100% Brett L stuck at 1.30--WTF?

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stevehollx

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I thought this stuff was supposed to chew through steel! I give it a nice sugary 1.080 to work with, and it chugs along steady for 8 days and krausen falls after the third week.

It's been left in the primary for 3 months and I took a gravity reading and it's stuck at 1.030. :drunk:

I'm going to build a starter of Brett C to throw in there and see if I can pull this thing down further. If that fails I guess I'll just pitch some T-58 and bottle it at a normal gravity.

Has anyone had a 100% Brett fermentation stick on them?
 
I thought this stuff was supposed to chew through steel! I give it a nice sugary 1.080 to work with, and it chugs along steady for 8 days and krausen falls after the third week.

It's been left in the primary for 3 months and I took a gravity reading and it's stuck at 1.030. :drunk:

How are you checking gravity? Hydrometer or refractometer?
 
Hydrometer, which is accurate. Water still measures 1.000 and it just gave me an accurate/expected reading on a dubbel I brewed last weekend.
 
Hydrometer, which is accurate. Water still measures 1.000 and it just gave me an accurate/expected reading on a dubbel I brewed last weekend.

Ok. I asked because a lot of people who are new to using refractometers aren't aware that readings need to be corrected if they are taken after fermentation begins.

But, if you are using a hydrometer.... nevermind. :D
 
What was the volume of yeast pitched? Those all brett beers need huge starters.

My thought is to rack it to another fermenter (or rack out and rack back in) to introduce just a little oxygen and kick brett into its superattenuative mode. It wouldn't be so bad if it stalled around 1.02 but 1.03 is way too sweet.
 
All-Brett beers act similar to regular beers. 70 to 75% attenuation is normal.

Did you mash high (lots of unfermetables), or use a lot of specialty grains. Just like regular beers, they will leave a sweet beer.

All-Brett beers are not like regular sours, and the yeast is not super-attenuative.

Someone mentioned racking to give some O2. You can give it a try, but I don't think it helps. I do it all the time (to harvest the yeast after a couple of weeks), and it doesn't seem to have moved it.

What results have I had? My latest is at 1.015 from 1.060. I've had a couple similar, and I had one that went from 1.058 to 1.008. All same yeast (WLP650, Brett-B) from the same parent vial.

If you think you have enough fermentables, you can try adding an active starter of another yeast to get it lower.
 
Did you do anything to adjust your pH? Brett tend to like it more acidic. They attenuate so well after a primary on another yeast and the pH drops as well after the primary. Brett alone doesn't tend to ferment enough, I like to use another yeast or a lower gravity and lower pH with a sour mash or acid malt.
Go brew a saison with 3711 and use the cake to finish the brett beer. You already should have your brett character so you just need to finish it out.
 
Brett is only superattenitive(is this a word?) in the presence of pedio. Pitch some bugs and wait 6 more months

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Home Brew Talk
 
Brett is only superattenitive(is this a word?) in the presence of pedio. Pitch some bugs and wait 6 more months

It also has a different flavor characteristic. It depends on what the OP was looking for.
 
So I'm going to pitch a 2L starter of Brett C on top of the Brett L to see if it does anything. If that doesn't do anything, I've got a fresh French Saison slurry I'll try to get to use it to attenuate.
 
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