At the 7-11-2019 club meeting, the Sons of Alchemy tasted the beers from our Brett Bottle Conditioning project. In this project, a single batch of beer had been split post fermentation and bottle conditioned (carbonated) with 5 different Brett strains (or blends).

The Base Beer

  • 85% Avangard Pilsner Malt, 15% White Wheat Malt, 1.055 OG
  • Hopped with one ounce Saaz @ 60 minutes
  • Fermented with US-05 for a clean base
  • Fermentation dosed with amaloglucosidase to dry the beer (to 0.996 FG) and prevent overcarbonation from subsequent Brett conditioning

Process

Bottles were inoculated with Wyeast Brett lambicus, Yeast Bay Lochristi Blend, Yeast Bay Brett brux TYB415, Yeast Bay Brett brux TYB307, and Yeast Bay Brett brux TYB261. The bottles were allowed to condition for 9 weeks at room temperature.

Tasting and Results

For the tasting, an extensive checklist of descriptors (borrowed largely from Milk the Funk’s Brett Aroma Wheel) was provided to the 8 participants. When a participant detected an aroma or flavor from the list for a particular sample, they assigned a score of “2” for “prominent,” or “1” for “background.” We did not attempt to distinguish between aroma and flavor in the scoring. Detecting and scoring was done on an individual basis, but discussion was allowed. The tasting was not blind. Participants were also allowed to add their own descriptors.

To normalize the data collected, each participant’s descriptor scores were scaled so that they added up to 1 (or 100%) for each participant/strain or participant/blend combination. In effect, each participant got one “vote” for each strain/blend, and that vote was divided (with “2s” weighted twices as heavily as “1s”) among the descriptors detected. This normalized data was summed (from all participants) by strain/blend, and once again scaled so that the descriptor scores within each strain/blend added up to one (or 100%). The result is that for each strain/blend, we have a normalized and combined score for each descriptor detected which can be expressed as a percentage, indicating importance/prominence. The results follow.

Wyeast Brett lambicus
Moldy/Musty 14%
Peach 13%
Canned Fruit 12%
Artificial Fruit/Candy 11%
Cherry 10%
Generic/Other Floral 9%
Apple 7%
Other Tropical Fruit 7%
Pear 3%
Generic/Other Fruity 3%
Fresh Hay 2%
Rose 2%
Vinegar/Acetic Acid 2%
White Grape 2%
Generic/Other Earthy 1%
Leather 1%
Waxy 1%
Phenol 1%

Yeast Bay Lochristi Blend
Rose 12%
Lavender 11%
Tilled Earth 9%
Generic/Other Spicy 7%
Generic/Other Earthy 7%
Pineapple 7%
Apple 6%
Cloves 5%
Cherry 4%
Generic/Other Fruity 4%
Other Tropical Fruit 4%
Cardamom 3%
Cheese (sharp cheddar) 3%
Violet 2%
Peach 2%
Canned Fruit 2%
Leather 2%
Barnyard 2%
Perfume 2%
Cola 2%
Metallic 2%
Fennel Seed 1%
Vinegar/Acetic Acid 1%
Lactic Tart 1%
Generic/Other Woody 1%
Generic/Other Chemical/Solvent 1%

Yeast Bay Brett brux TYB415
Citrus 25%
Generic/Other Floral 12%
Lactic Tart 11%
Cloves 9%
Barnyard 7%
Generic/Other Spicy 6%
Canned Fruit 4%
Fecal 4%
Peach 3%
Pear 3%
Horse Blanket 3%
Moldy/Musty 2%
Black Pepper 2%
Generic/Other Animal 2%
Nutty 2%
Apple 2%
Perfume 1%
Cola 1%
Tilled Earth 1%
Pineapple 1%
Rotting Vegetation/Marshy 1%

Yeast Bay Brett brux TYB307
Pineapple 25%
Apple 20%
Lactic Tart 10%
Citrus 7%
Peach 5%
Phenol 4%
Mousy 4%
Barnyard 3%
Generic/Other Fruity 3%
Band-Aid 3%
Perfume 2%
Tilled Earth 2%
Generic/Other Earthy 2%
Other Tropical Fruit 2%
Vinegar/Acetic Acid 2%
Artificial Fruit/Candy 2%
Urine 2%
Lemon 2%
Canned Fruit 1%
Cola 1%
Ethyl Acetate 1%

Yeast Bay Brett brux TYB261
Cherry 20%
Generic/Other Floral 13%
Tilled Earth 8%
Peach 7%
Mousy 6%
Generic/Other Earthy 4%
Rose 4%
Apple 3%
Citrus 3%
Perfume 3%
Sweaty 3%
Phenol 3%
Cloves 3%
Generic/Other Chemical/Solvent 3%
Daisy 3%
Moldy/Musty 2%
Pineapple 2%
Metallic 2%
Waxy 2%
Vinegar/Acetic Acid 2%
Black Pepper 1%
Fresh Hay 1%
Artificial Fruit/Candy 1%
Urine 1%
Canned Fruit 1%
Cola 1%
Cedar 1%

Additional bottles from this project will be tasted after 6 months of conditioning. Thanks to Brian for the Brett, to Steve A. for brewing the base beer and hosting the bottling session, to Shane for taking care of those bottles at some point, to Liquid Noise for hosting the tasting, and to everyone who participated.