Brett Brux and bottle bombs!!!

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Rugrad02

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My interest of Brett has recently been piqued. I was wanting to try a Brett Saison, starting with 565 and racking to secondary where I would add 650 Brett Brux for a while longer. Then I got to thinking about bottle bombs.

My question is, with people adding 650 at bottling or bottling Brett beers after just 2-3 months of pitching the Brett why are their bottles not exploding? Or is it that they are corking and caging???

I thought Brett worked slow and for a long time. Wouldn't the increase in age of the bottled beer also increase the likelihood of bottle bombs? How long after pitching the Brett Brux could I bottle? I don't plan to cork and cage. Any input would be helpful. Thanks!!!
 
It's dependent on the strength of your bottles and the SG at bottling. Some people won't bottle a sour or brett beer until it is below, say, 1.006. Others wait for a consistent SG reading a few months apart. It really depends on what your plan is. What kind of bottles are you using, etc. Even if you don't have bombs you don't want a few cases of gushers lying around either.
 
it also depends on the amount of fermentables not always what your sg is, if you mash low and dont have a lot of long chain sugars, then there wont be as much to eat at once it hits the bottle even with priming sugar. there is a lot to consider when using brett and bottling.
 
Is there a significant difference in flavor development to bottling with brett yeasts as opposed to simply adding them for a secondary ferment?
 
Yes but not as significant as the difference between 100% brett primary (boring, in my opinion) and brett mixed in from the beginning. The difference pressure has is different but to me it almost seems to trap more of the volatile aroma compounds when it's in the bottle vs. a long secondary. I think a long secondary makes similar flavors but some of the flavor compounds are likely lost in low amount over time through the air lock. If you can smell it that means it's leaving the beer. So depending on the beer I will add at bottling or just with my primary yeast. My Orval inspired beer was dosed with Orval bottle yeast 2 days before bottling when it was at 1.009. A year later I measured the gravity after a night of degassing and it was 1.005. I bottled in champagne and initially primed the beer for about 3.0 volumes the remainder of my extract provided additional carb and a very typical Orval bretty flavor and aroma.
 
OK, so after reading about this I decided to do it. I just bottled a farmhouse stout with Mo Betta Bretta brett that I grew up from dregs. The beer finished at about 1.012. I used Sam Adams Barrel Room bottles plus a couple bombers and 3 12-oz'ers that I will open to check carbonation at 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months. I'm thinking that even if it overcarbs, the big bottles can stand it, so if worst comes to worst I will only have 3 bottle bombs. I can just crash the rest if those 3 explode within 1 month. Either that OR I will have to drop in a quarter-half teaspoon of sugar to each bottle in 6 months. We'll see. In any case, I will be that much wiser.
 
loftybrewer said:
OK, so after reading about this I decided to do it. I just bottled a farmhouse stout with Mo Betta Bretta brett that I grew up from dregs. The beer finished at about 1.012. I used Sam Adams Barrel Room bottles plus a couple bombers and 3 12-oz'ers that I will open to check carbonation at 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months. I'm thinking that even if it overcarbs, the big bottles can stand it, so if worst comes to worst I will only have 3 bottle bombs. I can just crash the rest if those 3 explode within 1 month. Either that OR I will have to drop in a quarter-half teaspoon of sugar to each bottle in 6 months. We'll see. In any case, I will be that much wiser.

You don't want any bottle to blow, the force of the exploding glass could be deadly if someone is in the room.
 
The bottles are on a shelf behind cabinet doors and it's sort of storage space anyways. It's only because I have no worries about explosions (except for the pain of cleaning up) that I'm trying this. Anyways, my 1-month check will give me a good indication of how long this will take. Crazy carbonation = crash them immediately. Still beer = not much to worry about for a long while
 
You don't want any bottle to blow, the force of the exploding glass could be deadly if someone is in the room.

The danger of bottle bombs from brett over attenuating is exagerated. Bottles explode when beer carbs too much and too fast. Bottles aren't very likely to explode when they over carbonate slowly. During bottle refermentation, the pressure is well over the target until the co2 dissolves in the beer. When a beer slowly over-carbs, there is plenty of time for the co2 to dissolve.
 
Bottles aren't very likely to explode when they over carbonate slowly. During bottle refermentation, the pressure is well over the target until the co2 dissolves in the beer. When a beer slowly over-carbs, there is plenty of time for the co2 to dissolve.
i'd love to get confirmation or denial about this from someone better versed in the physics of gases, but i do not believe there is a point when all (or more) of the gas is in the head space, under high pressure, waiting to re-enter the beer. it's a constant equilibrium (re: Henry's law). temperature will affect how much gas is in the beer vs. the headspace, but at a given temp the pressures will be in equilibrium.

again, happy to be told i'm wrong...
 
i'd love to get confirmation or denial about this from someone better versed in the physics of gases, but i do not believe there is a point when all (or more) of the gas is in the head space, under high pressure, waiting to re-enter the beer. it's a constant equilibrium (re: Henry's law). temperature will affect how much gas is in the beer vs. the headspace, but at a given temp the pressures will be in equilibrium.

again, happy to be told i'm wrong...

I've never really thought about why, i just know I can see co2 bubbles leaving the beer during an active bottle refermentation and that if open a beer after say 24 hrs or so, there's a bunch of gas and the beer is still flat.

But maybe this is what you're looking for.

"... the solubility of a gas in a liquid is directly proportional to the pressure of that gas above the surface of the solution."

"(A) Low pressure, low concentration of gas solubility. Decreased pressure allows more gas molecules to be present, with very little being dissolved in solution.
(B) High pressure, high concentration of gas solubility. Increased pressure forces the gas molecules into the solution, relieving the pressure that is applied, causing there to be less
gas molecules present and more of it in solution."
 
You should see the bottle refermentations when i package in 3L or bigger bottles. They get a mini krausen in the bottle and the liquid expands quite a bit due to the carb. I fill them warm so I know its not thermal. I have to take that expansion into consideration for cork depth and head space especially on my 9L bottle.
 
But maybe this is what you're looking for.

"... the solubility of a gas in a liquid is directly proportional to the pressure of that gas above the surface of the solution."

"(A) Low pressure, low concentration of gas solubility. Decreased pressure allows more gas molecules to be present, with very little being dissolved in solution.
(B) High pressure, high concentration of gas solubility. Increased pressure forces the gas molecules into the solution, relieving the pressure that is applied, causing there to be less
gas molecules present and more of it in solution."
we may be in agreement here. based on the two states described, the beer is either in a low pressure/low solubility situation; or in a high pressure/high solubility situation - so pressure and solubility of CO2 remain in a constant balance. at no point does all the CO2 jump into the headspace and then later go into the liquid - it's a constant equilibrium where as the pressure in the headspace raises 1 unit, the pressure in the liquid below increases by the same amount.
 
we may be in agreement here. based on the two states described, the beer is either in a low pressure/low solubility situation; or in a high pressure/high solubility situation - so pressure and solubility of CO2 remain in a constant balance. at no point does all the CO2 jump into the headspace and then later go into the liquid - it's a constant equilibrium where as the pressure in the headspace raises 1 unit, the pressure in the liquid below increases by the same amount.

What happend to you being happy to be told you are wrong? ;) Read it again. When yeast makes CO2, it doesn't instantly disolve into solution, it reguires a certain amount of pressure before it will disolve. Decreased pressure allows more gas molecules to be present, with very little being dissolved in solution. This really isn't that different from why you can disolve more sugar in warm water than cold.
 
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