rye bottling, bkyeast brett tasting, bottle waxing
during the last couple of weeks I set aside some time between the lights and action of the holiday season to finish up some projects from the last few months.
- first up was the bottling and kegging of the three variations of the rye amber I brewed a month ago. the five gallons of all-brett B (FG: 1.008, ABV: 5.83%) and standard saison (FG: 1.005, ABV: 6.3%) each went into kegs, while the two gallons of saison/brett blend (FG: 1.006, ABV: 6.14%) were bottled. after some thought, I primed with brown sugar for a little extra depth in the finished product – the molasses in the sugar seemed to complement the nuances of the saison in particular.
- upon tasting samples of each variety, the saison predictably produced the most assertive aroma and flavors, while the brett B variety was somewhat neutral. however, after recently tasting a matured version of my all brett B blonde, I’m confident that the brett complexity will develop in the rye amber (the blonde had a very refreshing, funky, and dry brett character after a month in the fermentor and another in the bottle).
I also set aside part of an evening to review the three bkyeast variations I had bottled up about a month ago. here are some thoughts:
- WY3191 brett isolate: decent carbonation, clear gold, transparent; lemony, tart aroma; clean taste with a slight bretty lemon back; mellow and drinkable
- cantillon iris isolate C2: very little carbonation, amber gold, transparent; funky fruit nose; floral earthy taste; pretty good depth/complexity, may add something interesting to a saison or wild beer, seems like it would take a while to fully develop
- cantillon iris isolate C3: very light carb, amber gold, transparent; light stone fruit, characteristic brett finish; like C2, would make a good complementary fermenter, like C2, may have to wait a while for all the flavors to round out here
in addition, I finally got around to waxing a bunch of bottles for the long haul.
- I waxed up my mead, banning, and apricot lambic bottles with dark grey wax, which represented the last of this year’s vintage. I hit my bottles with a different color wax for easy age identification and display consistency. I also buy my wax in big bulk chunks that I melt down in a larger coffee can over the stove and then pour into a small tomato paste can for bottle dipping so that the melted wax can reach further down the neck of each bottle.
Tags: bkyeast, brett blonde, brettanomyces, rye amber, waxing
