We've got the funk

Today we brewed 7 gallons of Biere de Garde. Biere de Garde is a French style of beer that originates from the French part of Belgium. They were usually brewed in the winter months and then cellared to drink during the summer months (bieredegarde.com). We are making 5 gallons of traditional Biere de Garde using California Lager Yeast which is capable of producing clean lager flavors at ~58F. Hopefully this will turn into a nice summer beer, but we mostly made this style of beer because we want to use this yeast in a Schwarzbier (black lager) and then make a Elkie's First Snow with it to make it into a Baltic Porter style of beer. The other 2 gallons are being spiked with Brettanomyces B.

Brettanomyces comes in 3 strains, bruxellensis (B), lambicus (L), and claussenii (C). Brettanomyces is very common in Belgian beers like lambic and gueze and contribute "funky" flavors to the beer. Each strain is slightly different and has different flavors imparted. Below are some bits of info from yeast manufacturing websites:

Clussenii: low-intensitiy brett character, more sublte flavors than Brett B or Brett L; more aroma than flavor contributions, aromas of pineapple and fruit are common.

Lambicus: High intensity brett character; horsey, smokey, and spicy flavors. Produces a pie cherry-like flavor and sourness with distinct brett character.

Bruxellensis: Medium intensity brett character. Produces the classic "sweaty horse blanket" flavors distinct to brett

We have both brett B and brett L in the house right now and in two weeks will make 7 gallons of Tripel, of which 2 gallons will be inocculated with brett L. This way we will try to determine which strain of brett we like and we may also consider blending strains of brett in the same beer. We plan on almost always having some sort of brett beer going as we now have a "brett-specific" fermentation bucket. Brett is harder to clean off of equipment than normal brewers yeast as small amounts of uncleaned brett can ruin future batches of beer; therefore they get their own bucket. We really enjoy the complexities of brett beers and hopefully we can make some good examples.

We made a starter last week with the brett B and it smelled like dirty grape juice. Elise and I wondered why we would want to drink a beer that is described as "dirty," leathery," and our personal favorite "wet dog in a phone booth?" You just have to try your first funk beer to know. These descriptions are not the dominant flavors, but there are hints of them in the beer but not to overpowering levels which would make them undrinkable. Brettanomyces yeast can also eat a lot more sugars than can normal brewer's yeast so these beers will be much drier and higher in alcohol than normal. Brett yeast works very slowly so we will probably not bottle these beer for 2-3 months and can then hopefully drink them 2 months after that.

Last week we bottled our brown ale, and 10 bottles received varying amounts of hazelnut extract. Hopefully those turn out well enough to repeat again in the future. We also bottled the IPA today during the brewing session. It smelled very hoppy and is ligher than previous attempts so hopefully we can finally make an IPA that we are proud of.