Split Batch Wild Farmhouse

The next for or five posts will be a backlog of brews, as I have been busy with school, work & interning. The first things to get cut when you are this busy are blogging and laundry.

The goal for this beer was to create a pretty standard saison grain bill, then split the secondary fermentation. Primary fermentation yeast was the same for both beers, Wyeast 3711 French Saison, which I feel results in a really nice, rustic, peppery farmhouse profile. Batch 1 fermentor would get a pitch of White Labs Brettanomyces claussenii in secondary and Batch 2 would also get Brett c. along with a smack pack of Wyeast Pediococcus.

Enjoying one of Ivan's outdoor open fermented farmhouse

Brett c. gives off awesome tropical aromas and flavors, with pineapple & mango usually most prominent from my experience with it. Pediococcus is a lactic acid producing bacteria, which also throws a lot of diacetyl (butterscotch off flavor/aroma) as a by-product. Luckily, brett will take that diacetyl and turn it into wonderful flavors and aromas.

I'm interested to see how Batch 2 will result for a sour beer. Up to this point, all my sours have had a plethora of different organisms, whether it be a sour blend from one of the big yeast companies, or from bottle dregs. I really wanted to see the results of a pitch of only pedio and brett.

I'm not yet sure what the long term plan is for both beers. Batch 2 will definitely require a year of aging for the pedio and brett to work on the souring process. I think Batch 1 will most likely be bottle conditioned, and savored for a few years to come.

Recipe - Split Batch Wild Farmhouse (brewed 9/19/13)

Size: 11 gal
Boil: 13 gal
IBUs: 37
OG: 1.050

16 lbs. 2-row (Rahr)
2 lbs. Wheat Malt (Weyerman)
1/2 lb. Caramunich III (Weyerman 55L)
1/4 lb. Acid Malt

3/4 oz. Sorachi Ace (14.7% AAU) @ 60 min, 1 1/4 oz. @ 20 min, and 1 oz. @ Flameout

-Mashed at 154 F for 60 minutes. Double batch sparged with 4 gallons each after collecting 5 gallons first runnings.
-Aerated 60 seconds with oxygen stone.
-Fermented in chamber at 80 F.

9/27/13: Moved inside at 65F ambient.

10/19/13: Racked both to secondary. SG: 1.004, fermented dryer than intended. Will add some malto-dextrin to feed the brett/pedio.

• Batch 1 got 3 cups of Brett C. starter into secondary.
• Batch 2 got smack pack of pedio and 3 cups of Brett C. starter.

10/23/19: Pelicles formed on both.
1/17/14: Batch 1 w/ Brett C only: pH = 4.12. SG: 1.002. Typical bright tropical Brett C. aromatics with pineapple dominant, slightly tart. Planning to bottle this sometime this week to open up some space for other batches.