Comments on: Sour Saison Split Batch Experiment

By: BarlowBrewing

BarlowBrewing — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:21:36 +0000

@Gary – Building up the Brabant starter was pretty easy. It is just like a yeast starter but you are pouring in the last bits of the bottle, instead of yeast, after you have poured out 9/10 of the beer into a glass. To be safe a little alcohol and flame on the lips of the bottle go a long way to keeping things sanitary, too. Swirl it up, and pour it in. And be patient.

By: Gary D

Gary D — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:44:16 +0000

this is a cool experiment! i’d be stoked if you continue to update the blog as to how the beer came out and what it’s characteristics are. i’ve only made 2 ‘brett’ beers so far, one orval-esque beer & one wit, both made with the wyeast orval seasonal yeast that was released last summer. both beers are awesome (if u like brett). i am thinking about doing a saison myself. how did you build up the yeast dregs from the brabant?

By: Simply Beer

Simply Beer — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:32:47 +0000

I wasn’t sure on the style of beer, but I wanted to use 2 yeasts. The Saison sounds great.

Looking forward to the outcome of your experiment.

By: Barlow Brewing

Barlow Brewing — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:11:01 +0000

I was actually just checking into these last night.

They are only a month old, but both had both dropped ~0.0002, and they are developing some complex sourness. The samples are different though. The Brabant batch is a tad harsher and more bitter. I don’t have a theory about that yet. I am hoping those qualities work themselves out, but time will be the judge of that.

I’m not sure how long I will leave these to sour. Since they were added to the very end of a very dry (1.006) saison beer, I’m treating these like an at-bottling brett addition. I will likely bottle them within the next month. That makes sense to me and I will need to do so just to free up my mad scientist 3g carboys for more split batches.

I’ll post something more detailed when they are bottled and tasted.

Tips or advise for using brett? What do you want to do? Some brewers do brett-only beers. Most will ferment with a neutral yeast and pitch the brett when fermentation is about 75% complete to control the souring,. Some will do a bottling-only addition (like Orval).

But I am oversimplifying all this.

What do you want to make?

By: Simply Beer

Simply Beer — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:46:29 +0000

Curious as to how this has developed. Wanted to try something like this. I’ve never used the Brett yeast in brewing, any tips or advise?