Brewing the Brett C Rye Saison and Trouble

Brew day for the Brett C Rye Saison was 3/17/13.

Everything went well. Hit all my numbers. Got a crazy efficiency.
My targeted starting gravity was supposed to be 1.056. My actual starting gravity was 1.064! Thats an efficiency of 81%. Not a big deal, just a little stronger beer in the end with a predicted ABV of 7% instead of the planned 6%.

Got the wort cooled down and pitched the flask of Brett C starter and put into the ferm fridge at 70 deg F. Brett C likes warm temperatures, but I wanted to keep the phenolic flavors under control so I decided to ferment at a cool temperature. Phenolic flavors in beer are clove and spice flavors. These are the trademarks of Belgian styles of beer and brewers who brew those beers use yeasts bred to produce those flavors. Phenolic flavors come out at higher fermentation temperatures. In fact, some Belgian breweries ferment their beer at up to 90 deg F to bring out those flavors.

For this beer, I wanted a more subdued profile, so I wanted to ferment at a colder temperature.

Regular ale yeast ferments best for me at 68 deg F. Thats a little low for Brett C, so I scoured the interwebs and settled on using 70deg F as a fermentation temperature that would control the spiciness of the beer.

After 2 days, the fermentation went wild. In fact, kreusen blew out of the airlock. After the kreusen fell, a pellicle started to develop. The first few days, the beer smelled horrible. Kind of like vomit and cat shit. Believe it or not, thats supposed to be a good sign. So far so good.

The SGs went as follows:

3/17 - 1.064
3/21 - 1.052
3/23 - 1.050
3/30 - 1.050  STUCK!!!!

The damn yeast stopped working. I wrote an Email to Michael Tonsmeire, "The Mad Fermentationist "(you have to check out his blog about brewing wild and sour beers - he is a guru on this subject). He suggested that I bump up the temperature to 80 deg F. So I did. I also gently swirled the fermentation bucket to try to rouse the yeast.

After a day, the same gravity. Still stuck. Was my yeast bad? I know it was old, but it did grow up in the starter.  Maybe there's something about Brett yeast that poops out when its old, I dont know.

Anyways the all Brett experiment is a bust.

So in order to save the batch, I decided to grow up some Wyeast 3711 Fench Saison yeast. Ill just turn this brew into a funky saison. Who knows, it might even taste good.

Now for those of you not familiar with 3711, "Its just like 3710, but one better. It goes up to 11". Just like in Spinal Tap.  Its a super fermenter. It goes gangbusters. It'll finish a stuck fermentation. It goes up to 11!

Pitched the 3711 on 4/3/13 at 68 deg F. I'll ramp it up 2 degrees a day until it gets to 80 degrees, my standard saison temperature regimen.