Hello all, Does anybody have experience with brett and lactose in the same beer? I was wondering if brett can eat lactose? If so, is there any kind of sugar that brett will not eat? I was looking to do a brett beer with a little more body. So any suggestions on that would be helpful too. For example if I did a brett saison (sach for primary and brett in secondary/bottle) and mashed very high, say 158, would that beer have good body? Cheers
Most species of brettanomyces can ferment lactose, they can also ferment the dextrins produced by mashing higher.
If you listen to the brewing network Sunday session with Chad Yakobsen from Crooked Stave he talks about developing body in Brett beers. In the wine world most wine finishes extremely dry so mouthfeel is achieved through other fermentation products, I forget what though, sorry.
Lactose is definitely fermentable by brett. A saison really shouldn't have too much body regardless of whether you add brett to it, but it's your beer and if you want more body then have more body. Brett does a poor job of fermenting proteins, so adding grains that are protein-rich in proteins that do not break down in a mash will help leave behind more body. Oat is the most effective and easiest way to do that. That's one Chad mentioned on the BN show. I forget if he mentioned others or what others you might find. You don't need to use a tremendous amount of oats though. Just a small amount around 5-10% should help.
Along these lines, I used 17.5% raw spelt (remainder = Belgian pils) in an beer fermented with White Labs American Farmhouse blend, which has a Brett strain present. There is residual body. Ergo, raw wheat ought to do something similar. I think Chad maybe even said something about using spelt. Or maybe not. I also recall from his Zymurgy article that he used Golden Naked Oats in some of his recipes.
Thanks for the replies. I will check out the BN show and experiment with spelt and oats. I wanted to do 4% saison and then put some brett while bottling but I was worried about it being too thin, I'll post a recipe here for some comments after I find that BN show.
