Simply Wild: Homebrewing With Brettanomyces
Olde Ale
5 gallons, extract and grain, OG 1.065-1.070, 35 IBU
Steep chocolate malt, dark crystal malt and medium crystal malt for 20 minutes at 155°F
Rinse steeping grains, add 6# light DME or 7.5# light LME and top up to your usual boiling volume
Bring to a boil and add 12 AAU Fuggles or Northern Brewer hops
Boil for 45 minutes and add 1 oz. East Kent Goldings
Boil for 15 minutes, turn off the heat and add 1 oz. East Kent Goldings
Cover and let the hops steep for 15 minutes before chilling
Chill, and ferment with your choice of English ale yeast
Before bottling or aging, add one tube of White Labs WLP645, if bottling use 1/2 to 2/3 cup of priming sugar.
Bottle and age for 3 to 6 months
Optional: Add 1.5 oz medium toasted oak chips along with the Brett to the secondary fermenter or aging vessel and allow contact for at least 3 months before bottling or kegging
Louvain Peetermann
(1850 Amber Witbier)
5 gallons, all-grain, OG 1.060, 40 IBU
Grain Bill: 1# Caramunich I, 3# Munich malt, 4# raw (or malted) wheat, 4# pilsner malt
Perform a protein rest at 122°F and saccharification rest at 150°F
Hop/Spice schedule:
8 AAU Styrian Goldings, 60 minutes
5 AAU East Kent Goldings, 30 minutes
1 oz each Czech Saaz hops and fresh ground coriander, 5 minutes
Ferment with witbier yeast, Wyeast 3944 or White Labs WLP400 or WLP410
Bottle or keg and age with Wyeast 5112 or White Labs WLP650
Optional: Add 1.5# of varietal honey at knockout to boost gravity and enhance aromatics
K. Florian Klemp
K. Florian Klemp is an award-winning homebrewer who thinks there is no more sublime marriage than that of art and science.
Nice job on this article. Elsewhere I find sound bites. This is much more informative.
Only last year I began experimenting with Brett yeasts, and can already corroborate your observations. I made St. Bernardus #8 clone with three yeasts, ending with B. claussennii. The result changed month by month.
Now I have a favorite stout recipe brewing with both B. claussennii and bruxellensis (got impatient with the first to show any life and pitched the second; ho boy) and expect to bottle soon. I think it safer not to add any dextrose to charge it with due to eager attenuation.
Since my old house is very warm in summer and Bretts can work well at 80+ degrees F, this may open three more months of brewing for me. Not to mention the whole adventure of added nuances in the flavor profiles.