ECY20 Bug Country - Over 20 different isolates to overwhelm the senses; the blend is the mother-bugger for sour or wild ales. Contains various "wild" Saccharomyces species, Brettanomyces, Lactobacilli, and Pediococci.
ECY03 Farmhouse Brett - Saison Brasserie blend with a pure Brettanomyces isolate from a small but fascinating producer of saison. Produces a fruity and funky profile with some acidity gradually increasing over time.
There were two things I wanted to accomplish with these yeast blends.
First, I wanted to create a base beer to split between both blends in order to compare and contrast the differences. The ECY20 is such a sour producing beast, there will be an order of magnitude difference between the two beers.
(A top shot of the ECY20 in the starter. It will form a pellicle 6 hours after shaking the starter!)
Second, the 5 gallon Balcones whiskey barrel I purchased a while back is ideal for inoculating with bugs. Especially Brett, Lacto and Pedio. I aged a batch of Scottish 70 in this barrel to extract the whiskey character from the barrel and hopefully there is very little to none left over that will carry into this batch. Before filling the barrel, I gave it a thorough cleaning with hot water to ensure it was clean and all the staves were tight.
For the ECY20, I grew up a gallon starter of yeast to ensure there would be enough bugs to chew through the wort and to leave some residual yeast behind in the barrel for the next batch of beer. The ECY03 was pitched directly into the 6 gallons of wort.
Here is the recipe for the beer I used to split between the two fermenters:
Grain Bill:
15 lbs - Castle Belgian Two-row
5 lbs - Riverbend Pilsner Six-row
4 lbs - White Wheat
8 oz - Acid Malt
Hop Profile:
2 oz - Santiam [6.1% aa] @ 60 min
1 oz - Lublin [3.8% aa] @ 60 min
1 oz - Saaz [3.8% aa] @ 5 min
Mash Profile:
Single Infusion @ 159F for 60 minutes. Single Batch Sparge
(ECY20 in the barrel on the left and ECY03 in the carboy on the right)
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