Brett-B yeast cake question

I plan on brewing my first brett beer, it will be a belgian golden ale.

I am going to do a 10 gallon batch and ferment 5 gallons with WLP500 and the other 5 with 100% Brett-B. My question is after initial fermentation can i rack the 100% Brett to secondary and reuse that cake to transfer the 5 gallons that fermented with WLP500 to give that some brett flavor?

Thanks

They will come out different. A 100% Brett fermentation is quite different than a secondary. The 100% fermentations I've done seem to be a bit cleaner and fruitier, while the secondary Brett fermentations tend to bring out more of the true Brett funkiness. Others have said they've gotten some pretty funky Brett beers with 100% fermentations, so it probably varies quite a bit w.r.t. grist, temperature, aeration, etc.

But I'd definitely bet on different characteristics (maybe subtle, maybe drastic) for the two beers you're planning...which in my opinion is a great thing b/c you can compare side-by-side once they're both done.

That is great, that was the plan to have the same base beer and compare side by side. Should i worry about "overpitching" the other half on the brett cake?

Joetuo said:

That is great, that was the plan to have the same base beer and compare side by side. Should i worry about "overpitching" the other half on the brett cake?

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No, I wouldn't worry about that.

Joetuo said:

That is great, that was the plan to have the same base beer and compare side by side. Should i worry about "overpitching" the other half on the brett cake?

Click to expand...

No, but I'm a fan of saving yeast. Why not pitch part of it and save the rest for another Brett B beer?

I agree with AmandaK you only need a few tablespoons of brett to funk up the wlp500 i would save the rest for another 100% brett beer

I'm thinking you must have watched the Mo Betta Bretta review!

Joetuo said:

That is great, that was the plan to have the same base beer and compare side by side. Should i worry about "overpitching" the other half on the brett cake?

Click to expand...

If you want to get the brett flavor, you should be pitching only a couple of teaspoons of the cake.

To get the brett flavors, you want the brett to be stressed and reproduce under anaerobic conditions. If you over-pitch you will get a lot less brett flavor.

Another vote for just a spoonful or so. Brett seems slow to settle and clear. No need to stir up that whole cake when it's not needed.

Ok seems the consensus is just a little bit of the brett cake. This will be done in a carboy as i don't have any buckets, what is the best way to get a couple of spoonfuls of the yeast cake out?

If you don't just tip it and dumped, you could suck a little up in a tube.