Cleaning up off flavors

So I had a batch get infected, it ended up smelling like dirty socks. Apparently this is caused by isovaleric acid, and I read that Brett can clean this off flavor up, get rid of the dirty sock and replace it with fruity esters and such. I added a ton of Brett, and it’s gonna sit in the fermenter for a few more months at least.

Has anyone tried this before? And has it worked?

No, I didn’t tried this yet. But thanks for sharing this thread with here.

Hmm, hope someone could share their experience with this. Now I’m curious.

It seems to have worked.

I pitched the Brett in January, and the beer had been sitting in the fermenter ever since, in my parents’ basement. I live several states away, and hadn’t made it up there since then. But, I was just up recently, and I was able to check on that beer (and a couple others I had aging/souring), and the dirty socks smell was gone entirely, replaced with Brett notes.

I didn’t have a chance to bottle it, but next time I’m up there, it will go into bottles, and we’ll see how it ended up. I’m expecting something very complex, with crazy fermentation notes (the original yeast I used in the batch was a Hornindal kveik). And knowing my luck, it’ll be the world’s best beer. Because I won’t be able to brew another batch the same way.

2 Likes