I continued my first sour/Brett/fruit/wine yeast experiment by racking the beer onto some cranberries I picked up fresh last fall that I sealed and froze. The primary yeast (a wine yeast, Lalvin BM45) had fermented the beer down to 1.022 and the sample I took tasted very nice - clean, a bit fruity. It was still very cloudy and I must admit not nearly as sour as I thought it would be with all that acidulated malt in the grist. With the Brett and cranberries I figure the acidity will jump up some.Not sure that I had to or should, I pasteurized the cranberries, still in the vacuum sealed pouches, in 165°F water for about 20 minutes. I then mashed them up and dropped them into the carboy, which more difficult than I anticipated. I then racked the beer on top and set the whole thing in my basement for 24 hours before pitching a vial of WLP645 - Brettanomyces claussenii. I went with this strain because I didn't want an overpowering Brett character. I'll let this sit undisturbed for a while - 3 months maybe? At the moment I am thinking of adding some oak cubes as well - I have 0.5 ounces soaking in some red wine that I might add at some point.
3 comments:
wondering how far the brett c took this down. Sounds like a complex beer. Hope it turns out!
I'll let you know when I rack it later this week (hopefully). I haven't sampled it in quite some time and am curious myself where the gravity is. Last I checked (about 2.5 months ago) it was only down to 1.020 - this was about 5 weeks after pitching the Brett. I'm hoping it is much farther by now.
Well, this beer is still sitting at about 1.020! I was shocked...and dismayed to be totally honest. I thought for sure this would have dropped considerably by now. I thought it tasted good - nice subdued Brett character - but am not sure where this is going to go. I racked it off the cranberries and added some oak cubes I had been soaking in some red wine. I'll leave it alone for a little while longer and then see where it is and decide what to do. I was hoping to bottle this in August, but perhaps I will need to hold off.
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