Ok normally I don't care for a brown ale. It's just not my thing, I like big dark ales, and light ales. just not the browns. But this year I had my first taste of New Belgium's La Folie. I fell in love with the sharp sour, and the HUGE malty notes. I am going to brew the American brown ale for the Big Brew Day on may 5th and was thinking on running a seconday ferment with a packet of Wyeast 5526 Brett lambicus. I know that it is not going to turn out "exactly" like New Belgium's La Folie, but I was wondering if this was something one of you other 's would try?

Absolutely. I'm always up for throwing Brett into a beer. If you're looking for the pucker that La Folie brings, you're definitely going to need some bacteria, as well. In order to give the Brett L lots of food, I would either rack before the primary yeast is done fermenting, or pitch the Brett early. My few thoughts...


Oh, sorry. You weren't asking me.

I don't really feel like a sour brown ale is going to be all that similar to an American brown with Brett. In terms of recipe, the have color in common, but different choices in hopping and grain bill. That being said, it may still be delicious.

I thought about doing this myself, turns out I'm moving that week and won't be able to do the big brew. But I was considering doing a partial mash with some wheat and/or rye (plus some base grain) to get some more of the characteristics of a sour beer grain bill.

Just think of it like an extract batch where you know what the extract was made out of.

Spider has a point about hopping, but this was my grain bill for a wild brown that turned out amazing:

4.000 lb Maris Otter Malt (43.82%)
3.500 lb Liquid Malt Extract - Amber (32.87%)
1 lb 5 oz Caramunich III (14.38%)
5 oz Melanoidin (3.43%)
3 oz Chocolate (2.06%)
3 oz Caramel 80 (2.06%)
1 oz Crystal 120 (0.69%)
1 oz Crystal 77 (0.69%)

1 oz Amarillo @ 40 minutes

LaFolie is listed in the BJCP style guide as a commercial example of a Flanders Red Ale. I don't think there's a big difference in the malt bill, only the final level of sourness. To get close to LaFolie, you'll probably want to use the Wyeast Roeselare blend. Also you would need to reduce the hopping if you're using anything with lacto in it; lacto doesn't like hops.

Awsome, thank you all for the input. I'm going to maby do some tweeking of the recp for the next time. I want to try this first and see.... I mean hell it's still going to be beer and I think we all know a "Justin" that will pretty much drink anything put in his kegerator. You all rock.