Within the next week or so, I will be brewing a Zombie Dust-like beer using WLP644. I have a starter that I've stepped up twice already, and so far none of the starters have smelled "tropical" like all of the descriptions state. I know the smell of the starter isn't that important (to an extent), but I want to make sure I get the tropical characteristics of this yeast to come through. Any recommendations as to how I can best use this yeast to create a tropical fruit bomb? Underpitch slightly? High Fermentation temps?
Mike has had good results, "tropical fruit bomb"-wise, with a large, two step starter pitch, and fermenting at 65 F ambient temp. See here for more info: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2012/07/100-brett-trois-ipa-recipe.html I've only brewed with brux trois once and it's still in primary (6 weeks in, just dry hopped a couple days ago) so I don't have any personal feedback myself yet.
I personally have not used that strain (that I know of, I used a Brett B cultured from Elysian's Mortis but they refused to tell me which strain it was/who it came from), but from everything I have seen, the more O2 that this strain takes up, the more funky it gets and lets off more acetic acid. I was building up a starter of it on a stir plate that had lots of Acetic and I thought it was bad so I tossed it. It was afterwards that I read it is funky/acid with higher O2 levels. Tropical comes in a normal ferment with good healthy pitch and no O2.
Mine is sort of a cross between Mike's recipe above, and the Zombie Dust Clone recipe. I plan on fermenting mine around 65-68F ambient, as it doesn't get too warm in my house around this time of year. Hopefully I have similar results. Maybe that's my problem. I have the starter in a 1 gallon glass jug, and I shake it a few times per day. There is a lot of headspace, so maybe it has a higher O2 level.
I have a Citra, Amarillo, chinook, and centennial hop bomb in primary with this yeast right now and it smells amazing. I tasted my starter wort after my first step and it tasted fruitier than it smelled but like you said don't expect much from the starter in terms of aroma all though mine had a nice faintly tropical aroma to it.
I brewed a red ipa with my brett. The aromas are huge pineapple and mango. The taste is similar however there is a touch of funky sourness in the after taste. Hops used: Bittering:Chinook Aroma: Citra/Cenn
I can't remember the source (either Oldsock or one of Jakobson's presentations/papers?), but lactic acid is supposed to help with tropical fruit ester production. I always add a bit of acid malt to my Brett beers, seems to work for me!
Yup . . . ethyl lactate is produced by Brett in the presence of lactic acid. It's a very fruity ester.
Ethyl lactate is fruity, but not as tropial/pineapple as some of the ohers. For example Ethyl caproate/caprylate, which according to Chad's research "The increasing levels of lactic acid had an inhibitory effect on the synthesis of ethyl caproate and ethyl caprylate during fermentations." Although he's really talking about high levels, not just a couple percent of acid malt.
This is what I did http://fermentologist.blogspot.com/2012/12/brett-brux-trois-ipa-c3pa.html I got a lot of tropical fruit. Definitely add some acid to lower the pH. From my experience I agree with Chad that Brett prefers a lower pH during fermentation. This might also account for some of the fruity aromas that people describe.
What does Brett do with dropping post boil ph to 4ish range? Inhibit or encourage ethyl lactacte? Or more extreme amounts of lactic acid added prior to fermentation?
Here is the relevent page for the chartsl (it is complex, with the magnitude of the effect being strain dependent): http://www.brettanomycesproject.com...pact-of-initial-concentration-of-lactic-acid/
