Saké & Brett Brux Beer

After reading a few people talking about using wine yeasts in beer on the Milk the Funk Facebook feed (in which they linked this discussion), I kind of wanted to give it a go myself.  Although probably not exactly a wine yeast looking at the latest yeast genetic studies, I really like the aromas and flavors that you can get from saké.  Specifically, I like the fruity flavors that come about without being too watery.  Every time I drink an unfiltered saké, it makes me think that I would like to create that yeast character with a wit grist, so that’s essentially the direction I headed.

I wanted to start out the beer out as a clean beer, just to see how far it would ferment out.  If it was good where it was, or fermented out completely, I thought I might split the batch and pitch B. Brux on the other half.  If it didn’t ferment out well enough, I would just inoculate the whole beer with Brett.  Here is what my recipe looked like:

Recipe: Sake Beer v2

Style: Specialty Beer

TYPE: All Grain

Date: 20 Nov 2015

Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal  

Estimated OG: 1.057 SG

Estimated Color: 4.4 SRM

Estimated IBU: 21.6 IBUs

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %

Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Ingredients:

Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM)                                         1.5 %        

Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (1.9 SRM)                        82.3 %       

Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM)                                 11.5 %       

White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)                            2.7 %        

Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM)                                2.0 %        

Willamette [4.40 %] - Boil 60.0 min                 20.7 IBUs    

Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins)

½ t of Wyeast Yeast Nutrient at 10 min

Crystal [3.30 %] - Boil 2.0 min                         0.9 IBUs     

Sake No 9 (White Labs #WLP709)

Brettanomyces Bruxellensis (White Labs #WLP650)

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Equal Run

Mash In       Add 16.24 qt of water at 160.0 F 147.0 F  75 min       

Mash Step   Add 3.84 qt of water at 206.9 F   157.0 F  15 min       

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 3.46gal) of 185.0 F water

Fermentation started at 64*F and rose to 68*F over 15 days

Fermenter moved to a closet for ambient temperatures (mid 70s F) for the remainder of fermentation

Primed with table sugar and bottle conditioned at 74*F @ 2.5 volumes

Process and Observations:
Brewday went as expected.  I produced wort with an OG of 1.057.  I oxygenated it and pitched a decanted starter of the saké yeast that I had prepared a few days before.  I did add a little too much lactic acid to adjust the mash, and it resulted in a mash that measured 4.84 pH.

The saké yeast took off sometime in the night.  It fermented very much like a lager yeast with small bubbles coming to the surface of the beer.  There was no big explosion of yeast and krausen, and it was pretty slow and steady the whole time.  By the 13^th day, it appeared that any yeast activity was complete.  The beer measured in at 1.020 specific gravity as expected. The aroma was heavily yeasty, fruity.  It tasted bready/doughy with fruit (citrus and cantaloupe) with notes similar to wheat beer. 

I let the beer sit another 8 days and the gravity stayed at 1.020, so I decided to pitch the B. Brux for the whole batch.  A single tube of WLP650 was pitched into the beer without a starter.

I didn’t take a measurement on the beer for a little over 3 months.  At that time it measured 1.011, and out of fear of a bottle bomb, I was going to let it sit for another month.  The funny thing is that I found out later that my refractometer doesn’t reliably measure under 1.010 even with accounting for the alcohol.  I still haven’t taken a measurement with a hydrometer.  From tasting it, I would put the beer more in the 1.003 to 1.006 range, maybe someday I’ll de-carbonate one of the beers and do it properly. 

At this point my tasting notes were “Awesome. Not struggling Brett taste, but more of a 100% Brett taste mixed with the saké yeast character.  Citrus, tart, maybe melon fruitiness, very clear and drinkable.”  By “not struggling Brett taste” I mean less funk and more on the fruit side.  It has a definite Brux note that I get in the other beers I have fermented with it, but it was nicely restrained.  Perhaps it was because of the higher starting gravity of the beer when the Brett was added, 1.020. 

Almost a year since I brewed this beer, it is still drinking nicely.  It has developed a funk characteristic in the nose, but it is not overwhelming.  For my preference, it is the perfect balance of Sacch and Brett characteristics in a light and easy drinking beer.  There is no alcoholic hotness that I can detect and while tart, has a nice subtle perceived sweetness in the finish that compliments the fruit.  Nothing really dominates. 

Going forward, I am excited about experimenting with other non-beer Saccharomyces in mixed fermentation beers.  My intuition after this one example would lead me to believe that with a wine yeast crapping out at about 1.020, provides Brett with a lot more to chew on and thus produces a softer Brett character.  This supposition is based on the theory that you get more funk the more a Brettanomyces yeast struggles during fermentation, or so I have been led to believe.  So with less sugar in the beer when Brett is introduced, the more it is going to give off funk flavors and less fruit.  I’m sure there is more complex chemistry relating to certain precursors at play that are way over my head.  Obviously, this isn’t going to work as well if you are trying to achieve maximum funk, which should be a band name if there already isn’t one out there.  Something to look out for though, is certain wine yeasts are “killer” strains.  Although Brett is not affected, many other yeast are.  You can read more about it here on MTF wiki.