Fermenting and Serving a Saison Brett

All, I have been dying to try and make a saison brett ever since I tried Boulevard's version of it, but I have one thing holding me back. Do I need a whole new setup to do this? I have a glass fermenter that I am assuming I can clean out, but what about siphons, kegs, beer lines, etc... Does a solid cleaning get the brett out or will it ruin my other beers if I reuse them?

Thanks

Brett is just another yeast. What kills normal yeast, also kills brett. Just sanitize everything with care and you'll be ok.

I agree. If your sanitation is great, I wouldn't worry about it. However, I do have an extra set of equipment for beers that have Lacto and Pedio in them.

I feel better with a separate set of equipment. Peace of mind that in the end costs about 40 bucks. Search the tales of cross contamination on this site, and I bet you'll feel the same way.

It's only partially the cost, but secondly having to store all the extra stuff and more importantly the pain of having to replace keg lines etc... If it turns into a new regular thing for me then I may go ahead and get a brett set together, but if I can be judicious on this one experiment then that's what I will probably do.

I don't bother changing out serving lines, I clean my kegs, taps, and tap lines regularly because they can build up some nasty stuff that will impact the flavor in the glass. If a few brett/pedio/lacto cells make it through cleaning and get into my glass the few minutes they interact with my beer before drinking will not be something that can be tasted. However, I do have a funk bucket for bottling, different tubes, and don't pitch the funk until the beer gets through primary and has been moved to a glass carboy for funkification.

Jonnio said:

It's only partially the cost, but secondly having to store all the extra stuff and more importantly the pain of having to replace keg lines etc... If it turns into a new regular thing for me then I may go ahead and get a brett set together, but if I can be judicious on this one experiment then that's what I will probably do.

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I have this concern as well. What I ended up doing is saving my "spent tubing" for sours. For example, I use a racking cane 5-6 times for non-soured beers. If it gets a little funky, I'll set it aside, use it once or twice for a sour beer and then throw it away. I use kegs for bottling, they sanitize pretty well.

McKinley said:

I have this concern as well. What I ended up doing is saving my "spent tubing" for sours. For example, I use a racking cane 5-6 times for non-soured beers. If it gets a little funky, I'll set it aside, use it once or twice for a sour beer and then throw it away. I use kegs for bottling, they sanitize pretty well.

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I just started my first all brett beer and this was the route I took. I waited till it was time to replace stuff and instead of tossing the kinda broke racking cane, older hoses, etc, I just made it my dedicated brett stuff. I am an ardent believer that if it came down to it, a weapons grade load of bleach would kill just about anything!

McKinley said:

I have this concern as well. What I ended up doing is saving my "spent tubing" for sours. For example, I use a racking cane 5-6 times for non-soured beers. If it gets a little funky, I'll set it aside, use it once or twice for a sour beer and then throw it away. I use kegs for bottling, they sanitize pretty well.

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Wow; a new racking cane every 5-6 batches. I'm still using the plastic cane I bought 25 years ago. I replace the tubing about every 10 years.

seriously.. 5-6 times for a racking cane? If you clean them after you use them they'll pretty much last forever.

Yeah, using them that little before discarding seems gratuitously wasteful and consumptive.