Saturday, April 20, 2013

Brett Trois Farmhouse Ale Tasting

I'm finally getting around to posting up tasting notes for some of the beers I've brewed over the past many months. This one is for my multigrain farmhouse ale fermented entirely with Brett. I brewed it 10 months ago! As seems to be the way with this blog...better late than never, right?

Threshing Ale

Appearance - Pale yellow with thick foamy pure-white head that lingers. Brilliantly clear (as would be expected given this has sat in the fridge for months now). A beautiful beer to look at.

Aroma - Ripe melon and pineapple, some hints of lemon-orange and spicy hops. When this was younger, it was over-the-top ripe tropical fruits. With the combination of the Brett Trois strain and the Motueka hops, it smelled like a fruit salad. It is much more subdued now, but still predominantly tropical fruits with some spiciness.

Flavor - Solid bitterness that lingers, spicy hops, minerally, slightly tart with hints of ripe fruit. No "traditional" Brett flavors. The flavor is the opposite of the aroma - more spicy than fruity. Can't tell if the quinoa or spelt did anything other than add some additional sugars for the Brett to chew on.

Mouthfeel - Super dry and crisp. The Brett has certainly continued to work on this beer as it is drier now than it was earlier. This dryness accentuates the bitterness nicely. Medium-high carbonation also helps the overall crispness of this beer. This higher carbonation is another sign that the Brett continued working in the bottle - I purposely under-primed this beer for just this reason.

Overall - This beer was awesome when I first made it and it has changed, but has held up well over the months. This was a 100% success. The intense fruitiness that was there early was wonderful - I definitely see why this yeast strain has become renowned for its tropical fruit character. As the beer has aged, the fruitiness is more subdued, letting the spicy favors shine through. Easy drinker that I wish I had more of. Will definitely try something like this again.

5 comments:

Matt Hollingsworth said...

Sounds great! How many volumes did you aim for when carbonating this?

Jim Lemire said...

When I calculated the amount of priming to use, I went with 2.3-2.4 volumes, anticipating that the Brett would still work on it and get me over 2.5 volumes. Not sure where it actually ended up, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were at 2.7+

Matt Hollingsworth said...

Cool. Thanks for the info.

Bear Flavored said...

Really nice looking beer! I've mostly brewed IPAs with Trois, but it's a really great yeast. Be curious to know how much the FG dropped from the pre-bottling reading.

Jim Lemire said...

I have to admit that I think this might be the prettiest beer I've brewed. I have a few bottles of this left, so I will try to remember to save a little sample to get a gravity reading.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...