What should I expect from Brett fermentation?

I pitched some Brett into a 1.070 ipa. What should the fermentation look like? The Brett was reclaimed from two bottles of victory wild devil. Should there be a krauesen, a pellicle, something else?

A pellicle will form and it may take up to 2 months for it to show up.

Bobby_M said:

A pellicle will form and it may take up to 2 months for it to show up.

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don't be worried if a pellicle doesn't show up at all. a pellicle doesn't always form. sometimes it takes a lil something for the pellicle to get going like oak chips after 8-10 mos. since you don't know if you have brett alone or a combo of bugs like lacto and pedio i would expect to wait quite some time and monitor your SG over the course of at least a few months. the longer the better. if it stabilizes ~ 1.010 then it's all brett and you're good to go. if there's a mixture of bugs it can superattenuate to a much lower SG like 1.000

enjoy the ride

WTH is a pelicle?

jonbomb said:

WTH is a pelicle?

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https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/pellicle-photo-collection-174033/
the nastiest, yet most glorious looking thing in the world of brewing.

so there wont be any krausen then?

everything should look like a normal saccharomyces fermentation until more time goes on, then things get interesting. so....yes....there will be a krausen. if you looks through the link in my post one of the photos is a kiwi brett beer where it started with what looked to be a pellicle, then a full on krausen. it's in the third to last post on page 1.

no real difference in lag time than your average fermentation then? It's been just over 48 hrs now(I know Revvy, be patient), I was just curious cuz of the brett.

i think at this point it's time to direct you to the wild beer section of this forum... https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/

i sure hope you made a yeast starter with your reclaimed yeast and stepped it up. in any event, there will most likely be a greater lag time than any other yeast you've ever used (unless you used one of those bad nottingham batches - similar to that lag time). with brett fermentation you typically wanna prep yeast like a lager, meaning you need a HUGE starter; optimally ~4 liters. go poke around the lambic section and you will probably find all your answers. remember the search function is especially helpful!

I did an IPA recently with all Brett Lambicus. It acted just like Sach, and was very vigorous with a lager-sized pitch rate. No hint of pellicle even after sitting for 2 months in the low 70's in the primary.

Weird thing is the starter had a crazy disgusting pellicle after only a few days.
Once I pitched it into the 5 gallon volume, it changed its characteristics completely. Its very flocculent, medium attenuation, and left a fascinating and very complex ester profile. Flowers, fruit, subtle perfume. No rough barnyard or horsey flavors or aromas.

After about 3 days my ferm kicked off. still very slow, but a krausen is forming. I pitched a 1.5 liter starter(didnt realize I needed a very large one. Probably the reason for the delay)

just looked at that pic thread - GROSS! there is no way i could brew that and drink it. Dont know if this is a good sample of one but i had Left Hand's Sour Beer they did recently and UGH!