The Power of Brett and my Accidental Awesome Sour

[NTexBrewer]

So somewhere on HBT I read about someone doing a small beer similar to a Trappist single. They mashed high used some dextrine malt to produce body and then did a short 20 minute boil and a large hop addition at 6 minutes. Then used a Trappist yeast.

Sounded like a fun experiment so I decided to give it a try. The original recipe called for Calypso hops but my LHBS did not have that so I subbed with Galaxy.

I called the beer Galaxy Gnome

2.5 Gallon Batch
1.5 lb 6-Row Barley
0.5 lb Carapils
0.5 lb Victory
5 oz Flaked Oats
4 oz Crystal 10L
3 oz Amber

0.5 oz Galaxy Hops (14.8 AA) at 6 Minutes

Mash 45 Minutes at 160

Boil 20 Minutes add hops at 6 minutes

WLP 530 Abbey Ale Yeast

I use Brewer's Friend and it says that the IBU's would be 16.

OG 1.031
FG 1.007 (Per Brewer's Friend)

On brew day I actually got an OG of 1.035, I did not make a starter since the OG was so small and the yeast was pretty fresh. Fermentation seemed to go well but the beer finished at 1.016. The beer had a strange aroma that I have not been able to figure out. Slight burnt rubber. Not completely off but just strange. I decided to rack 1 gallon into a glass jug and bottle the rest.

In the 1 gallon jug I put the dregs of one bottle of Jester King Dichotomous and 2 carbonation drops.

After awhile I had a steady bubbling and a pellicle formed.

I let the Funky Galaxy Gnome sit for 7 months and it turned into a pretty nice beer.

Final Gravity was 1.002 so the Brett chewed through some sugars that the WLP530 could not.

So, I'm thinking I have a pretty good basis for making a petite sour. Think next time, I'll use less Victory and Amber or completely eliminate them. Probably use T-58 for the Primary for simplicity and then use some Jester King Dregs in Secondary.

The Funky Galaxy Gnome has nice lactic aroma and a sweet Apricot Finish.

 

[specharka]

Awesome write up, and cheers to a solid beer! The only thing I'm a little confused about is why the 6 row barley? I think the diastatic power of 2-row is pretty much equivalent.
I think the key to making a solid petite sour is a saccharification rest in the range of 156-160, just to give the Brett enough residual dextrins to chomp on during the long secondary phase -- especially if you're using a cranker like the Westmalle strain. I've mashed at 158F and still had it tear through damn near 85% attenuation. The challenge is to retain enough malt character despite the low finishing gravity, which is why brewing lambic requires such unique talents.
I've actually got one of these going now, based on this superb recipe:
https://beerandbrewing.com/VcuH2RwAAB0AiYiF/article/the-rare-barrel-golden-ale-recipe

 

[NTexBrewer]

Awesome write up, and cheers to a solid beer! The only thing I'm a little confused about is why the 6 row barley? I think the diastatic power of 2-row is pretty much equivalent.

I was just following the recipe that called for 6-row. Not sure why the person that posted the recipe was using it.

Thanks for the link about the Rare Barrel recipe. I just got some spelt so I may be working on new recipe soon!