I've never used it.. Well, I have probably in some sour blends, but I've never used it as a stand alone to another yeast. I've got a batch of ECY14, that is a pretty simple saison with some pils/pale, white wheat, flaked corn, golden naked oats and acid malt. Citra and Centennial in the boil I think, I'd have to look at notes. 1.068 or 1.070 OG. Anyways, it's a tasty base beer, great saison, fruity and all that jazz, nice and crisp, but not overly dry to come off tannic or anything. Drinking a saison tonight, Big Tastys Back Door, a Westbrook and Stillwater remix. Good saison, and brett brux added at bottling. HUGE cake in the bottom of the bottle.. So I saved some of the beer, swirled it, flamed and star san the bottle and dumped the dregs into this 5.5 gallon saison that has been sitting in my fermentation freezer at 38* for a little while. Should I warm it up, let it sit around 70-80 or so and let the brett do some work for a while, while I make some room to keg it and drink?? Anything to expect this strain to do? It's plain old brett brux as far as I know. I'm not one to dump dregs much, but the size of the cake and the same saison style just had me interested in playing around at the moment.
Yeah, let it ride for a few months. You probably won't get Brux character for 3+ months though, so don't plan on drinking it til at least November for some Brett funk.
Do you think the brett will still work at lower temps? I'll probably be on tap before November, in all honesty. If it takes that long, I'll let it ride, but honestly, it's good as is, was looking for a bit of a funk level to roll with it all.
I like brux a lot, imo it always has this great rotten banana muffin thing going on (tastes waay better than it sounds) with hints of apple/pear Like hoptual said, its likely the small pitch from the bottle is gonna take some time to add much to your beer, but saisons are great in the fall, nothing pairs better with tasty food than tasty belgian beers
I would imagine Brett would go dormant and drop out at serving temps like that or the metabolic speed of the yeast at those temps would be so slow that you wouldn't notice any impact from the yeast. IMO, let it ride hot 80 F for 2-3+ months & you should get some added complexity.
@ryane indeed, that is a good descriptor. This saison has that similar note, along with white sage, and honey and some other herbs and spices they added. I figured it would go well with the ECY14 that has a fruity, and albeit funny apple pie like aroma and flavor to it like the description. I might let it warm up a bit and see what goes. Might pair well in the fall, atleast gives me something for that time frame, since I'm behind on brewing for the season so far this year.
Brett will continue to work slowly at fridge temps, but would go faster and give more character at a higher temp range.
Thanks for the input guys. I'm pretty confident in most of what I brew, but still question some outcomes when I'm playing with brett and more so with bugs and whatnot. I'll let this one go for as long as I can stand and toss it on line. It'll give me a reason to have a dedicated "dirty" tap line in the keezer, as I've got more funk in the pipe. Need to get a Flanders or a sour brown.. but a sour stout intrigues me, can't decide on a grist. Have some ECY02 to use, along with a few dregs.
