Roeselare Yeast

[clarkehead]

Hi Everyone

I'm going to be brewing a Belgian Sour Brown this weekend, using Wyeast's Roeselare blend. I'm really excited to be brewing my first Sour Brown, and I wondered if anyone here has used this yeast in the past, and what your resulting beer was like.

Questions:

• Did it take 6-12 months of aging to achieve it's full potential, or was some drinkable earlier than that?

• How strong is the Brettanomyces characteristic in this blend? Strong enough to taint every piece of plastic I'm using? Should I pretty much count on either replacing all plastic tubes, stoppers, buckets, etc, that come in contact with this beer (or save it for further Belgian Sour beers)?

• I recall Vinnie at Russian River saying that Brett will eat sugar until it's almost all gone. Should I be concerned with bottle bombs? How have you gone about priming your bottles when bottling your Brett beer?

Thanks for any and all info you can provide.

Cheers,

Phil

[jamilz]

Phil, there is a good discussion of this in the archived posts in the morebeer.com forums. You should do a search there and you'll get pretty much all the information you need.

The quick answers are, yes, it takes 6 months to a year. Don't rush it. The brett is restrained. The trick is to ferment out the beer first with CA ale yeast, then pitch the bugs. You'll have far more control over it that way. Anything else is just too variable.

[clarkehead]

Thanks Jamil. I appreciate that - just found the discussion you directed me to. And I enjoy your new show on the Brewing Network - brilliant!

The more I home brew, and the more I hang with those who brew, the more I appreciate everyone involved. This has got to be the most communal, feel-good hobby ever. I'm happy to be a part of it.

Cheers,

Phil