3711 and Brett

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CG2

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I had a chance to try Boulevard's Saison Brett a couple of weeks ago and have been pondering doing my own Brett Saison. My question is when to add the Brett. I have a Saison in the keg now that got down to about 1.002. I can't imagine there's a lot of sugar left for the Brett. Are there any tips on the use of Brett with respect to timing or is just a "dump it in" and wait situation?
 
I prefer to use it mixed with a Sacch strain for primary fermentation. I haven't had good luck using it late in the game. Just isn't enough Brett character for me when added so late unless it ages for a long long time.
 
I have pretty much the exact same situation. I have a saison sitting at 1.003, and I have been thinking of doing my first brett attempt but I feel like there is no sugar there for it to chew on really. I dont want a huge brett character, just medium, and I am able to allow it to age.
 
You are definitely too low to get much Brett character out of your current brew. You can pitch both the Saison and Brett and let them fight it out. You could ferment with pure Brett-it actually turns out very subtle and delicate rather than funky and barnyardy. You can also start it with a Saison strain and then pitch the Brett before you get too low.
My first Brett beer was a Saison using the Dupont strain that stalled at 1030 as it tends to do unless you crank the temps up. I pitched the Brett and it finished it out nice and dry and it was delicious. So I brewed a double batch and fermented half with Dupont-with proper temp control it went right down to 1004-and the other half with straight Brett. Nice big bubbly pellicle on the Brett version and it'll be interesting to compare the two batches and the previous batch of 50/50.
 
I say pitch the Brett no matter how low your gravity is. Brett can consume sugars not otherwise fermentable by normal sac yeast as well as consume by products produced through sac fermentation. Also you could try bottle conditioning with the Brett. Something I do is take a sterile pipette and add 8 or so drops to a bottle, along with your normal priming sugar amount.
 
I am really interested in what kind of flavor characteristics you get from adding to the bottles. How long do you condition them for? What styles have you tried this with?
 
i recently made a saison with dupont + wlp650 brett brux in primary, a big pitch of each. cranked up the heat. 1.066 to 1.001, mild brett character, heavy saison spice. don't know if the brett character will increase with time, but i bottled some to wait and see. definitely something i'll try again with other brett strains
 
I did a saison 80/20 pils/wheat respectively. Used the one pack of wyeast belgium saison and the decanted bugs/yeast from jolly pumpkin bam biere 1 gallon starter. After 3 days in mid 60s I raised the temp to about 85 until fermentation quit. 1.006 fg . About a month total fermentation. I racked to a secondary and purged with co2. I let it ride about 2 weeks. Then opened the airlock and let a natural amount of air in. That was about 2 months ago. I stole some beer out of it carefully and its amazing. Has an awesome pellicle that looks like filmy bubbles that were between a dime and half dollar in size.

Its obviously not soon enough to be at peak but I'm ready to bottle it ( I have a dual keg system but this is more of a 750ml bottle type beer) I figure carb conditioning will take a month and then ill try it. And age accordingly. But so far I'm loving it. And plan on keeping the dregs to make many more sours.
 
Add the Brett in the beginning next time but add it anyway to this. As was already mentioned brett can actually use the acids and esters as a carbon source as well as more complex sugars. I have bottle conditioned beers with brett and had a side by side comparison. The nonbrett version was way more.esters, with a banana phenol flavor. The brett conditioned bottles were much more subdued ester wise and a bit more carbonated.
 
I had a chance to try Boulevard's Saison Brett a couple of weeks ago and have been pondering doing my own Brett Saison. My question is when to add the Brett. I have a Saison in the keg now that got down to about 1.002. I can't imagine there's a lot of sugar left for the Brett. Are there any tips on the use of Brett with respect to timing or is just a "dump it in" and wait situation?

You could always make some wort with some unmalted wheat, rye or flaked oat that you steep in some water and add to your batch after cooling. They won't be fermentable by the yeast but should give the brett plenty of food. In the future you could just add it to the mash to avoid this same dilemma....at least from what I understand thus far in brewing.
 
Thinking about doing a Brett saison, and I have a couple of questions. My plan is to pitch both 3724 and 5526 assuming the 3724 stalls somewhere around the 1.020-1.035 range and the 5526 will take it down the rest of the way. My question is that if the Brett takes 3-6 months to really get noticeable flavor, what harm is there in leaving the beer on the 3724 cake for that long since both strains were pitched at the same time? I've heard other's will pitch just the ale yeast first, let it get close to finishing, rack to secondary and then pitch the Brett into secondary. This seems safer since you're getting the old yeast out of there, but even Wyeast says best practice is to pitch both together. Thoughts?
 
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