Brett. C "Mild"

Well...I say mild. It is built on the grain bill and meets most of the specifications of one...but my choice of using a brett means it will be a mild in the original sense of the term. And as it ages, it should transform into an old ale, as things should. This recipe was born by my need to use and build up a healthy culture of of Brett C (wyeast) so that I would be able to pitch dregs from the carboy and bottles.

Because I planned on direct pitching, and wanted it to ferment fairly quickly, I decided on a session ale; I also wanted to get a couple of low ABV beers into my pipeline, since I normally tend to brew on the bigger end. So we have an English style session ale, with about 13% crystal malts, and 8% rolled oats to keep that body up (brett doesn't produce glycerol like sacc does, so doesn't contribute to the body of your beer). In order to keep things from drying out too much, I also decided to mash high, at 157*--100% brett ferments don't get the same crazy attenuation as using brett in secondary.

Rauche-n-rye

I've never had a smoked beer, since I'm not counting an example a friend had me try, which used smoke extract.  Not a good idea, btw.

So naturally, I decided to make my own using a good amount of rauche malt--beechwood smoked malt.  And because I felt it would work nicely with the flavour--plus add body--I utilized about 20% rye malt as well.  this was further testing the Beersmith mashing calculations, with a double decoction mash.