Four weeks after brewing the "arrogance is brett" ale, I have decided to go ahead and bottle. I first took a gravity reading after only 2 weeks and then again another 2 weeks later. Both times it was 1.012, with a starting gravity of 1.067. This gives an apparent attenuation of ~81%. After reviewing some interviews and articles by Vinnie of Russian River Brewing and Chad Yakobson of Crooked Stave, I have decided I should be safe. I am looking forward to trying this fresh and aged to see how the brett changes the ale over time when used as the sole primary yeast. I am concerned thought that they might become overcarbonated. When weighting the priming sugar, I used a slightly less amount (.25 oz. less) then I normally would use for standard ales given the fear that the brett would continue to drop in gravity and cause explosions. However, I forgot that this batch was slightly smaller than my usual batches, so now my fear of bottle bombs is back. To help with any possible explosions, I lined my boxes with trash bags. My fingers are crossed.
The yeast was saved and is currently under refrigeration until I have time to wash it for later use. I already have the next "arrogance is brett" planned and hopefully will brew it shortly. Hopefully within a couple weeks I will have the first tasting of this ale to share.
This project started out as an attempt at cloning Stone Brewing's Arrogant Bastard and using brett, but it has evolved into something entirely different and has really helped open my eyes to 100% brett fermentations. I believe most "beer geeks" or "nerds" out there usually associate brett'd beers with being funky/barnyardy/horse blankety/so on & so on, but this only occurs with specific strains of brett and under certain conditions. I can say this because I use to be one of those "geeks", but now having done an all brett beer, I know otherwise. What I am looking for in this beer is for the fruity characteristics of the Brett B to shine through as the beer is young and fresh and then as it ages, "funk" to start developing. Again, my fingers are crossed.
I had some similar fears when bottling my first two beers that contained Brett. I waited until activity had ceased and made measurements over the course of 2 months for each to be sure, then added champagne yeast and a small amount of sugar to realize the light carbonation I desired. I gathered a lot of confidence from this post by The Mad Fermentationist (bottling section near the bottom of the page):
ReplyDeletehttp://www.themadfermentationist.com/2009/11/brewing-sour-beer-at-home.html
So far no explosions. It's been around 6 weeks and I've been popping one open about once a week to see how it is developing. Currently still in progress of moving into new house, so will post tasting notes soon hopefully. That article is the main reason I started trying sours/brett'd ales.
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