A few months ago I brewed a kettle sour which I posted about here. On brew day I split the batch, 4 gallons to be dry hopped with Mosaic and Vic Secret and the other 2.5 gallons to be racked onto 2.5 pounds of pineapple. I fermented both batches with Brett Brux Trois Vrai.

This strain didn’t drop the gravity as quickly as some other Brett strains I’ve used in the past. So I was interested to see how well it would attenuate on the pineapple batch after an additional 10 weeks. When it came time to sample I was glad to see the gravity finally dropped to a level I was happy with, 1.005. I also happened to have a keg line open up a couple of days prior which was a Brett beer. I had originally planned to bottle this small batch but given I wouldn’t have to change the beer line I decided to keg instead.

I was very pleased with how this turned out. The pineapple really punched through the hops I had used on brew day and the Brett funk was more than subtle but not over powering. The Brett seemed to amplify the over ripe pineapple character and compliment the beer overall. The lower gravity seemed to make the perceived sourness a little more pronounced. The hops surprisingly still came through and added a little complexity. Although they were more restrained due to the time from brew day to kegging, they did add something. I rarely brew a recipe twice as I’m always looking to change and improve any aspect of a beer I can. But I think I would brew this again, pineapple and Brett seemed to be an especially good combination. I’d love to get the base a little more sour next time but otherwise this iteration from my kettle sour was very good.

Appearance: Pours with a light layer of white head which fades to a ring pretty quickly. Golden yellow in color.

Aroma: Sour up front with a moderate amount of ripe pineapple followed by restrained Brett funk.

Taste: Light to moderately sour, over ripe pineapple punches through followed by some light Brett funk. Pineapple, mango and some citrus.

Mouthfeel: Light-moderate carbonation, light acidic mouth feel, finished dry.

Overall: This turned out really well, I was surprised to enjoy it more than the dry hopped version. I’d certainly try something similar again sometime. It kicked fairly quickly and it went over well with fellow beer geeks. It was certainly nice to have a sour on tap for a change. Although I did like what this Brett strain brought to the beer long term, it’s not one I would use as a primary strain again. Or at least not for a hop forward beer that I want to keg within two weeks. As I mentioned earlier it did drop the gravity to where I was hoping but it simply took too long to get there.