All brett blueberry for a noobie

Any input on this?

2.5 gal
3# extra light liquid malt
1# wheat liquid extract

Mini mash:
3 oz cara red
3 oz Belgium aromatic
2 oz acid malt

1/2 oz kent Golding

2 vials white labs Brett Brux
1 vial white labs Brett lambicus
3 lbs frozen blueberries
1 tsp saffron last 15 minutes of boil (maybe)

Made a 1.050 pint starter and pitched all 3 Brett's yesterday getting bubbles every 8 seconds today. Gonna wait a few days then add another pint of 1.050 wort then after a few days pitch the starter. I'm either gonna run the blueberries through my girlfriends juicer or I'll blend them up and add the pulp. Haven't decided weather or not to add it to the secondary or half way through the primary. This experiment is to hopefully crank out a quick sour with Brett character. That's why I'm thinking about the blueberries in the primary as to hopefully scrub off some fruit flavor and keep the tartness. I'm way too new to attempt this kinda thing but I can't help myself what do you guys think?

I don't think you will lose as much fruit flavor as you think. Of course, the danger of losing fruit flavor at all is ending up with a muted fruit flavor which is not at all tasty. If you just want additional tartness add lactic acid.

You will probably also need a much larger starter than that.

Do you think 3 lbs of blueberries is a good amount? And how big of a starter should I make/ how long will it take to grow it?
Once again:
<=== noobie

sheepdawgg said:

Do you think 3 lbs of blueberries is a good amount? And how big of a starter should I make/ how long will it take to grow it?
Once again:
<=== noobie

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I used 3 pounds of blueberries on 3 gallons of a regular wheat, juiced and added to secondary. It gave it a very mild fruit flavor but nobody could tell me it was blueberry. Blending and adding pulp and all would give more flavor, and more tartness. It might be enough.

Ok cool. I'll post pictures ( I'm excited!). Do you have any words of advice regarding quantity/time it takes to make an adequate starter to mow through the sugars? I hear that with a large enough starter Brett can finish in a week (complex sugars included).

sheepdawgg said:

I hear that with a large enough starter Brett can finish in a week (complex sugars included).

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a brett primary acts like sacchro, it won't go thru the more complex sugars. the time it takes is pretty variable, i usually give 4-6 weeks to be safe

Holy yeast for 2.5 gallons! Why so much?

thatjonguy said:

Holy yeast for 2.5 gallons! Why so much?

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its actually not that much. only about 110 billion cells or roughly the equivalent of a sacchro vial/smack pack as brett comes in roughly 1/10th the cell count. its generally suggested to pitch at lager rates for a brett primary so its technically still underpitched

dcp27 said:

its actually not that much. only about 110 billion cells or roughly the equivalent of a sacchro vial/smack pack as brett comes in roughly 1/10th the cell count. its generally suggested to pitch at lager rates for a brett primary so its technically still underpitched

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I missed the White Labs part, I generally use Wyeast and sometimes forget that not everyone does...

I guess I started Friday night a little early.

all i know is i used a vial of brett brux 2 weeks ago for a 2.5 gal batch that was at 1.06ish with no starter. it did nothing for 2 days and then it took off and now its about 1.020 or 1.022 i think. figured 3 vials and a starter would make things quicker. i have no experience with wyeast is it better than wl?

sheepdawgg said:

all i know is i used a vial of brett brux 2 weeks ago for a 2.5 gal batch that was at 1.06ish with no starter. it did nothing for 2 days and then it took off and now its about 1.020 or 1.022 i think. figured 3 vials and a starter would make things quicker. i have no experience with wyeast is it better than wl?

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Both seem to have their following. Both also claim an adequate cell count to pitch without a starter. What you may like is Wyeast has a lambic blend that takes care of mixing strains for you.

Do you know of any blends that are all 3 Brett's? Lacto and Pedio intimidate me :/