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Home , Berliner Weisse, Lambic, Sour beer, Tilquin

CONFERENCE REPORT l Arjan De Rooij

fermentations some of the bacteria often associated with it also feature Carnivale species of Lactobacillus, Pediococcus and Acetobacter. The first producing , as seen in yoghurt, the second doing something similar but with a more tart result. The last is a key component in vinegar and can eas- A festival dedicated to ily ruin beer; however, it is a must in Flemish red . Brettanomyces and other wild things This year’s festival was held June 23 - 25 and combined tasting events, By Ed Wray, Campden BRI tap takeovers, and food pairing dinners with a technical programme of master Brettanomyces, or Dekkera as it is more correctly known#, classes on the techniques, science and history of Brettanomcyes. is mostly considered by brewers to be an unwanted wild . But when it was first described in 1904 in Carnivale Brettanomyces 2016 lectures the Journal of the Institute of Brewing it was in a paper There were three speakers at the outlining how best to use this organism responsible for the opening ceremony: Jean Van Roy talked of the remarkable turna- “remarkably fine flavour” of English stock ales. round that has had in the course of his brewing career. When n recent years interest has grown and diverse beer range. he started work at Iin the flavours that can come from Earthy, floral, spicy are the most they were brewing less than 500hL brewing with this organism. In commonly used descriptions for the of a year and he had to fight Amsterdam an annual festival called flavours and aromas that come from to sell any beer; now people are Carnivale Brettanomyces is held, Brettanomyces (Brett). It is able to fighting to buy it! Since taking over dedicated to Brettanomyces and other utilise a wider range of sugars and as head brewer he has changed the less commonly used and bac- dextrins than Saccharomyces, re- production process slightly, in that teria. The goal is to both educate the sulting over time in very dry . barrels are now topped up so less audience about the great spectrum of Depending on how it is used, ‘Brett beer is exposed to air and less acid is beers brewed with these outsiders, Beers’ can also be sour. produced. He also talked about how as well to simply celebrate this broad As Brett is often found in mixed they try to make the brewery as green

www.ibd.org.uk Brewer and Distiller International October 2016 z 43 l CONFERENCE REPORT

himself. He has now started to use Brettanomyces, but adding complexi- ty this way takes time. He mentioned that back in 1921 a Belgian brewing journal reported that cultured yeasts have simplified beer, and thinks that in the future people will look for local yeasts to add complexity. He’s isolated a local strain of Brett that he uses in a beer. All three of the speakers agreed that brew- ing combines science and art, each informing the other.

Blending to I gave one of the first lectures the next day, entitled The Brew- ing Science of Brettanomyces. I Arjan De Rooij talked about the microbiology and biochemistry of Brettanomyces and Cantillon’s Jean van Roy at the opening ceremony personal experiences of brewing as possible. They can only brew when Watt. He’s built up the cultures he beers with it. I will expand on this in the weather is not too hot and global brews with commercially over time an upcoming edition of Brewer and warming has cut their brewing season and currently has two mixed cul- Distiller International. by nearly two months a year since he tures on the go. He also brews some The next speaker was Pierre started brewing. ‘clean’ beers with Saccharomyces. , who founded his own Chad Yakobson brews a range of Yvan De Baets, brewer at De La gueuze blending company Gueu- beer using Brettanomyces, some sour Senne, previously brewed at Cantil- zerie Tilquin, with a start-up cost of and some not. The Brettanomyces lon but when he started his own €500,000 and production of current- Project came from work he did on the brewery only 5km away he didn’t ly just 800hL a year. He buys in masters degree course at Heriot- see the point of making sour beer from lambic brewers and makes his gueuze by blending 50% one # year old beer with 30% two year old Brettanomyces or Dekkera? and 20% three year old. He’s found that some age better than Until recently, much confusion others; some will attenuate to 100% has existed over the taxonomy apparent attenuation, whereas oth- of Brettanomyces bruxellensis, ers stall at 75%. It was also interest- the major non-Saccharomyces ing to hear that some lambic yeast in the lambic fermentation. The generic nomen Brettanomyces origi- come in at pH5 whereas others are nated in the UK in 1904 and literally means ‘British brewer fungus’, due to at pH4, though Pierre was too diplo- the fact that it was first isolated from English stock ales. In such beers it was matic to speculate why. responsible for the secondary fermentation that gave these beers their unique Sander Kobes, brewer at Oersoep flavour. A similar yeast-like organism was later found in Belgian lambic beers talked about what Brettanomyces and the name B. bruxellensis was applied. Taxonomically, it was placed in the is and the difference between wild, Fungi Imperfecti because no sexual reproduction could be discerned (i.e. it is spontaneous and sour beers. ​Yvan anamorphic), and early taxonomy was based solely on a few asexual strains. de Baets​, talked on the history of This situation pertained until 1960 when sexual spores (ascospores) were saison, one of the hardest beer styles observed in some strains and the genus Dekkera was introduced to describe to define. He wrote an all embrac- these sexual counterparts of Brettantomyces. I don’t believe that ascospores ing chapter about in the (the teleomorphic state) have ever been reported again and the distinction book ‘Farmhouse Ales’. They were between Brettanomyces and Dekkera is now unclear, especially since DNA made using mixed fermentations of detection methods do not reveal systematic differences between anamorphic Saccharomyces and wild yeasts, or and teleomorphic states! sometimes even fermented spon- Some authorities have been using ‘Brettanomyces/Dekkera’ (‘B/D’) to taneously. Old and young beer was overcome any possible confusion but in 2011 the new International Code of often blended and local spices were Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants (the ‘Melbourne Code’) deemed used for flavouring. that fungal species should be assigned only a single valid name. In future, it Sebastian Sauer from Freigeist is likely that Brettanomyces will be used in preference to Dekkera. Molecular Bierkultur spoke on ‘breaking the analysis now gives us five species of B/D: the anamorphs B. bruxellensis, B. Bayerische Law’. He strives to break anomalus. B. custersianus, B. naardenensis, and B. nanus, and teleomorphs the chains of the modern main- of the first two of these; D. bruxellensis and D. anomala. Please note that B. stream brewing industry by reviving lambicus = B. bruxellensis, and is not a species in its own right. Lecture over! and updating Germany’s unique, From Ian Hornsey’s feature on Elgoods Brewery in Brewer and Distiller historical beer styles, many of which International, September 2015, page 33. disappeared only a few decades ago.

44 z Brewer and Distiller International October 2016 www.ibd.org.uk CONFERENCE REPORT l

The Bavarian , though upheld as defending traditional Ger- man brewing is in fact in conflict with many traditional German beers.

The Brettanomyces Project Chad Yakobson gave a second talk, this time on The Brettanomyces Project, Brettanomyces in general and Crooked Stave Brewery. It was a comprehensive talk and included details of some of the more unusual aspects of this yeast. Brettanomyces produces an extra-cellular alpha- glucosidase, which explains the rise in glucose he found in some of his fermentations for the project. At the Crooked Stave Brewery he makes sour mixed culture, Brettanomy- Arjan De Rooij ces, and ‘clean’ beers and he has History of the Saison by Yvan de Baets of the Senne Brewery three separate, colour coded, sets of hoses, valves, pipes, packaging brown and yellow, and lambic beer hidden history of . equipment and fermenters for each. was defined as a yellow beer of certain It is not just a sour , but a Scientist and brewer at Black- strength. It evolved from earlier beer funky one, as many were brewed with well Brewery in Switzerland Samuel styles, and has continued to evolve Brettanomyces. He is on a quest to Aeschlimann talked about yeast since then, so modern lambics are isolate rare strains of yeast from old identification, cultivation and a different again, for example containing Berliner Weisse bottles and spread scientific approach to brewing with much less in the grist (from 63% them around, hoping brewers will pick unknown organisms. This lecture at the beginning of the 19th century to up on them. Stephen Andrew, barrel covered a variety of ways to isolate 30% nowadays). manager at Nøgne Ø talked on kettle and identify wild yeasts for brewing souring techniques and Ulrike Genz, purposes and also looked at possibil- Dutch lambics who brews authentic Berliner Weisses ities to put your local terroir into your Historian, beer blogger and beer at Schneeeule in gave a practi- beers. Dry extract starters as cartoonist Roel Mulder talked about cal guide using Brett in the brewery. well as agar plates work perfectly to lambic beer brewed in the Netherlands Rocket Brewing’s Thomas Schøn isolate a variety of micro-organisms in the 19th century. Though it may be spoke about how Brettanomcyes came from various sources. Molecular blasphemy to Belgians, once there to be their house yeast. Problems in identification tools like PCR were existed an “Amsterdams lambiek” and the brewery meant they ended up with discussed, and how one can identify lambic from many other Dutch cities Brett in all their beers, even those what you have isolated. At Blackwell too. They were very popular in the mid- that were not supposed to have it. they use standardised fermenta- dle of the 19th century but their heyday They decided to make a virtue out of tion trials where they evaluate the seems to have passed by the 1890s a necessity and now all their beers fermentation performance as well and the last record of Dutch lambic is are deliberately brewed with Brett. He as the sensory properties of their from 1933. detailed the various souring methods isolates. This gives them the pos- Ron Pattinson, the beer histo- they use and their advantages and sibility to create complexity in their rian perhaps known from his blog disadvantages. Their beers are also beers based on mixtures of individual barclayperkins.blogspot.nl has been flavoured with local fruits and herbs. isolates. As a practical example, a working in collaboration with Goose beer fermented with Metschnikowia Island Brewery on re-creating a The Carnivale Brettanomyces website pulcherrima was shared with the historic stock and talked of the can be found at: www.wildegist.nl audience showcasing this yeast in difference between unaged mild ales terms of the production of volatile and aged stock ales. The grists were phenols in the final product. essentially the same for both types of Raf Meert gave an alternative beer but the stock ales had 50% more view on the history of lambic beer. A . The beer produced with Goose problem with researching beer history Island is called ‘Brewery Yard’ and is that much of the information comes was pitched with B.claussenii after from and tourist guides, primary fermentation. It was aged in not referenced work from historians. barrels for 11 months before bottling. He has found much of the commonly It had an OG of 1067 and an ABV of known things about lambic beers are 7.3% with 95 IBUs at barreling. After just myths. It is not a primeval beer, ageing the IBUs had dropped to 62, being first brewed in the 18th century. whilst the ABV had risen to 8.4%. At that time the beers of Mike Marcus, brewer at Chorlton could be divided into the colours white, Brewery in Manchester spoke on the www.ibd.org.uk Brewer and Distiller International October 2016 z 45