Brett and Bottle....or Bulk Age, Brett and then Bottle

I am making a Goose Island Matilda Clone with US05 that I plan to add Brett to. I typically keg but here is my question. If i was going to bottle it, would you add the Brett and corn sugar and bottle or would you bulk age on the brett then bottle. Just trying to determine the best course of action.

I did a random search on the forum and found a bunch of different answers. It looks like most people recommend that you Brett and bulk age....but because of that its better to keg then bottle....or they recommend you use champaign bottles due to the fact the bottles could become bottle bombs at some point.

I have thread somewhere about GI Matilda, I am working on some right now. What I am going to do is one month in primary and three months in a secondary (brett). This way the gravity will be low enough I will have no concern with bombs, plus my thoughts are that GI condition the beer in the bottles, so when in roman kind of thought.


https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/goose-island-matilda-287272/index3.html

Thanks Gear...I think I used part of your recipe for inspiration....our grain bills are pretty close.

I did 11lbs of Pale Malt 2-row, 1 lb of Caramel/Crystal 20L, 12 oz Caravienne Malt, 4oz Special B Malt,

60 min .5 Styrian Golding
45 min 1oz Saaz
15 min 1 oz Cascade
5 min .5 Styrian Golding

I will let you know how it turns out.

I recall reading that Brett in the secondary will create more tartness and adding brett to the bottle is less tart, but more effervescent. Not sure that is correct, but I read it on the internet, so it must be true.

I'd be interested in hearing more about this too. I brewed...something...on a whim, think I used wlp500 for the main yeast and pitched the harvested and stepped up dregs from a weizenbam. This was about 3 or 4 months ago. Nice pellice has formed but I'm skerred to pierce it to taste, but wondering if it's bottling time or what.

Remember that Brett can be incredibly attenuative, so if you add it at bottling, be sure to compensate for the amount of priming sugar. If you plan on aging for any significant time, you could end up with some nasty bottle bombs as the Brett works its way through any and all remaining sugars.

Yep thats what I am debating how much to prime them with.

I think I am going to just save up Belgian Bottles and cork and wire tie these bad boys...then I won't have to worry as much.

It depends on the fg. Assume that the brett will take the beer to 1.000. Ive done this to some saison bottles fg around 1.006 with 3724. Delicious but the bottles are well above 3 vol after 5 months.

I aimed for just under 3 vol with the priming. Close to 2.75 i believe

dcott said:

Remember that Brett can be incredibly attenuative, so if you add it at bottling, be sure to compensate for the amount of priming sugar. If you plan on aging for any significant time, you could end up with some nasty bottle bombs as the Brett works its way through any and all remaining sugars.

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it is when pitched with other bugs, but not by itself.

eastoak said:

it is when pitched with other bugs, but not by itself.

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Brett attenuates very well all on its own. Over time, it will eat almost anything. It will even start metabolizing alcohol. That stuff about brett only being superattenuative with bacteria is only true because you increase the different ways food sources are being broken down and its getting broken down faster. One thing in beer brett doesn't do a good job of metabolizing is protein but bacteria often can, so when you have bacteria breaking down proteins to component pieces brett will eat them. But brett will break down complex sugars and starches on its own, as long as you give it enough time.