Brett L. fermentation question for 100% Brett L. beer

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asterix404

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So I did my first 100% Brett L. beer. I made a starter because the amount that I got from white labs was tiny. I first made a 1/2L to pitch the yeast, saw bubbles etc. and let sit for a week. I found a beautiful yeast cake on the bottom and I wanted to re-energise the yeast before I pitched so I added another 1/2L of liquid. Off it went for about 4 days and by the time I was ready to pitch I had a lot of yeast cells.

It took off and within 12h I had about a 1.5in layer of kaursen and it was bubbling like mad. That was about 18 days ago. Currently there is still some bubbling, once every 10 or 15 minutes if that but there is still about 3/4in of kaursen. I heard that this is a very slow fermenting yeast and I know I didn't under pitch it with the near instantaneous start, but is this something to be concerned about? Should I give it another 3 or 4 days before I start shaking it? It's currently in a glass carboy so checking with a hydrometer is difficult at best and I don't really want to do it.

My rule has always been to wait until the kaursen settles, does that happen with the Brett L. eventually or is it getting to the point of just racking it?
 
I don't have my notes in front of me, but the last 100% brett L beer that I made took something like two months to go from 1.065 to 1.008.
 
Ahh, in that case then, did you rack it at all? There quite a lot of stuff on the bottom of mine. Did you just leave it in your primary for 2 months? I don't think that's so bad since I don't expect any yeast to die within 2 months, I am just curious what to do.
 
I know this question might be a bit off topic, but how funky do these Brett L. only beers come out? Do they at least get moderately sour?

This info would help me out tremendously as I'm thinking about brewing up a Brett L beer to blend with another batch I have going that has a nice lactic sourness but lacks the funk I'm looking for.
 
This is the first one I have ever done. I think it should get a good amount of funk and sour as I read it should take about 6 months to reach full maturity. I am going to keep in the primary until the kaursen falls, rack it to the secondary for about a month or two and bottle. In the bottle it should get better. I will tell you how funky it smells when I transfer it.
 
It's not going to get sour. Some strains of brett can produce some acetic acid in the right circumstances, but if you want a sour beer you're going to have to add lacto and pedio.
Now funk, that's a whole other thing. Brett L beers will definitely get funky.
 
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