All Brett B Pitching Rates

I got a Wyeast pack of Brett B. I've heard lager pitching rates are appropriate. Has anyone played around with different pitching rates using it as a primary yeast? If so, how did ester production change? Attenuation?

What is the cell count in one of the Wyeast Brett packs anyway? I'm fairly certain I heard it is lower, but want to know exactly so I can calculate for my starter.

I've did a starter w/ wyeast 5112 | Brettanomyces bruxellensis™. Brewed 9/5/09 1.072, racked 11/22/09 1.015. Haven't touched it since. Tasted great, smelled god awful. It's gotta be just about ready to bottle. It's gonna be a great beer.

MikeinAK said:

I've did a starter w/ wyeast 5112 | Brettanomyces bruxellensis™. Brewed 9/5/09 1.072, racked 11/22/09 1.015. Haven't touched it since. Tasted great, smelled god awful. It's gotta be just about ready to bottle. It's gonna be a great beer.

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Nice. How big of a starter?

I don't know about Wyeast, but the White Labs cell count on a brett vial is about 50 million cells per mL, or about 1.75 billion cells.

Can anyone confirm or deny that it's the same for Wyeast?

Ketchepillar said:

Nice. How big of a starter?

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2 liter starter.

The wyeast says they are good for a 5gal batch. They are a bit different from the activator packs.

Wyeast also intends them to be added to a beer that already has sacch in it, and they also seem to be a bit older when you get them

generally i do a 4L starter prior to pitching (if using as a primary strain) and fermentation kicks off kind of normally if a bit slow

As far as brett b goes, it produces a very good beer if used together with 1968

I've done all-brett beers with decent sized starters, and I've done a couple on short notice where I just pitched 2 vials of White Labs Brett. The non-starter all-Brett batches actually turned out just as well. That said, I still try to do a starter whenever possible. There's been a variance in acidity between some of these batches, but I'm thinking it is more related to whether they are given oxygen after the boil or not. (Still playing around with these to get better control over the level of sourness, but all are great so far.)

has anyone seen a significant delay in fermentation when pitching all brett into your wort? how about strange fermentation with no air lock movement at all? a pellicle has formed after 48 hours, but i see no obvious signs of active fermentation...

maybe my 1L starter was just way to small like ryane points out. damn you 4L starter, damn you!!

jessup said:

a pellicle has formed after 48 hours, but i see no obvious signs of active fermentation...

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That pellicle is your obvious sign of active fermentation