I brewed a 100% Dubbel Style Brett beer a while ago and am getting some interesting notes I've never noticed in my Brett beers before. However, I have not let Trois ride this long before (3 months) and have never, before this, brewed a dark beer with it. At kegging, pH is 4.5, FG down to 1.008 and there was a small pellicle in the carboy over the last 2-3 weeks. Aroma is giving me some overly ripe dark fruit, borderline mildly rotten dark fruit and I can't put my finger on it. I only thiefed 3 samples to check gravities and did not allow too much air in & get no notes of acetic acid, but the overripe/rotten dark fruit is stumping me. Palate doesn't show the same level of the rotten fruit as the aroma; is sweet dark fruit, warm bread, holiday spices, and mild finish of ripe dark fruit. It's not unpleasant, just wondering what the cause of this is? Perhaps the play of Brett with those dark malts of Dark Munich, Special B, and Special Roast? Maybe @OldSock can chime in? Thinking of letting this one keg condition over the next month to maybe clean up some of those rotten fruit aromas and brighten up a bit. What y'all think?
I have a 16 month old Oud Bruin fermented w/ 100% BSI Brett Lambicus that has lots of dark fruit going on. Seems like this is the natural progression of Brett over long times, more funky. This is the only time I have let 100% Brett go this long though, so I'm not sure. Almost ready to package it now, just waiting on the Lacto to finish the souring and for the cherry juice to ferment out.
As it warms, I'm getting floral and nutty notes, rotten fruit aroma starts to fade a bit. 16 months is a long time, I haven't had the ability yet to get a pipeline like that established. One day!
Trois is pretty fruity (which is why it works so well with American hops), sounds like that in combination with the dark base beer is causing problems. Keg conditioning may help to get it funkier, can't hurt!
