Brett L/3711 Saison, a little insight needed

El_Exorcisto · 01-25-2012, 06:12 AM

Ok, so I had bought a smack pack of Brett L for my first funk, but decided to only use my spontaneous slurry. I also have some 3711 in bottle dregs of the last saison I brewed.

The smack pack was a little slushy when I brought it inside from my mailbox, so I need to make a starter to get the cell count up. I am making a stirplate as soon as my stirbar shows up. So with questionable viability of the brett, and only a small sample of 3711, how would you go about making a big enough pitch for a 5 gallon batch of a rustic saison of about 5% abv? Here are the few options I've thought about:

Make separate starters for each yeast, starting the 3711 in a cup and eventually stepping each up to 1L and pitching at the same time.

Build up a 1L starter of 3711 and pitch. As that is fermenting build up a 1L of brett and pitch that as fermentation is wrapping up.

Build 1L of brett and pitch that as a primary yeast. As that is fermenting build up a 1L of 3711 and pitch that as soon as it is ready. This is the one that sounds the best. It'll give the most brett character but the 3711 will dry it out most likely to zero. It is a bit backwards compared to the usual, but it makes sense in my head.

jmo88 · 01-25-2012, 06:33 AM

Your last option seems best. 3711 dries a beer out so much that there's really not much left for Brett. I've never used 3711 with Brett but I've used both many times alone in beers. It's good to use 3711 like a Brett strain, to dry the stubborn Dupont strain.

Have you used Brett as a primary before? Ive tasted all Brett beers that don't have the barnyard character like those that are inoculated with it at the end of fermentation. In fact they're often like a fruity ale yeast when used as a primary strain. It may turn out not as funky as you'd have hoped.

Calder · 01-25-2012, 11:22 PM

Starting with Brett, on it's own, will give you a very different beer. More fruity, less funky.

If you want the Brett funk, you do not want to make a starter. You want to pitch a low cell count so that it stresses the yeast.

Mash high to leave some residual sugars for the Brett to work on.

Pitch a healthy starter of 3711, and either add the Brett when pitching the 3711, or wait until secondary. Either will do, not sure which will give you the best result. If you pitch with the 3711, the Brett will get to use some of the O2 for reproduction, and will be less stressed, but since it is slower than sacc, it might not make much difference. Pitching it after the 3711, will slow down it's reproduction and may take longer to funk.

Homebrewtastic · 01-26-2012, 01:57 AM

Who'd you get the Brett l from? I've only used the whitelabs, and I did it as a solo fermenter and it was not very good. Smoky and horse blankety ended up being the only two flavors and in a very big way. Were I to use it again I would just use it at the very end, or even at bottling.

DragonOrta · 01-26-2012, 02:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Homebrewtastic

Who'd you get the Brett l from? I've only used the whitelabs, and I did it as a solo fermenter and it was not very good. Smoky and horse blankety ended up being the only two flavors and in a very big way. Were I to use it again I would just use it at the very end, or even at bottling.

Since he said he had a smack pack, one can only assume the more tasty wyeast.

El_Exorcisto · 01-26-2012, 05:22 AM

It's Wyeast I ordered from Midwest. I'm going to need to make a starter for it since I have questions about viability due to it freezing. If using brett first will lead to a fruitier, less funky beer would it be better to build a starter of each and pitch together?

El_Exorcisto · 01-27-2012, 06:54 AM

Or would you skip the commercial brett and use some of the chicken juice I am using in my first funk? I'd pitch it initially and let it run a few days while my starter build and to let the lactic acidity get rolling before the 3711 ruthlessly consumes all the available food.