Refermentation with Brett

Hello All,

I have a smoked stout that has finished out around 1.012. Im gettting ready to keg it and it hit me, GET FUNKY
See GREAT ODINS RAVEN in my signature.


So Im going to pull off a gallon or so into its own jug, pitch the dregs from a bottle of Orval and see what happens.

Should I dose any sugar to get the gravity of the funky subset back up a bit? If so would it matter if it were DME/table sugar/molasses etc?

Thanks.

Your yeast from fermentation will end up eating any added sugar before the brett gets going.

Is the jug with an air lock or is it sealed? If it's sealed beware of bottle bombs.

Thanks maida, I under stand that Brett will ferment longer chain sugars that Sacch wont touch. I guess that brings me to the crux of the question how do you deal with bottling a brett spiked beer without bombs?

If the jug has an airlock do I just let brett go at it and then re-yeast (with something neutral like S-05) for bottle conditioning?

Or is it possible to calculate bottle carbonation via my FG using only brett and not get bombs.

Read this thread currently going on right now
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/murdering-yeast-203274/

Couldn't you use campden to kill the brett as well once you get the proper profile and then re-yeast to bottle if you wanted to do it that way?

mazultav said:

Thanks maida, I under stand that Brett will ferment longer chain sugars that Sacch wont touch. I guess that brings me to the crux of the question how do you deal with bottling a brett spiked beer without bombs?

If the jug has an airlock do I just let brett go at it and then re-yeast (with something neutral like S-05) for bottle conditioning?

Or is it possible to calculate bottle carbonation via my FG using only brett and not get bombs.

Click to expand...

I heard a interview with the brewer from New Glarus about this very subject. He said they had to very careful when doing the bottle conditioning.

I really don't have much experience but I think it may take some trial and error. Use strong bottles. The Belgian beer bottles are much stronger then the average American beer bottle. I'd just prime it for 2 volumes. Perhaps the brett will bring it up further to 3 or 4 volumes. A good strong Belgian beer bottle will hold 3-4 volumes.

Are the belgian bottles cap-able or do they have to be corked and caged.

Are there any calculators out there that could figure out how many volumes of co2 brett may produce from a beer that is already at say a 1.012 terminal gravity. Terminal via "normal" beer yeast.

mazultav said:

Are the belgian bottles cap-able or do they have to be corked and caged.

Are there any calculators out there that could figure out how many volumes of co2 brett may produce from a beer that is already at say a 1.012 terminal gravity. Terminal via "normal" beer yeast.

Click to expand...

The smaller 12oz bottles will take caps. I think duvel comes in 4 packs.

I don't know of any calculator. You're gonna have to wing it.

OR

Carb it in a keg and then you have full control of the carbonation levels.

Cork and cage has always been intriguing to me. Is there a source on line for the "mushroom" or "champagne" corks and cages? I have a standard corker for wine corks. Will that work or do I need something different for mushroom corks?

winvarin said:

Cork and cage has always been intriguing to me. Is there a source on line for the "mushroom" or "champagne" corks and cages? I have a standard corker for wine corks. Will that work or do I need something different for mushroom corks?

Click to expand...

I don't know of an amazing deal on them but most big name brew sites will sell them. The biggest hassle with corking mushroom corks is having the right corker. You need to be able to stop the corking process half way through. I have a double handle corker. It was hard to stop the corking and then take the bottle and cork out of the corker without undoing some of the work. I ended up borrowing a friends floor corker.

8:37 if you are a visual person.

Probably takes my corker out of it then. I do some wine on the side to keep my wife happy. I use straight corks with an "iris" style hand corker.

winvarin said:

Probably takes my corker out of it then. I do some wine on the side to keep my wife happy. I use straight corks with an "iris" style hand corker.

Click to expand...

Yeah, mine is the same. Couldn't think of how to describe it though. If you have some straight corks and a bottle, experiment a bit. Perhaps you'll have better luck than I did.

What about the plastic champagne corks? I think those go in by hand and are held with the cage.

mazultav said:

Thanks maida, I under stand that Brett will ferment longer chain sugars that Sacch wont touch. I guess that brings me to the crux of the question how do you deal with bottling a brett spiked beer without bombs?

If the jug has an airlock do I just let brett go at it and then re-yeast (with something neutral like S-05) for bottle conditioning?

Or is it possible to calculate bottle carbonation via my FG using only brett and not get bombs.

Click to expand...

The simple answer is time. Dump the dregs, put it somewhere warm (under 72-75 degrees and Brett gets really sluggish) and forget about it for a couple months. Take a gravity sample. Forget about it again. Another sample. Eventually there'll be very little fermentable sugars left and you can bottle as normal, but still shoot low as Brett's very persistent.

thanks indigi. just to clarify, once the gravity is stable for some months and bottle like normal that includes priming with a simple sugar. yes?