So you want to brew with Brettanomyces?

If you are keyed into the craft brew and home brew scene of late you have probably noticed an increase in beers being fermented with our less than tame friend Brettanomyces and other wild microflora. The mystery of fermenting with the these microbes is really what pulled me into this world not that long ago. I was really interested in the “feral” descriptions people had when I began talking through ideas and strategies with them. Most, even my local homebrew supply folks, seemed to think that I was opening a can of worms that I would not be able to close and my whole house was going to turn into some Cantillon like coolship room with brett and his wild friends hanging off the rafters jumping into everything I fermented, whether that be bread, beer, sauerkraut, etc. This walk on the wildside intrigued me to no end. I was quickly embedded in the many blogs and other resources that fellow homebrewers had to put together to chronicle their experiences with fermenting sour beers.

In the beginning I was all over the place with wanting to brew it all...lambics, gueze, berliner weisse, etc. I quickly realized I needed to do some very simple things before jumping into a brew day. I needed to first realize what it was that I wanted to brew. Did I want to try and brew a Lambic? Did I want to brew a Flanders Red? Flanders Brown? What the heck were those beers anyway? To help me figure this portion of the puzzle out I began sampling as many sour beers as I could get my hands on. I went for the uber hard to come by and highly coveted to the pretty easily available beers on the market. What really stuck out to me where the wonderful varieties of Pale Ales and IPAs out there fermented with Brettanomyces. The one that has stuck with me and kept me going back for more is and was Hill Farmstead’s E. Pretty hard, if not impossible, to come by unless you are here in Vermont or have a good friend willing to pick you up some. Another pretty good offering most folks can get their hands on is the Lagunitas A Little Sumpin’ Wild. So from all of that I knew what kind of beer I wanted to make.

I think the style/recipe is critical here. I found myself feeling comfortable with the style I was brewing. I have made countless Pale Ales. Not because they are easy but because I love them. From that I already had a leg up on this adventure...at least part of it was in familiar territory. I would suggest this for your first swaray into the wild.

Next I needed to think about the most important part of any brew day and brew house. Sanitation. Sanitation is always so important when brewing but now it is even more important that you pay close attention to it. Do you need to pay any more attention to the sanitation on a brew day and beyond with these flora? No...brett requires no more sanitation that you should already be used to if you practice strong sanitation practices; which you should. What it does require is more attention to separation of certain aspects of your brew house.

Ok, the next thing you are wondering is what else do I have to buy to be able to do this? Well, don’t think of it as buying new equipment but handing down your old equipment to yourself. That will help you feel better about it when you go the homebrew store. I will start off by saying what you do not need double of: I use the same mash tun, boil kettle, chiller, hot wort tubing, etc because at this stage in the process those items are still only coming into contact with wort...there is no yeast introduced so now worries. I also use the same glass carboys for both clean and sour beers as I clean and sanitize them diligently. [Editor's Note: We highly recommend separate Carboys/Buckets for fermenting wild and sour ales. It will dramatically reduce the risk of contamination of future brews that you do not want to go wild with.]

Once you move beyond those stages is where you need to be more diligent. I use a completly different set of equipment once the yeast has been pitched (aside from the carboys). The sour equipment is clearly marked with permanent marker so a large S is prominently obvious to anyone even glancing at the equipment. Some folks use different colored tape to mark their stuff but I keep to marker. To be as specific as possible here are the different items I have for my wild yeasts: I have a different thief for taking gravity readings/samples, racking cane & tubing, air locks, bungs, funnels (for pouring yeast cakes into other carboys), bottling bucket, and bottling wand. Each one of these pieces gets the same amount of attention my saccharomyces equipment gets. I soak my equipment in PBW and sanitize after each use and sanitize again before using. I have, as of now, never had a contaminated batch.

Another question that I have asked that I will impart the answer to is: Can I keep my clean and sour beers in the same room while fermenting? Yes. You can do this. If you have an airlock that is filled and in the stopper you should be fine. I keep mine in different rooms but this is only because I find it easier to have them separated as it is easier for me to keep them stationary in their own room and not have to be constantly moving carboys around.

These couple steps are what I would recommend to people looking to brew a beer with some wild bugs...first find out exactly what you want to drink. There are so many different varieties of beers out there fermented with wild bugs both in primary fermentation and secondary fermentation. Some require years to get just right, some require blending, and some require only the same amount of time as most beers fermented with saccharomyces. Each one brings something unique and quite wonderful to the table. Discovering which one of these you are going for will help you to decide which yeasts and bug combinations to go for. Secondly, really ask yourself if your sanitation practices are super sound. If they are, great. If they are not....figure out where your holes are and fill them. And thirdly (is that a word?), hand yourself down your equipment post fermentation and treat yourself to some new gear.

As with anything in brewing be prepared to hit a homerun but also be equally, if not more so, prepared to strike out from time to time. For this reason I recommend starting with something you are familiar with, as best as possible anyway, and with a recipe you are comfortable with. If your system allows for it, try a 10 gallon batch and split it down the middle! It will give you a baseline for comparing the beer with its wild cousin.

I hope you enjoyed this primer on things to consider before jumping into fermenting with wild microbes. In future articles I’ll talk about the different brettanomyces strains, other microbes/bugs, and different recipes to ferment outside the box with. As always, send me your thoughts, concerns, questions, additions, etc to ryparcell@gmail.com or send me a line on twitter; you can find me @ryparcell.

Cheers!