The Bar Towel

just wondering if anyone else is homebrewing with brett or any sours?

if not, why not?

kind of curious as to why funk/sours haven't taken off in Ontario microbrews and home brewing.

Because Ontario brewers have historically been very conservative in their approach to brewing. Most craft breweries are fairly new and have enough problems working out the kinks in the system to produce decent "normal" beer on a consistent basis. For Ontario homebrewers, only recently has there been spike in the hobby for your province, thanks to lots of new homebrewers... again, most newbies don't jump into making sour beers.

Additionally, these types of beers will always be a niche product.

I have personally been using brett and bacteria for about 6 years.

markaberrant wrote:Because Ontario brewers have historically been very conservative in their approach to brewing. Most craft breweries are fairly new and have enough problems working out the kinks in the system to produce decent "normal" beer on a consistent basis. For Ontario homebrewers, only recently has there been spike in the hobby for your province, thanks to lots of new homebrewers... again, most newbies don't jump into making sour beers.

Additionally, these types of beers will always be a niche product.

I have personally been using brett and bacteria for about 6 years.

any recipes/suggestions/tips you want to pass on to a newbie? I just did a brett brux 2ndary yesterday (along with some Cantillon dregs) and it would be great to hear other people's success/horror stories

I began dabbling in funk/sour/brett brews a little over a year ago. This year it is my main focus.

First attempt was a Belgian Pale Ale with Brett B, took six months, and turned out great. Orval-like funk, lots of pear, apple and floral notes. After that I attempted a sour using lactobacillus, took five weeks, and again turned out really nice. It was a very sour beer, and the large raspberry addition dominated the flavour/aroma.

One of my favourites last year was an all Citra pale ale fermented completely with Brett L. Turned out tasting like Zombie Dust with a huge dose of funk.

Currently bottled, I have a revised batch of the Raspberry Sour, this one instead being all Brett L fermented with slightly less raspberries. Hit a great balance of sour, funk, and fruit. Very good.

In secondary, is a sour with pedio, which I haven't used before this one. And also a Robust Porter with Brett L added.

Last weekend I brewed a Sour Saison with lactobacillus and brett that will also get a peach addition. This weekend will be another Saison, except with oak cubes and Jolly Pumpkin dregs.

And finally in the pipeline is a Wheat BSDA with Brett and a Berliner Weiss with blueberries and Brett C.

I'd like to try brett, but don't want to risk it with my current gear. I need to find someone else to store the brett equipment, so it doesn't contaminate my 'normal' brewery setup.

herrorara wrote:
In secondary, is a sour with pedio, which I haven't used before this one. And also a Robust Porter with Brett L added.

Last weekend I brewed a Sour Saison with lactobacillus and brett that will also get a peach addition. This weekend will be another Saison, except with oak cubes and Jolly Pumpkin dregs.

cool. i was going to do some saisons but was going to wait for the summer. i don't have a proper set-up so i can heat the carboy (I assume you're bumping things up into the 80s). what do you use to heat it?

contemplating doing a stout w/brett L in it and checking in on it in 6 months.

KwaiLo wrote:I'd like to try brett, but don't want to risk it with my current gear. I need to find someone else to store the brett equipment, so it doesn't contaminate my 'normal' brewery setup.

if you have good sanitary practices you have nothing to worry about

matt7215 wrote:

KwaiLo wrote:I'd like to try brett, but don't want to risk it with my current gear. I need to find someone else to store the brett equipment, so it doesn't contaminate my 'normal' brewery setup.

if you have good sanitary practices you have nothing to worry about

what's "good sanitary practices"? Yesterday, I used soap and water and then a steri-san flush/rinse.

I've seen others talk about alternating between 2 types of sanitizers to prevent resistance (which i think is bullshit without proper chemical analysis of each sanitizer's bacteriocidal ability).

To be safe, I'm using a separate airlock, hose, racking cane and carboy for my funky beer. I'll likely use a separate carboy brush as well. in theory, though, i don't know if any of that is even necessary. the oxygen permeability of a rubber airlock stopper is tiny. i doubt brett can penetrate and live there. a wooden stopper, though, is a different story.

atomeyes wrote:

matt7215 wrote:

KwaiLo wrote:I'd like to try brett, but don't want to risk it with my current gear. I need to find someone else to store the brett equipment, so it doesn't contaminate my 'normal' brewery setup.

if you have good sanitary practices you have nothing to worry about

what's "good sanitary practices"?

cleaning and sanitizing your equipment properly your no more likely to get a bret infection then you are to get a US-05 infection

atomeyes wrote:

herrorara wrote:
In secondary, is a sour with pedio, which I haven't used before this one. And also a Robust Porter with Brett L added.

Last weekend I brewed a Sour Saison with lactobacillus and brett that will also get a peach addition. This weekend will be another Saison, except with oak cubes and Jolly Pumpkin dregs.

cool. i was going to do some saisons but was going to wait for the summer. i don't have a proper set-up so i can heat the carboy (I assume you're bumping things up into the 80s). what do you use to heat it?

contemplating doing a stout w/brett L in it and checking in on it in 6 months.

I've been just fermenting at normal temps with Wyeast 3711.

My Brett L Porter is at about the 5 month mark, will be checking on it soon.

I just kegged a 10.8% stout with Brett L. TOTAL CHERRY BOMB.

matt7215 wrote:cleaning and sanitizing your equipment properly your no more likely to get a bret infection then you are to get a US-05 infection

Agreed. I have a keg and tap dedicated to sours, as well as 3 Better Bottles, but that is it. And they are dedicated because they are always in use. I like having one of my four taps dedicated to something wild/sour, it is usually a big hit with both the beer nerds and the newbies.

Whenever I am transferring or bottling sours, I usually am a little more thorough with my cleanup regimen, but it is good to do that a couple times a year anyways.

I'm still scared. I will do it at some point, maybe buy some gear and keep at my mom's place. Brew at home, take the wort to hr place to ferment.

/I'm sure there are some sour mom jokes in there somewhere. And not very deep.

KwaiLo wrote:I'm still scared. I will do it at some point, maybe buy some gear and keep at my mom's place. Brew at home, take the wort to hr place to ferment.

/I'm sure there are some sour mom jokes in there somewhere. And not very deep.

from everything i've read, i think its a little extreme to ferment elsewhere. sour fermenters are doing it side by side. there's an airlock that isn't permeable to oxygen (assuming you're using a carboy and not plastic), so not sure how the bugs will jump. thinking of guys like Dieu du Ciel who are making some sours on premesis. I think they have one fermentor dedicated to sours, not one building.

we made our first sour back in '09 - the first of our annual lambic style brews. this summer we're planning to blend the 3 vintages to form a proper gueuze. also thinking about splitting the fermenter+oak so we can get another batch going, experiment with some different ideas.

i've been getting curious to try a solera barrel. think that could be pretty neat, but a lot of work to get it started.

we've also dabbled in some other funky stuff - some intentional, some not. so far it's all been pretty tasty.

i've got dedicated hoses for the funk, and a dedicated fermenter for the lambic, but other than that i haven't stressed about it much. i am due for a brewery overhaul though as we've been getting some funk coming through in lower-gravity batches lately. nothing a serious cleaning won't cure.