Great American Beer Festival gold-medal winning brewer Kyle Carbaugh walks you through everything you need to know to brew great mixed culture brett beers. In this course, Kyle covers:

• Grain bill considerations
  • Usage of dextrin and complex carbohydrate malts/grain (unmalted wheat)
  • Sourcing local malts/grains
• Hop selection and considerations
  • Aged hops vs non-aged hops
  • High alpha vs low alpha hops
• Yeast & bacteria selection, timing of additions
• Sensory impact of brett varieties (lambicus vs. brux vs. claussenii)
• Brewing concerns
  • Boil length
  • Aeration vs non aeration
  • Mash schedule (single infusion vs. step vs. turbid)
• Fermentation & aging
  • Sequencing bacteria and yeast
  • Stainless vs. oak vs. stainless/oak
    • Oak formats: standard barrel vs. foeder vs. puncheons
    • Barrel & spirit character contribution
    • Homebrew scale- oak cubes/staves/spirals, plastic and glass carboys, etc
    • Barrel pre-treatment
  • Temperature control
• Dry hopping, fruit & spice additions
  • Rates and precision (pounds per bbl vs. ounces per gallon vs. grams per mL)
  • Sourcing local whole fruits vs. industrial purees
  • Re-fermentation time and techniques
• Sampling
  • Sampling intervals and record keeping
  • Disturbing the pellicle
  • How to sample
• Packaging and bottle conditioning
  • Force carbonation vs bottle condition
  • Priming considerations
  • Re-yeasting vs. not re-yeasting and conditioning yeast selection
  • Giving bottles time to properly condition in bottle, laying bottles down