A mixed culture of Brett, lacto, pedio and Saison yeast from The Bruery, Crooked Stave and Firestone Walker
A mixed culture of 565 Saison, Brett C and Lacto
A big slurry of Brett C
A big slurry of French Saison
A mill, a mash tun and boil kettle.
So, what to do?
Projects
#1. 5G batch of just the CO funky bunch. Let the beer roll and decide on dry hopping, fruiting, oak, etc after the fact. There is no way to know where that slurry will take me, but as I plan a quick turn I will keg this beer to avoid overcarbing from the pedio.
90% Pils and 10% flaked wheat.
Mash 148
Simple simple
#2. Add a 100ml of French Saison and 200ml Brett slurry to my 565/brett/lacto slurry as the last iteration lost the majority of its Saison character. The added Brett is to make sure the aggressive French yeast doesnt overpower. Balance.
Same grist and mash sked as above. Hops in DH only. Galaxy, Nelson, etc...juicy, fruity.
#3. Brett Stout - After tasting Butch's All-Brett Stout I must make a go of it. Man was that tasty! As I am just finishing up a very nice, complex Brown Ale I am going to use that grist as a template for this beer. As we know, Brett will mow through much of the complex sugars leaving our beer dry..very dry...so, as is stated in many a reference, including American Sour Beers, we must keep our roasted and bitter malts to a minimum, all the while targeting a deep malt complexity and a medium mouthfeel...SO.
Maris Otter - 9lbs (60%
Aromatic - 1lbs (5%)
Flaked Wheat - 1 lbs (5%)
Special B - .25lbs (2%)
Pale Chocolate - .25lbs (2%)
Roasted Malt - .25lbs (2%)
Acidulated Malt - .25 (ethyl lactate) (at end of mash)
Carafa 3, midnight wheat ) - 2oz
OG - 1056
FG - 1012-1008 (tough to call with the short boil and high mash temp)
ABV - 6.3%
SRM - 31 - dark
IBU - 20 (all warrior at 10 to reduce bitter hop characteristics)
Plan
Starter day prior - 2L with all of slurry from Butch. Harvest 500ml to jar.
Day of
Strike 5G @ 150 for 60
Sparge 2.5G.
Pre-boil target - 5.5G and 1054
Boil 15 adding .75 Warrior/nutrient/chiller
Knockout and Chill to 85. Standard aeration.
Rack to fermenter and pithc
*Consider food processed cocoa nibs in a secondary split (bagged one week) and raspberry (also bagged) in a tertiary then blend*
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Brewday of Caison III and CO Funky Bunch Batch #1 - 1/10/15 - Split batch
Packed the mash tun with 20# pils from DP, 3# munich, 2# flaked wheat and 2# rice hulls, to avoid the beta rest Mike recommended with the pils.
Mashed at 154ish then recirced and pulled two gallons. Then capped the mash with another 3# of pils and added sparge water to the top (156 rest here). Rested 30 more minutes and ran out quick to target 6.25G.
Brought wort to a boil with the chiller in it and once boiling added nutrient. Boiled 10 minutes and chilled. Then split to two ferementers with 2.25G cold water in each landing me at a cool 60 degrees after just 10 minutes of chilling. 5.25 volume. 1054 OG.
The "no hop, no boil boil!" Stamp it!
Co Funky Bunch Batch #1
Pitched a two step (250ml to 2L) starter of built up dregs (over 14 days) from 5 different crooked stave beers, Opal (Saison by firestone), and Terrieux (Saison by The Bruery). Chilled, decanted then warmed up in 200ml wort for 18 hours.
Pitched a two step (250ml to 2L) starter of built up dregs (over 14 days) from 5 different crooked stave beers, Opal (Saison by firestone), and Terrieux (Saison by The Bruery). Chilled, decanted then warmed up in 200ml wort for 18 hours.
Caison III
The other batch got a third gen mixed culture including of 565/brettC/lacto. Details and history of each below.
LACTO: cultured from yogurt and wild plus 4 L.acidophilus pills and 2 of Kerry's daily probiotic right into the fermenter.
Brett: a third gen of Brett C plus 100ml fresh slurry from a 100% Brett batch.
WLP 565 (saison) - also third gen, plus 100ml slurry of 2nd gen French Saison slurry.
They both started at 60 and I let then free rise to 75.
Both are chugging away at a steady pace, not rigorous, just steady and happily. The smell from the airlock on the aged mixed culture is super estery and gorgeous. The dreg beer is pleasant, but nothing crazy.
Down to 66 D1 with activity. Moved upstairs to 68 degree space.
1/17/15 - temp maxed at 74 on D3-5. Activity slowing. 72
1/22/16
Caison III - soft Saison character, light tropical fruit esters. Very mild. Thinking a strong add of big tropical fruit hop - galaxy. Enough to gain some bitterness as well. Thinking 3oz.
1/29/16 - 1oz Ahatnum, flaconers flight and amarillo. Citrus , tropical fruit, fruity and solid alpha in FF hop to get the bitterness I'm looking for.
2/6/15 - added 1oz Nelson to keg
2/9/15 - into kegerator.
2/16/15 - we have a winner
CO Funky Bunch - gorgeous tart flavor, mouth feel medium, very mellow flavors otherwise. Aroma is funky and slightly off putting. Not off, just not pleasant. So, to compliment tart, MoBigs suggest we go with a big, mellow fruit hop. Hull Melon, etc. just need a nice aromatic here, no bitterness as tart character balances.
1/29/16 - 1oz Nelson in bagged to start. Ill give it 3-5 then add another if needed then additional in keg.
2/3/15 - 2ox nelson. Then kegged 2 days later with one more oz.
--------------------Brew Day Brett "B.O.R.O" Stout -
Total fubar - maris, flaked wheat, roast, some aromatic and a fist full of midnight wheat. Pitched big brettBslurry from Butch. 1052.
72 hour lag. Attenuated to 1011.
2/16/15 First tasting about 3 weeks in. Balance towards roast. Not as estery as I'd expect. Thinking of Oak and splitting off a gallon for a black cherry add.
3/4/15 - Brett stout still moving. Pond skater effect going on. Beautiful.
3/4/15 - two weeks ago I blended 80/20 CO Funk and Caison III. Racked and Bottled a few (major funk now) and added 12oz pureed dried apricot plus slurry from the two week vessel plus adduinal thick slurry from C3 and CoFunk in about another 80/20ish ratio. Placed in 75 degree room.
3/21/16 - The apricot hadnt kicked off after a week so i took it to the basement for reconsideration, realizing I had added apricots with preservatives on them...I added a 200mlm slurry of CO Funk and took it back up to the warm room...still nothing, so I took it back downstairs and tasted it...apricot juice........then, miraculously, I was looking at it a week later and it burped...I stared with great curiosity and found it had kicked off and was moving right along...I could have sworn it jumped to life right then. Back up to the warm room and it is moving right along. Yahtzee!
4/15/16 - after kegging the BORO and finding it to be overloy bitter and roasty for my taste I added half a pound of lactose, and oz of EKG and began degassing. Also, an oak spiral was added several weeks ago to the keg.
3/21/16 - The apricot hadnt kicked off after a week so i took it to the basement for reconsideration, realizing I had added apricots with preservatives on them...I added a 200mlm slurry of CO Funk and took it back up to the warm room...still nothing, so I took it back downstairs and tasted it...apricot juice........then, miraculously, I was looking at it a week later and it burped...I stared with great curiosity and found it had kicked off and was moving right along...I could have sworn it jumped to life right then. Back up to the warm room and it is moving right along. Yahtzee!
4/15/16 - after kegging the BORO and finding it to be overloy bitter and roasty for my taste I added half a pound of lactose, and oz of EKG and began degassing. Also, an oak spiral was added several weeks ago to the keg.
