Brette Les Pins - 100% Brett IPA

This summer my local bottle shop, Malt & Vine, Redmond, WA, had fresh bottles of Victory Wild Devil in stock - a 100% Brettanomyces fermented IPA that I hadn't tried since 2009. My Ratebeer.com review of the beer from five years ago noted a fair amount of sourness and funk to the beer. But the 2014 beer was just a clean, smooth, hoppy-fruity IPA. I set out to formulate a recipe and brew a batch of my own.

Brew Your Own Magazine had just featured all-Brett IPAs a couple of months back (May-June 2014, Vol.20, No.3), and I had been reading the book, American Sour Beers, by Michael Tonsmeire, which has a chapter on 100% Brettanomyces fermentations. The two sources combined to give me a great set of steps from yeast starter to finishing gravity.

Traditional Belgian sour beers employ a pitch of brewers' yeast at the start of fermentation, and at the same time, or following with a pitch of a small amount of Brettanomyces to slowly ferment any leftover long chain sugars. The Brettanomyces also develops additional complex flavors by building upon esters and phenols produced by the Saccharomyces fermentation. In other words, the funk.

In order to switch things up for a 100% Brett fermentation, you want to grow a yeast starter of similar  cell count to what you would pitch with a standard brewers' yeast. I chose White Labs Brettanomyces Bruxellensis Trois for its bready/pineapple/mild funk aromatics. The two stage Brett Trois starter takes about twenty days on a stir plate at a steady, warm temperature.

• Begin with 1 pint water and 1/2 cup DME starter wort and one tube of WLP 644. Let starter go for 8 days on stir plate at 82 ºF. Stop stir plate for two days, keeping temperature at 82 ºF. Decant off most of the unsettled liquid. The warmer temperature of the starter fermentation produces phenolics of banana and clove. Might make an interesting Witbier.
• Continue the second stage of the starter with 3 pints water and 1.5 cups DME. Let go for 8 days on stir plate at 82 ºF. Turn off stir plate and let settle at 82 ºF for two days. Decant and pitch into finished wort at 68 ºF. Warm over two days to 72 ºF. 

The large pitch of Brettanomyces then ferments the oxygenated wort's simple sugars at about the same pace as lager yeast. Look for high kraeusen within eight hours of pitching. Fermentation should stabilize within two to four weeks. The beer won't be sour, since souring requires a good dose of lactobacillus or lactic acid. But, about 3% acidulated malt in the mash will help lower the PH, which speeds up fermentation and boosts the production of fruity aromas. A good charge of pure oxygen before pitching will result in a healthier yeast and faster fermentation, but less funk. Less oxygen before pitching will enhance characteristic Brett flavors, but will need more time to ferment.

Primary fermentation with Brett will tend toward 80% - 90% apparent attenuation, so you'll want to mash at a high temperature (156º F) and add 10% - 15% of un-malted wheat to the grist to help retain some body. My recipe came to 75.7% ADF. You can dry hop in the primary once fermentation is complete, then transfer to a secondary fermenter or keg for lagering. The beer should be crystal clear within two to four weeks at 35º F.

Here's the full recipe from BeerSmith:

Recipe: All Brett IPA TYPE: All Grain
Style: American IPA
---RECIPE SPECIFICATIONS-----------------------------------------------
SRM: 6.4 SRM  SRM RANGE: 6.0-15.0 SRM
IBU: 54.3 IBUs Tinseth IBU RANGE: 40.0-70.0 IBUs
OG: 1.074 SG  OG RANGE: 1.056-1.075 SG
FG: 1.022 SG  FG RANGE: 1.010-1.018 SG
BU:GU: 0.734  Calories: 252.7 kcal/12oz Est ABV: 6.8 %  
EE%: 72.00 % Batch: 6.00 gal      Boil: 7.51 gal BT: 90 Mins


Total Grain Weight: 16 lbs 5.5 oz Total Hops: 10.66 oz oz.
---MASH/STEEP PROCESS------MASH PH:5.40 ------
Amt             Name                                   Type    #  %/IBU         
12 lbs 13.5 oz  Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)       Grain   1  78.6 %        
2 lbs 6.4 oz    Wheat - White Malt (Briess) (2.3 SRM)  Grain   2  14.7 %        
7.7 oz          Acidulated (Weyermann) (1.8 SRM)       Grain   3   2.9 %         
7.7 oz          Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)           Grain   4   2.9 %         
2.2 oz          Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)  Grain   5   0.9 %         


Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time     
Saccharification  Add 28.43 qt of water at 165.2 F        156.0 F       40 min        
Mash Out          Add -0.00 qt of water and heat to 170.0 170.0 F       10 min        

---SPARGE PROCESS---
Fly sparge with 4.37 gal water at 168.0 F

---BOIL PROCESS-----------------------------
Est Pre_Boil Gravity: 1.064 SG Est OG: 1.074 SG
Amt        Name                                 Type    #   %/IBU         
3.50 tsp   Hop Tech Iso Alpha Extract [3.30 %]  Hop     6   30.0 IBUs     
0.30 tsp   Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins)          Fining  7   -             
2.39 oz    Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min  Hop     8   22.2 IBUs     
1 Items    Servomyces (Boil 10.0 mins)          Other   9   -             
1.19 oz    Calypso [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min     Hop     10  1.7 IBUs      


---FERMENTATION PROCESS-----------------------------
Primary: 21.00 Days at 72.0 F (Start at 68º F and raise to 72º F over first two days.)

Dry Hop: 7.00 Days at 72.0 F at end of primary fermentation

2.00 oz    Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 7 days  Hop     11   0.0 IBUs                 
1.50 oz    Calypso [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 7 days     Hop     12  0.0 IBUs

Secondary/Lager: 14.00 Days at 35.0 F

Style Carb Range: 2.20-2.70 Vols CO2 
---NOTES------------------------------------
Recipe adapted from Brew Your Own Magazine May-June 2014, Vol.20, No.3

1st stage of starter with 1 pint water and 1/2 cup DME and one tube of WLP 644. Let starter go for 8 days on stir plate at 82º F. Stop stir plate for two days, keeping temperature at 82º F. Decant off most of the unsettled liquid. The warmer temperature of the starter fermentation produces phenolics of banana and clove. Might make an interesting Witbier.

Second starter at 3 pints water with 1.5 cups DME. Let go for 8 days on stir plate at 82º F. Turn off stir plate and let settle at 82º F for two days. Decant and pitch into finished wort at 68º F. Warm over two days to 72º F. 

Use 3 .5 Teaspoons of hop iso alpha extract at 60 minutes.

At flameout whirlpool for 30 minutes before cooling. Cool to 68º F, oxygenate for 1 minute with pure oxygen, and pitch yeast. Raise temperature over 2 days to 72º F. Hold at 72º F for 21 days in primary. 

The fermentation should finish at 1.013.

Dry hop for 7 days before laggering.