Brew
Day 11/16/12
American
Pale Brett Ale. This is my riff on Orval, which is probably the greatest beer
ever. It has inspired so many fantastic “covers”, many of which are up near the
top of my list of favorites: Rayon Vert, Brux, probably all the
Anchorage beers… For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of partaking in these greats, they are pale,
yeast forward, hoppy, and Brett’d.
I
reckon we all essentially have Orval to thank for the beauty of that certain
strain of Brett- Brettanomyces Bruxellensis- and its ability to lend its rustic
funk to hoppy beers without grating too hard against their herbal bitterness. So
good. So farmy. Some folks’ll call the funk “goaty,” “sweaty horse blanket,” or
“urinal cake,” especially when it goes wrong, but I’d say “grassy,” “wet hay,” “lemony,”
“pear skins,” and “herbal,” are better descriptors of how glorious it can be. I
love the way it plays against a simplistic malt bill and lots of hops- Noble or
American- and the depth it adds without detracting from a beer’s drinkability.
Super complex, super crisp, super refreshing. Some med toast american oak should really spice things up too.
The “vision”
for this recipe: Basically this should be the middle ground between Orval and Rayon Vert. Closer to Orval in size and
balance but without the phenolic Belgian primary fermentation profile, and
closer to Rayon’s big fruity and piney hop aromatics. The nice Brett complexity
will develop in the bottles for a couple of years while the hops fade into
oblivion. If all goes well I’ll get a few cases of beer that start relatively
clean and hoppy (although some funk is in order) and then transition into a
great rustic farmy pale that smoothes out over a few years in the cellar as the
hops fade and the Brett matures (if they last that long).
The
recipe formulation was easy as pie… nice and clean pilsner malt with a touch of
caravienne for color and body, with moderate doses of Centennial for layers of
pine and that almost strawberry-like fruityness with some Calypso in the late dry hoping to compliment the lemon/ herbal/ apples/ pears from the Brett, and a relatively neutral yeast
strain. Very easy beer to do on brew day. But… what to do with the Brett post
brewing to get the beer where I want it? Brett is pretty slow acting, and
produces a lot of the great funky flavors it is known for by eating the left
over complex sugars that normal brewer’s yeast leave behind after primary
fermentation. It is still kind of unpredictable though, and can leave you with
a beer with nuances of sheep pee instead of pear skin if things go wrong, so
based on the experiments of a few great
bloggers I came up with some strategies that will hopefully help get the beer
where I want it:
 |
| The Proud Parents |
-
Produce a very fermentable beer with a high- attenuating primary
strain so that there aren’t a ton of residual sugars for the Brett to eat, thus
keeping the Brett profile on the mellower side.
-
Brett’s funky flavors are partially a product of it working on
phenolic compounds in the fermented beer, so I’m hoping that by using a clean
English yeast instead of a Belgian strain in primary I will limit the source of
some of the Brett’ less desirable characteristics
-
Bottle early (in
bomb-proof thick bottles, of course) because many sources attribute Orval’s
Brett quality to the fact that it develops under pressure and some aromatic
by-products can’t escape. Also, oxygen allows Brett to take on a whole new
level of harsh funk (like in a great Geuze). Also, this way the hops can be enjoyed while young and fresh!
-
Brett strains are varied and abundant, but not all that well
documents, so instead of rolling the dice with a strain from a lab that may be
a propagation of cells that aren’t exactly what I want, I went straight to the
source and just pitched the dredges from Orval and Brux into primary with no
starter. The idea here is that the WLP007 Dry English Ale yeast would get a big
head start to keep the Brett in check.
This is
probably the “riskiest” beer I’ve made, and could go terribly wrong. But, if
all goes well I’ll get what I’m looking for and make what has the potential to
be a true great.
The
Recipe (for 5.5 gal into fermenter):
11.5
lbs Castle Pilsner Malt- 92%
.5 lbs Caravienne- 4%
.5 lbs
Table Sugar- 4%
1 oz Nugget
@ 30min
2 oz
Centennial @ 15min
2 oz Centennial
Dry Hop after 1 week in primary (DH total of 7 days)
2 oz Centennial
Dry Hop in Secondary 1 week prior to bottling (DH total of 6 days)
2 oz Calypso Dry Hop in Secondary 1 week prior to bottling (DH total of 6 days)
2 oz MED Toast French Oak chips in secondary for 5 days. **the shipping got all F'd up, otherwise I would have gone with just one for more like 2 weeks**
Pitched
4 cup starter (cold crashed) WLP007 “Dry English” ale yeast and dredges from two bottles of Orval and Brux @ 60F with .5 tab
Servomicies. Allowed to free rise to ambient high 60 in the house. Will most
likely stay around 65 ‘cuz it’s getting cold outside.
Used
Sonora Tap H2O with 1.5 g/gal gypsum for pale hoppy water profile.
Mashed
at 145F for 45min. and the 152F for 30min. Mash Out at 168F for 10 min.
Double
Batch Sparge
90min
boil
Collected
5.5 gal after boil and hop trub removal.
OG:
1.053= 69% efficiency
FG: = 1.008 for ABV~5.9%
Calculated
SRM: 5
Calculated
IBU: Garetz 42, Tinseth 70
11/16-
Pitched yeast and put in tub with a blanket wrap for house ambient.
12/2- Transferred to secondary to get off yeast and first dry hop addition trub. Added
1oz gelatin.
12/20- Dry Hopped with 2oz each Centennial and Calypso.
12/26- Bottled: 4.5gal into 16oz swing-tops primes with .5c table sugar for target CO2 VOLs 2.5. FG @1.008. Hydrometer samples were pretty wild... bret funk is very grassy and nice, hops are much more floral than expected... like lemon verbena, and something about the combination of the WLP007, Caravienna malt, and French Oak is making for something very candy-like about the base beer. Wow!
1/15/13- Cracked the first bottles over the weekend. Holy cow, very exciting beer. Like a fruity hop flavored hard candy with a great, sublte brett finish. Tasting pending.
2/1/13- First review. This is so good. Hoppy now, but already has some nice Brett development. Aromatic, floral, lemony, apples and pears with some hay and a clean finish. Can't wait to bring 'em to Bellingham.
Smell: Perfume floral nose with bright Meyer lemon skin and
a backdrop of Brett funk that is like sweet, wet hay. Super aromatic, with an
enchanting rose blossom quality. Slight goat and grainy sweet. The way the hops
put up such huge flower and lemon aromas without smelling resinous or “dank” is
un-canny… and unexpected. These Centennials are so fruity and smooth! No pine
or pith. All hops and Brett in the aroma, with barely a hint of the pils malt
or English yeast. It smells exactly like Lemonhead Candies to me.
