Brett-Brux Trois IPA (C3PA)

I finally got around to bottling my sour ale. I wanted to give the beer some fresh yeast but I didn’t want to use champagne yeast. I decided to use the tube of Brett-Brux Trois that I bought a couple of months ago. I made a starter about a week before I bottled. I didn’t need all of the yeast from the starter for the sour so I was left with yeast that needed to be used. With the left over yeast I decided to brew another 100% Brett beer.

I’m making this an IPA since I thought the Brett-C and Citra combo was amazing. I decided to up the ABV, it is winter after all, and in doing so I also upped the hop content. The strategy was to use one hop for bittering at the beginning of the boil and then a bunch of flame out hops and dry hop like crazy. Instead of using 100% Citra, since I’m low and I can’t find any fresh Citra, I’m supplementing with Chinook and Falconer’s Flight. For bittering I decided to go with a staple of IPAs, Centennial

I ended up under-gravity again and I’m starting to think it’s not my process that has changed. I used to pretty much always hit my target OG and often be too high. The only change besides moving is the new LHBS. I think that they might not be crushing my grain correctly, just one more reason I need my own barley crusher. Other than that the brew day was uneventful, which is a nice change of pace from my last few brew days.

Stats
Original Gravity: 1.050
Final Gravity:
Estimated IBU: 70
SRM: 3^o
ABV%:
Efficiency Est: 65%

Recipe

• 70% - 9.5 lbs –Two Row
• 22% - 3 lbs – Wheat Malt
• 4% - 0.5 lbs – Carapils
• 4% - 0.5 lbs – Acid Malt

Hops

• 60 minutes - Centennial – 2oz
• Flame out – Citra – 1oz
• Flame out – Falconer’s Flight – 1oz
• Flame out – Chinook – 1oz
• Dry hop 14 days – Citra – 2oz
• Dry hop 14 days – Falconer’s Flight – 1oz
• Dry hop 14 days – Chinook – 1oz

Yeast

• WLP644 Brettanomyces bruxellensis Trois

Mash
Mashed single infusion for 60 minutes at 153^oF, single  sparge at 170^oF
Notes:

(11/24/12) – Brewed by myself. Easy brew day. Chilled to 80F and placed the carboy in the chest freezer. Three hours later I pitched the 1 liter starter I a week before. For the mash I added 3 tbsp of gypsum and 1 tbsp of Calcium Chloride and 2 tbsp gypsum and 1 tbsp Calcium Chloride to the sparge water. I didn’t shake or add any additional aeration to the wort except during transferring from kettle to carboy. Set fermentation temperature to 57F targeting 62F.

(11/9/12) -  Added all but one packet of Falconer's Flight to the dry hopping.

(12/21/12) - Bottled with 0.5 cups of table sugar. 

(1/9/12) - First tasting. Great results.