Brett Pale Ale (Funktown Blend)

Hopefully somebody who has brewed with Yeast Bay Funktown Pale Ale blend will chime in with their experience with this yeast blend.

The only ale/Brett yeast blend that I have brewed with is Wyeast 3789: “A unique blend of Belgian Saccharomyces and Brettanomyces for emulating Trappist style beer from the Florenville region in Belgium.”, which is very different from the blend in Funktown Pale Ale blend so I do not think my experiences have any bearing here.
Below is the description of Funktown Pale Ale on the Yeast Bay website and it sure reads tasty!

Please report back on your experience with this yeast blend.

Cheers!

"Funktown Pale Ale is a blend of our Vermont Ale strain and a unique strain of Brettanomyces that is well suited for primary fermentation. The combination of the citrus/peach esters from the Vermont Ale strain and the light funk and pineapple/mango esters from the Brettanomyces produces a unique flavor and aroma profile. Expect this blend to finish drier than the Vermont Ale. Approximately 58 billion cells/vial.

Temperature: 68 - 74 ºF
Attenuation: 78-80%+
Flocculation: Medium-Low"

 

Funktown Brown would be a great name for a beer with that yeast.

 

I'll be brewing a Funktown IPA this weekend using my standard IPA technique, only changing the hops. I'm not actually expecting much more attenuation than US-05, maybe just a bit. I could be wrong though.

With fermentation flavor descriptors like citrus, peach, pineapple, and mango I was thinking of using Citra to further amp up the tropical fruit and Columbus to add some more dank. What other hops should I consider using?

Also, I'm assuming the Brett strain is Brett Trois. Should I be adding acidulated malt after conversion to drop the ph? I've read that is necessary to bring out the pineapple flavor.

 

No idea about the yeast, but I like the hops. I would move the 30 min Cascades to 15 min, but that is personal preference.

Are you sure you want Special B? Why the Carapils? Why not a little more C10?

Take this for what it is worth, I am not a brett expert at all, but from what I have read, the ale yeast should do its normal thing, i.e. finish within a week or so and the brett will continue to chew through the rest at its slower pace. I think the longer you leave it fermenting, the more bretty you will get. If you keg and chill at 3 weeks, you would drop out the brett before it does much. So, how much brett do you want? This might be a case for testing/tasting as you go and keg when it is ready.

 

to the OP...you might consider swapping willamette for something a little more fruit forward like amarillo if you can. Same goes for you fistfight, love amarillo...

yeah brux trois sounds about right.

edit: whoops, just noticed eric actually made this suggestion a few posts up...

 

I brew a lot of IPAs with Brett Brux Trois. Which I believe is the strain blended with the Conan here. If you make a decent size starter this strain acts like a Sacch strain. Pretty high attenuator. My IPAs are usually around the 1065 range and finish 1012 within 3 weeks with no simple sugars added to the boil and a mash temp of 152. The excess of crystal malts should not be necessary. Put the bill together like you would with your sacch strains.

I also agree with using some more citrus or tropical fruit forward hops. The brett will give you different flavors from the hops than you are used to, but should be quite pleasant. I ferment around 65 for the growth phase and then raise the temp a degree a day to 70 and let it finish out. Good luck! And let us know how yours turns out

 

My recollection from a recent thread (which got deleted) is that Nick (@Biobrewer) recommended that The Yeast Bay blends should not be used to make a starter; my guess is that making a starter with a blend will get the strain proportions ‘out of whack’.

Hopefully Nick will chime in with some advice on this particular matter.

Cheers!

 

I believe he commented on making a starter for this blend and said that it wouldn't change the proportions significantly. It would be nice if that thread was still around.

 

"It would be nice if that thread was still around." A BIG +1 to that!

Cheers!

P.S. Maybe the don't make a starter was for one of this other blends (e.g., Saison blend)?

 

"That's really annoying, lots of great info in there..." I agree with you there!

Cheers!

 

You can still view the webpage if you like. Do a google search for "beeradvocate+homebrewing+yeast bay" and click on the inverted green triangle to the right side to view cached versions of the page.

A bit tedious, but it works.

 

Alan, you da man!

I went to the Google path and copied & pasted the thread to save since there was such good information in that thread discussion.

Cheers to Alan!

P.S. The discussion about making a starter of the blends was that Nick generally does not recommend making a starter for the blends but thinks that making a starter for Funktown Pale Ale would likely be OK:

“I know you recommend not making a starter for the blends, but for the Funktown blend is it a bad idea? It seems on the low end for pitching straight from the vial, but I wouldn't want to mess up the ratio too much.


You certainly can make a starter if you like. Will it change the proportions, probably a little. However, for this blend, probably not a huge deal as the Saccharomyces will be doing a majority of the initial fermenting, and the Brettanomyces will be doing a lot of finishing work, such as drying the beer out a little more and producing/modifying flavor compounds. Altering the proportions shouldn't be an earth-shattering blow to the profile that will result. The caution is really more for blends that contain bacteria, which can bloom up and take over pretty quick.”

 

Thanks Jack!

I saved a copy of it as well, just for reference.

Its very cool to see some of these new yeast manufactures getting to the market and having success. Hope the trend continues.