I've become a big Brett fan for primary fermentation's, mostly Saisons and IPA's. But I've had the idea to create a Mead with Brettanomyces Claussenii for about 6 months now. Each time I get close to brewing it something comes up concerning my proposed process. The main problem I was anticipating was the Brett's unablilty to produce glycerol during the fermentation. This would create a very thin feeling beer.
FlatTail Brewing talked about this system but using hot water in a Grant at the end of the boil, essentially adding unfermentable body to its IPA. I started to think about using a modified Grant like set-up. Using oats in a hot water bath over 170 degrees should create starches that the Brett can not convert into sugars. Thus leaving the starches in solution creating a better mouthfeel in the mead. It was time to test this idea. I used hot water and a temp probe, getting the water to stay at 170 was difficult. The water wanted to boil. Once the temp settled, I dumped normal instant oats into a mesh bag and steeped them for 15 mins. Once I was ready to pull them out I got a white plate and did an iodine test. It showed no conversion, in theory it worked.
I did a no boil Mead, just warming the must to 170 with the water from above. Then I cooled and racked it into my carboy. I pitched a 20 day starter of Brett-C, it was a big 1500ml pitch of active Brett. I wanted to get the Brett as active as possible, very quickly. The less stress the better. I wanted to create a low impact environment for the yeast.
The mead started at 1.090, I pitched at 63 degrees and added yeast nutrient every 3 days for the first 2 weeks. Adding Fermade-K twice during that time. I saw active fermentation within one day, and held it at 63 for the 1st week. Letting it go to 67 the next week. I did a gravity test at the end of the 2nd week. It was stuck at 1.030. Stalled out. I moved it to the garage off temp control and within 10 days it was at .997 FG.
Over the meads fermentation the Brett-C created some of the best tropical, mango and papaya flavors I've ever tasted. These flavors diminished at the end of fermentation. I bottled yesterday.
If you want to read my post on my Blog with a pictures, click here http://www.lewybrewing.com/2013/02/100-brett-mead-oohh-yes.html
Once I open a bottle in a couple months I will update this post
