Brettanomyces (Brett)

I love brettanomyces! (wine people must been having an infarct while reading this...)

It's very common to find brettanomyces on wines, that gives a taste of  leather, or something like a barn, some people may also like it, however in wine world, brett is, usually, considered as an defect.

Poor Brett!

But for those who like good beer, there is such a pleasure to find the bretts tastes on a beer. I love that brettanomyces flavor on lambics, geuzes, saisons and some farmhouse ales.


My first brett was with an oude geuze that I ordered at a picturesque restaurant in Brussels called "La fleur en papier doré". After 3 sips of that beer I was still wondering if I did like or didn't! But to be totally honest, the fault my not be from brett, because an geuze is a type of beer that have such complex flavors that you must have certain maturity in sense of taste to really enjoy it.

However didn't take any longer to take my heart. After that I became a "brettaholic", and for a while, all other beers just lost their sparkle. (funny story: my husband and I, went to a restaurant in Brussels and they hadn't beers with brettanomyces flavors, there was "just" Chimay, Kwak, Orval etc. then, my husband said to me "I'll have a Chimay, but I'm sad because this restaurant don't have good beer!". Whaaaaat??!!!! We were actually calling those fantastic beers "bad beers"?! LOL)

That funky flavor, a little bit acidic and bitter... Ohhh... That's just incredible!! That's a shame that same thing doesn't happen with wines.

Through the production of volatile phenol compounds, brett gives certain flavors to wine and beer. These compounds (in particular 4-ethylphenol [4-EP], 4-ethylguaiacol [4-EG] and 4- ethylcatechol [4-EC]), may give different flavors from wine style to wine style and that's why they give distinguished tastes in beer too.

So if you love wine AND beer just like I do, please, don't hate brett for its effects on wine, give it a chance, because she has her moments in both beer and wine.