Re-finishing a beer w/ Brett?

**Zaphod** · 05-29-2009, 06:44 PM

Hi folks. I have a Saison I brewed recently (first AG batch

), and it ended up sweeter than I was hoping for (FG 1.013), partially due to impatience on my part.
I'm thinking about pulling off half of it from the keg and dumping some brett in to drive it down further. Is there enough sugar left to make any decent amount of funk? My understanding is that brett eats just about everything, so it should dive it down to 1.000 or a little over.
Also, to avoid contamination of tubing and kegs, I'll probably just bottle it. Can I use the same amount of sugar (I usually prime w/ DME) to prime the bottles as I normally do w/ Sacc?

ChrisKennedy · 05-29-2009, 07:04 PM

Yes, dump brett in, bring it up to 60F+ and give it 6months minimum and you should get down to below 1.006, and you should be able to get plenty of funk.

**Zaphod** · 05-30-2009, 04:00 AM

Ha! Hi Chris. I'll give it a go this weekend. I'll make sure to bring some by KROC so you can give it a try.

**Saccharomyces** · 05-30-2009, 04:38 PM

Mine went from 1.063 to 1.014 which is 75% AA, so I figured the primary strain was done. I racked off to a secondary, added 1tsp of Alpha Amylase enzyme (Beano works too), hit it with a quick shot of O2, stirred in a tsp of yeast nutrient and pitched a package of rehydrated champagne yeast. After about 5 days I had a nice krausen ring and got bubbling for a week. I still need to check the gravity but I'm guessing I'm around 1.004 now.

Brett would be more historically accurate... farmhouse ales were cooled in coolships where they picked up all sorts of brett and lacto bacteria. They would have achieved their characteristic dryness from a secondary Brett fermentation during their long cellaring. Most other beers at the time were drunk young before the Brett would have had a chance to create much funk or to overattenuate the beer.

ChrisKennedy · 05-30-2009, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zaphod

Ha! Hi Chris. I'll give it a go this weekend. I'll make sure to bring some by KROC so you can give it a try.

Excellent, I have about 35gal of funky stuff going at home, so I will have plenty to dump on the meetings in a year or so.