Hello, My next beer is going to be a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone, fermented with US-05. I'm doing a NB 1 gallon extract kit for this one because I'm currently living in a tiny space with an even tinier kitchen. I plan on adding brett B in primary when it gets to around 1.010 and leave it on the brett until it gets below 1.004, followed by 1 month of bottle conditioning. Has anyone tried the west coast pale ale / brett combo? How did it come out? Any tips / tricks / suggestions? Cheers, od
I have. It turns out well, basically like a bretty belgian pale. Generally speaking, the brett will overwhelm a lot of the hop flavor, even if you dry hop extensively during the secondary fermentation/with the brett. But it changes a lot. I will say that one month of bottle conditioning might not be enough. It gets a really awkward period at about one month in the bottle. Your mileage may vary, of course.
Thanks for the feedback. I usually let brett beers age longer, but was afraid that I'd lose too much of the hop flavor and aroma if it ages for any longer than that. My SNPA clone recipe doesn't call for any dry hopping. Maybe I'll dry hop a week before bottling, then bottle condition for 6 to 8 weeks instead of 4. Any recommendations regarding what hop to use for dry hopping? Should I just go with Cascade?
I'd go Simcoe, but it depends on how faithful to Sierra you want to be. Specifically, I note a lot of acetaldehyde in the awkward phase that you might slip with more bottle conditioning.
I love this idea. One particular Russian River Deification batch sticks out in my mind, later batches let me down but the concept is solid. It should not be too hard; keep it clean with the malt bill, keep the hops simple and strong, and make sure to give it a good strong cold break after cooking. My one rule with cascade it to never use it by itself. Consider bittering with a noble and finishing with cascade.
Thanks for the advise. I will stick with the NB kit's hop schedule (3.5 grams centennial at boil, 3.5 grams German Perle at 20 mins, 10.5 grams Cascade at flameout) and will add 1 oz of Simcoe dry hop. Should be tasty.
Trinity brewing does a primitive IPA using brett and lacto that I just can't get enough of. I do know they dryhop the holy hell out of that beer, and it hides 100 ibu under all the brett flavor. One week on hops may not be enough, and with the bottle conditioning period I would focus on really going overboard with the late additions. But that's just me.
Red Swingline? Not exactly what I'm going for, but it does sounds like a delicious beer. but will keep in mind the recommendation to up the late addition hops and dry hop schedule. Thanks!
Never had Deification (looks like Vinnie has retired it, too bad) - but from reading reviews online this sounds a lot like what I'm going for with this beer.
Hoppier. Prairie is a bit more subdued than swingline, but swingline isn't nearly as subtle a beer either, so you need the hops a bit more.
