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ShackNasty

ShackNasty

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I realize there are countless threads on bottling with Brettanomyces and other microbes, but considering the differences in opinion, these things can get confusing.

I think it is almost time to bottle. My gravity reading is down to 1.006 after 4 months. My question is - if I bottle without using any additional sugar, will the remaining 6 gravity points be enough to carbonate the beer sufficiently? I have pretty thick bottles I am using, so am not too terrified about bombs. Thanks!!!
 
Yes, maybe not highly carbed, but nicely. For each .002 it ferments in the bottle, you'll get 1 vol co2. I bottled a 5 gallon batch with 95g of table sugar at 1.006, pinch of champagne yeast, and wyeast Brux. It's been bottled three months and its around 3 volumes. I'll add that the beer was cemented pretty hot and had little residual carbonation at bottling.
 
TNGabe said:
Yes, maybe not highly carbed, but nicely. For each .002 it ferments in the bottle, you'll get 1 vol co2. I bottled a 5 gallon batch with 95g of table sugar at 1.006, pinch of champagne yeast, and wyeast Brux. It's been bottled three months and its around 3 volumes. I'll add that the beer was cemented pretty hot and had little residual carbonation at bottling.
Click to expand...

Awesome. Thanks for the reply. I'm going to give it a try.
 
ShackNasty said:
I think it is almost time to bottle. My gravity reading is down to 1.006 after 4 months. My question is - if I bottle without using any additional sugar, will the remaining 6 gravity points be enough to carbonate the beer sufficiently? I have pretty thick bottles I am using, so am not too terrified about bombs. Thanks!!!
Click to expand...

there is no guarantee that you'll go down to 1.000 or any other arbitrary number. if you're stable at 1.006, that might be as low as you go. if you bottle without priming sugar, your beer won't carbonate.

or maybe your beer will continue to ferment... but who knows where it will stop. 1.004? 1.000? 0.998? you can bottle now and take a gamble on where you end up (and take a chance on under-, perfectly, or over-carbonated beer). or you can wait another few months to be certain that everything has been fermented out, that you've hit your true final gravity - then you can control carbonation perfectly because only the priming sugar will be used for creating CO2.
 
That is a good point, and very logical. I wish I would have thought it.
Just to be clear, my impatience in bottling is not a "man I cannot wait to drink this, hurry hurry hurry" impatience. Rather it is more along the lines of an "I have not been able to brew anything in two months and am going to go crazy unless I do something brewing related" impatience.

With that being said, I bottled the batch into thick-glassed 1000ml swing top bottles two days ago. Just peaked on them and a pellicle has formed in each bottle, which leads to believe something is happening! Though I won't be so rash and haphazard next time.
 
yeah, i get the impatience... unfortunately wild beers require a lot of it. best to invest in another fermenter and get your next batch going and leave this one alone :mug:

the pellicle in the bottles is a reaction to the oxygen the beer was exposed to during bottling. also means that there is fermentation going on in there.
 
Fortunately I have another small volume (1 gal) of a rye saison I pitched a Brett b. starter into almost three months ago. Gravity is down to 1.004. however, this one will be left alone for at least 4-5 months.
 
sweetcell said:
there is no guarantee that you'll go down to 1.000 or any other arbitrary number. if you're stable at 1.006, that might be as low as you go. if you bottle without priming sugar, your beer won't carbonate.

or maybe your beer will continue to ferment... but who knows where it will stop. 1.004? 1.000? 0.998? you can bottle now and take a gamble on where you end up (and take a chance on under-, perfectly, or over-carbonated beer). or you can wait another few months to be certain that everything has been fermented out, that you've hit your true final gravity - then you can control carbonation perfectly because only the priming sugar will be used for creating CO2.
Click to expand...

Well gosh, in your world I guess there aren't any Brett conditioned beers. The FG isn't guaranteed, but it's possible to make an educated assumption and I've managed to nicely carbonate several beers, some bottled still with Brett and others with a small sugar addition. It's not rocket science. You simply won't get get the same flavors from Brett in bulk as you will under pressure in a bottle.

I'm unclear on if the OP has added Brett in bulk or will add at bottling. If its already in there, I'd think you'll see about .03 drop I the bottle, or about 1.5 volumes. If you haven't added Brett and will at bottling, expect it to drop .05 or about 2.5 volumes.

I'll agree with sweet cell that it isn't exact, but it's not hard to my a reasonable guess and erring on the side of low carb is a safe bet.
 

I recently brewed a big rye Saison. Wyeast French Saison took it from 1.062 to 1.005. I am relatively pleased with how it is tasting so far, three weeks after brewing. However, I feel like if I added Brett, it would possibly create something similar to Bruery’s Saison Rue (which I love).

I am thinking about bottling half of the batch with priming sugar, and the other half with Brett Brux. I understand the risk associated with this, but at least I shouldn’t have bottle bombs even if the Brett gets it down to 1.000. I guess the worst thing that would happen is the Brett doesn’t reduce the gravity at all, leaving me with a flat beer.

TNGabe, it sounds like you have some experience with this. What are your thoughts?
 
TNGabe said:
Well gosh, in your world I guess there aren't any Brett conditioned beers. The FG isn't guaranteed, but it's possible to make an educated assumption and I've managed to nicely carbonate several beers, some bottled still with Brett and others with a small sugar addition. It's not rocket science. You simply won't get get the same flavors from Brett in bulk as you will under pressure in a bottle.

I'm unclear on if the OP has added Brett in bulk or will add at bottling. If its already in there, I'd think you'll see about .03 drop I the bottle, or about 1.5 volumes. If you haven't added Brett and will at bottling, expect it to drop .05 or about 2.5 volumes.

I'll agree with sweet cell that it isn't exact, but it's not hard to my a reasonable guess and erring on the side of low carb is a safe bet.
Click to expand...

The Brett for this beer was pitched in bulk approx 3.5 months ago.
While I appreciate having an idea of what to expect, and being somewhat of a control freak, I really don't expect this batch to be perfect in any sense of the word (it is my first sour afterall). This includes the carbonation.
The sediment that has formed on the bottom, and pellicle on top in each bottle gives me a little hope that the troops are still fighting the good fight in there.
 
TNGabe said:
Well gosh, in your world I guess there aren't any Brett conditioned beers. The FG isn't guaranteed, but it's possible to make an educated assumption and I've managed to nicely carbonate several beers, some bottled still with Brett and others with a small sugar addition. It's not rocket science.
Click to expand...

i never said there aren't any Brett conditioned beers - of course there are, Orval being the most widely known example. the difference here is that the brewers at Orval have brewed the beer thousands of times, they have the process down to a science. the OP sounds much less experienced.

TNGabe said:
If its already in there, I'd think you'll see about .03 drop I the bottle, or about 1.5 volumes. If you haven't added Brett and will at bottling, expect it to drop .05 or about 2.5 volumes.

I'll agree with sweet cell that it isn't exact, but it's not hard to my a reasonable guess and erring on the side of low carb is a safe bet.
Click to expand...

yup, and i said as much - you can play it safe and let it ferment out completely, or you can take a chance on under- or over-carbonation. sounds like you've done this before so you know how much lower the beer will go in the bottle, hence how much it will carbonate without priming sugar. that may or may not work for the OP. his/her call. i totally agree with your recommendation of erring on the side of lower carbonation if you don't wait 6+ months for a totally stable FG.
 

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