts on BE-134? I've heard good things about it being a decent dry saison yeast.
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Fermenting: Brett Saison 2022, Schwarzbier, APA, Sour Brown,
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Re: 2018 Advent - December 28 - Short Division - (Hoppy?) Brett Saison

Post by mumblecrunch » Sat Dec 01, 2018 8:36 pm

wcturnedec wrote:
Mon Nov 26, 2018 9:45 am
Sounds awesome, what were you thoughts on BE-134? I've heard good things about it being a decent dry saison yeast.
Back when I could taste it I thought it was fine ;)

I started fermentation at around 16ºC and let it free rise to 19ºC where it sat for the first three days or so. After that I put a heat belt on it and it spent the next week or so at 23-25ºC. By the end of 8 days the gravity was at 1.005 (down from 1.052)and that's when I pitched the Brett. My impression of the saison yeast was more "peppery" than "fruity", especially as compared to the WLP 566 (Belgian Saison II) I used in the previous batch of this beer. No lag, no stall, and obviously a strong eater.

TBH I was a little worried that it hadn't left the brett anything to work with, but when I was sampling the beer during bottling (flat and warm) I could barely taste the primary yeast or the hops. It will be really interesting to see what it tastes like on December 28th carbed and cool.

All in all I'd use this yeast again if I were aiming for a dry saison with pronounced phenolics and little in the way of fruity esters. I'll probably grab a couple of packets and throw them in the fridge as a saison backup plan as well.

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Re: 2018 Advent - December 28 - Short Division - (Hoppy?) Brett Saison

Post by Halifax_Jeff » Thu Dec 27, 2018 9:34 pm

Drank this one tonight and I love it. The Brett is coming through and its super tart and tasty. Carbonation was fine as well.

Really enjoyed the detailed brew log as well. I like reading how beers come together.

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Re: 2018 Advent - December 28 - Short Division - (Hoppy?) Brett Saison

Post by amartin » Fri Dec 28, 2018 11:27 pm

There’s a lot of brett in here! How long did it ferment after adding it?

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Re: 2018 Advent - December 28 - Short Division - (Hoppy?) Brett Saison

Post by mumblecrunch » Sat Dec 29, 2018 12:10 am

amartin wrote:
Fri Dec 28, 2018 11:27 pm
There’s a lot of brett in here! How long did it ferment after adding it?
About 8 weeks, I think. The Brett was added at 1.005 and took it down to 0.999 or so. In retrospect, 5 bottles worth of dregs might have been a little much :D

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Re: 2018 Advent - December 28 - Short Division - (Hoppy?) Brett Saison

Post by Buccaneer » Sun Dec 30, 2018 3:27 pm

This was a very interesting beer. Super dry, almost white wine like when swallowing. Very nice malt finish that sort of snuck in at the very end. Apart from the malt finish, it really seemed more like a sparkling wine. Thanks for the share!

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Re: 2018 Advent - December 28 - Short Division - (Hoppy?) Brett Saison

Post by ErictheGreat » Sun Dec 30, 2018 5:08 pm

This is the style of beer I'm loving right now. Well done. The Brett is definitely predominant, the saison a memory and a lovely dry tart finish.

And that's a great picture on the label of young you, when you were younger, ...nice touch lol.

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Re: 2018 Advent - December 28 - Short Division - (Hoppy?) Brett Saison

Post by CartoonCod » Sat Jan 05, 2019 10:59 pm

Holy Brett! What a nice funkiness. The hops mingle with the funk very well and I find it difficult to tell where one ends and the next begins, which is a good thing. I'm getting a bit of Tetrahydropyridines (THP) in the (very) late finish. Just a bit, but I think I am sensitive to it after having a few of my own THP bombs. Thanks for sharing!

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Re: 2018 Advent - December 28 - Short Division - (Hoppy?) Brett Saison

Post by GCR » Fri Apr 26, 2019 11:28 am

I forgot to post that we drank this on April Fool's day while bottling, and it was an absolute triumph. So much so that we're gonna try to use it as a base for making a beer with some reishi mushroom in gin tincture my friend Rick got from some dude.

That being said, I dont have any stilly dregs - what Brett blend (that Everwood has in stock) would you recommend?? This will be our first time using Brett, and there's a veritable shitload of choices.

Thanks again for sharing the great beer.Image

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Re: 2018 Advent - December 28 - Short Division - (Hoppy?) Brett Saison

Post by mumblecrunch » Mon Apr 29, 2019 3:35 pm

GCR wrote:
Fri Apr 26, 2019 11:28 am
I forgot to post that we drank this on April Fool's day while bottling, and it was an absolute triumph. So much so that we're gonna try to use it as a base for making a beer with some reishi mushroom in gin tincture my friend Rick got from some dude.

That being said, I dont have any stilly dregs - what Brett blend (that Everwood has in stock) would you recommend?? This will be our first time using Brett, and there's a veritable shitload of choices.
I'm very glad to hear you enjoyed it!

Because you're adding the brett when the beer has already fermented out, you don't need a lot of it, which is why dregs work fine. The first batch of this had some Stillwell dregs and also a pouch of Wyeast Brett Brux. For what it's worth, that pouch was quite a ways past its best before date. Everwood usually has expired yeast in the fridge at a discount, I'd just grab one or two expired brett vials, depending on the size of the batch. As for which one, maybe read up on the common strains and see which one sounds like what you're going for. I think personally if I were using it along with that mushroom tincture (neat idea by the way!) I'd probably go with Brettanomyces bruxellensis, as I think funk and earthiness could go together nicely.

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Re: 2018 Advent - December 28 - Short Division - (Hoppy?) Brett Saison

Post by GCR » Mon Apr 29, 2019 3:46 pm

Great minds think alike - picked up some of that very strain on the weekend!

I also coincidentally got a bottle of Gosh and one of Posy from Stillwell - but I dont know when I'll be drinking those yet.

If a person were to pitch the dregs on a stir plate (with some sterile wort/yeast nutrient), could one make a starter like that? Would you need multiple bottles? I picked up a stir plate recently but I havent had the chance to use it yet.

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Re: 2018 Advent - December 28 - Short Division - (Hoppy?) Brett Saison

Post by wcturnedec » Tue Apr 30, 2019 9:05 am

GCR wrote:
Mon Apr 29, 2019 3:46 pm
Great minds think alike - picked up some of that very strain on the weekend!

I also coincidentally got a bottle of Gosh and one of Posy from Stillwell - but I dont know when I'll be drinking those yet.

If a person were to pitch the dregs on a stir plate (with some sterile wort/yeast nutrient), could one make a starter like that? Would you need multiple bottles? I picked up a stir plate recently but I havent had the chance to use it yet.

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Are you looking to do a 100% brett fermentation or just get some brett character in secondary/post fermentation?

Growing dregs directly on a sitrplate would be a big step up since there are few cells in those bottles. There's a lot of info about culturing dregs from bottles out there, but as mumble mentioned I'd just drink some bottles and pitch those dregs post-fermentation.
On tap: APA, Dubbel, Dark Mild
Fermenting: Brett Saison 2022, Schwarzbier, APA, Sour Brown,
Coming up: American Wheat (Fruited), Vienna Lager, Dortmunder
Bottled: Brett Saison 2020, Brett Saison 2021, Baltic Porter

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Re: 2018 Advent - December 28 - Short Division - (Hoppy?) Brett Saison

Post by GCR » Sun May 05, 2019 9:49 am

Thanks. Just looking for a little funk with this one.... but I do plan on brewing a brett-only IPA soon as well. So many brews, so little time...

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