Funky Farmhouse Black Belgian Brett IPA

[mashani]

So I had that brett in the last batch. So I saved some trub to be sure I got some brett in this, because usually by now I have 3 or 4 Brett beers in my pipeline, and I only have 1. Even though my Brett "just happens" in the summer, and is technically an "infection" because of it, I've actually grown fond of it, so I want more.

And I have a pound of Farmhouse Brewing Supply "Farmhouse Hop Blend". So I figured why not use half of it. It has something like 30 kinds of hops blended into it. See http://www.farmhousebrewingsupply.com/f ... -new-crop/, it lists 20 of the 30 types.

So I made this for 5 gallons:

Steep of:

12oz Midnight Wheat
9oz Caramunich
3oz Chocolate Rye

Add:

1# Light LME
8oz Dextrose
4oz Farmhouse Hop Blend (10% AA)

Bring to a boil, boil 5 minutes.

Add 6# Light LME

Bring back to a boil, boil 5 more minutes.

So, 10 minute total boil (+ time to get boiling again)

Add 4oz Farmhouse Hop Blend @flameout

30 minute lid-on hop stand

Top up to 5 gallons split between 2 LBCs.

Pitched Abbaye yeast, and a tablespoonful of trub from the bretty batch into each LBC. I want the Abbaye to get a foothold before the Brett gets really into it, which is why I didn't just pitch on the yeast cake. I want funk, but I don't want it to dominate.

And that's about it. If 30+ kinds of hops and Brett C and Belgian yeast can be called an it.

EDIT: I don't know if I will dry hop this or not. It just depends on what it seems like later. And I don't know with what, but I've got something like 5# of hops in my freezer now, so plenty of options.

OG was 1.063
IBUs will be something stupid like 90 after hop stand utilization.

EDIT EDIT: I might feed this some D-90L or D-180L too, have not decided yet. If I do maybe just 4oz per fermenter. But I don't think it needs it to make it interesting though with all the hops and the Brett, so I probably won't do it. If not, I might feed that much clear sugar instead. That will bump the effective OG to about 1.067.

Also for those not aware, my house Brett is Brett C and it doesn't make things "sour". Just a bit tropical and hay like funk. *do not do this* with any bugs that would turn out sour. Lots of IBUs + Sour = Bleah.

[mashani]

So this had mostly fermented out in 4 days, had pellicle at day 5, and gravity has been sitting at 1.008 since day 7, so I just bottled it. Carbed it lite like a British IPA, so when the brett works on it slowly a bit more in the bottle it will end up "normal" with age.

I didn't feed it any extra sugar. 87+% attenuation as it is ain't bad with the little sugar I used.

It looks like Guinness, but it isn't really noticeably roasty. It's plenty bitter. It has lots of tropical fruit, mangos, fuzzy ripe peaches, pinapple, and a good bit of grapefruit and pine too. More pine then I expected based on the reviews, but I'm good with that. This was a blend of 30 kinds of hops, so only god knows what proportion of what is actually in it. I can't imagine every package is really identical.

I don't know where the brett tropical vs. hop tropical starts or ends. It is all blending together.

It's gonna be tasty.

I'll never be able to recreate this exactly, but that's ok. Actually I can re-create it once if I want, I have 8 more oz of that hop blend. We will see. I was thinking of doing the exact same thing except with S-05 or Notty or maybe Swiss Lager yeast, and no brett, and see how the two compare later.

[berryman]

Looks and sounds tasty Dave.......

[mashani]

Popped trub bottle. It's all sorts of fruity on top of bitter dark chocolate with some piney/earthy/spicy stuff behind all that... the piney is more like what I get from juniper berries vs. piney hops, but I didn't use any. Tiny bit of anise in the background as it warms up, like black licorice, but only a very small amount so it's not annoying, must come from some hop(s) in the mix. Yum.

[mashani]

This beer is awesome. It will be half gone by the weekend.

The only thing that would have made it more awesome is if I used even more hops.