dcp27

Recipes 

I've never used bretts before, but I've been thinking of brewing up a belgian IPA and splitting the batch and doing half with some Bretts. White labs faq say I can normally ferment and when it begins slowing down to rack it onto the brett b (WLP650). Is this how it's normally done and will it get much funkyness out of it? I was thinking of doing the batch with WLP550 which has a high attentuation, so I'm concerned there won't be anything left for the bretts.

Oldsock

Recipes 

Brett can make quite a bit of funk without too much gravity, but it will take some time. I would suggest holding off on adding the dry hops to that portion until after the beer gets as funky as you want it. I just added hops to a sour beer that I started just over a year ago. It will also help to speed things along if you build up a starter for the Brett a week in advance.

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maskednegator

Recipes 

If you're concerned with having nothing for the brett, mash hotter, then add sugar to the clean batch to dry it out a bit after you split them.
Wait to add dry hops to both batches. The clean half should be done with the sugar before you add hops, and the brett batch half should be well on its way to being ready to bottle before you add any hops.

ryane

Recipes 

the way I would do something like this would be to brew up a very funky brett beer, and after it has aged to where its got a lot of funk I would brew up a very very hoppy IPA and blend to the two to taste

this way you get the funk and a very fresh hop flavor/aroma

Oldsock

Recipes 

Great idea if you keg, but too much of a risk (in my opinion) if you are bottling.

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Check out The Mad Fermentationist for my adventures in fermentation (cheese, bread, ginger beer plant, and of course plenty of funky beer).

ericd

Recipes 

Brett will ferment longer chain sugars that normal yeast can't. Try it in secondary and if you want more funkiness, you can add it earlier next time.

dcp27

Recipes 

oh, did not know that. If my primary yeast (WLP550 Belgian Ale) got my SG down to 1.015 as predicted, would I still need a starter for the Brett B and would I get much funk from that low of a SG?

Also, would I want to let the WLP550 do any cleaning/conditioning, or would I rack it ASAP and let the Brett B do it all?

Oldsock

Recipes 

That is more than enough gravity for the Brett to work its magic, but that sounds like too high an FG for the "clean" portion. You would give the beer time in primary to clean up and drop partially clear, just so you don't have to deal with a bunch of trub in secondary (~2 weeks should be fine).

I would still make a starter, like any yeast Brett needs oxygen to reproduce, so it is nice to give it some time in a well aerated starter with some simpler sugars (rather than the long chain sugars that will be left after primary fermentation).

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Check out The Mad Fermentationist for my adventures in fermentation (cheese, bread, ginger beer plant, and of course plenty of funky beer).

squeekysheep

Recipes 

sounds allot like the Orval clone i did turned out great same yeast about the same fg and added brett in secondary 3 months

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Jaymo

Recipes 

Another option is to stick with your single batch, add your brett b and wait until you get nice funk and the gravity stops dropping. At that point, do some dry-hopping just prior to bottling. That way you don't risk bottle bombs from brett chewing away at the newly-blended sugars.