So, I'm sitting here drinking the 2013 Saison Brett by Boulevard and a thought comes to mind. Should Brett still be advertised as a "wild" yeast? It is now widely propagated and specialized by breweries. Should these beers still be considered wild ales, or should we have a new category of "Brett beer"? I feel as though wild should be a word that is designated for beers that are fermented spontaneously, not those that use a specific yeast strain. Lambics and things like Allagash's Coolship series should still be considered wilds, but I'm not so sure that brett should count anymore, since they are not being fermented by spontaneous, airborne yeasts. Discuss.
Here's what I wrote in a similar thread: In a broad sense, people use "wild" to refer to beers that are at least partially fermented using strains of bacteria and yeast that have not been traditionally domesticated or bred, and that have occurred in beer as fermenting agents ambiently and not through direct inoculation by the brewer. These include lactobacillus, pediococcus, brettanomyces, acetobacter, and a host of other organisms. Many of these "wild" yeasts and bacteria are now being cultured in yeast labs, and in the US most brewers who use these fermenting agents use domesticated versions, with which they intentionally inoculate the beer. So really "wild" doesn'tonly refer to actually wild yeasts and bacteria used in spontaneous fermentation, but a class of bacteria and yeast that traditionally were actually wild, but now aren't necessarily. This means that there really shouldn't be a divide between lacto/pedio beers as "wild" and brett beers as not, because both brett and lacto/pedio have been present in traditional spontaneous fermentation, and as such were both "wild." As to classifying a beer as wild or not - if the beer is a saison (having a saison malt bill/yeast) that has been fermented at least in part by "wild" bacteria/yeast, then it is really up to the brewer which aspect of the beer he or she wishes to emphasize. Saison, saison brewed with wild bacteria, wild saison, wild ale - it doesn't really matter. Beers fermented with brett are "wild," but the brewer doesn't need to emphasize this or call it a wild ale.
I completely agree with the with Etan. Since the advent of brewing in America dating back to the 1800's, which was primarily based on German brewing techniques, some form of Saccharomyces has been used for brewing. With the advent of craft beer in America, and most recently since the mid 1990's, brewers have been taking from Belgian brewing techniques and introducing these wild organisms such as brettanomyces, lacto, pedio, ect... Though they are cultured by yeast laboratories such as Wyeast and White Labs, and brewers, their exact nature as a form of fermentation is "wild." In brewing texts, and brewing classrooms these are often taught to be beer spoiling organisms, even though the beer they often produce is often delicious and desirable. There are whole classes on why these bugs should be kept out of a brewery. WHAT!!!! One of the reasons that they are wild is that they are very hard to control. These "wild" yeast can produce very undesired characteristics in a beer if used wrong. Even if their plan was to use brett to produce say a saison, it can still turn out completely undesirable even when the brewer does everything in his power to control the yeast. It's just hard. They have their own way of doing things. It's is often hard to recreate the same "wild" yeast based beer. Sorry for the rant. Maybe one day they will be a normal yeast but until they are let the brewers keep thing WILD! Prost!
Domesticated yeast doesn't sound right. Lambicus, Anomalus, Clausenii, Bruxellensis all sound too complicated and snobbish. Yeah, wild works best, let's still call them wild. Sometimes a name is right only because it works the best, not that it is the most precisely accurate.
Depends, Sanctification is definitely wild. But if Saison Brett is consider a Wild ale, why isn't Saison Rue or Rayon Vert, or Orval for that matter. None of these outside of Sanctification are fermented with brett, they are only bottled conditioned with it. So what gives, how about some classification consistancy!
The whole "wild" name was dumb to begin with. Brett strains brewers use come from yeast labs. Even spontaneously fermented beers tend to have some domestication involved as barrels are reused and fermented beer is used to guide fermentation of spontaneous beers.
I agree with this but if you think about it, technically, Saccharomyces was once "wild" too. Then it was isolated and cultivated by Louis Pasteur. Just sayin...
