Repitching Brett from a 100% Brett fermented beer

So I brewed a 100% Brett C fermented ESB, which is now fully bottle conditioned. Im wondering what type of shape the Brett in the dregs of the bottle are in. I'm racking a Saison tomorrow and was thinking of throwing a few gallons in secondary then pitching the dregs of this beer.

What Im worried about is if this Brett has become accustomed to fermenting simple sugars and wont be able to attenuate the Saison any further. I may not be wording this properly...

Coff said:

So I brewed a 100% Brett C fermented ESB, which is now fully bottle conditioned. Im wondering what type of shape the Brett in the dregs of the bottle are in. I'm racking a Saison tomorrow and was thinking of throwing a few gallons in secondary then pitching the dregs of this beer.

What Im worried about is if this Brett has become accustomed to fermenting simple sugars and wont be able to attenuate the Saison any further. I may not be wording this properly...

Click to expand...

I get what your saying and I dont have direct experience with it, but I doubt you will have an issue. I'd consider adding some French oak chips in with it to help give the Brett something else to eat and a little oxygen.

I wouldn't be worried about it.

I suspect that won't be a problem. Genetically they are still brett and they still possess the necessary genes to produce the necessary proteins/enzymes for higher sugar metabolism.

Yea that's kind of what I figured, I kept thinking about why you make a starter with DME and not table sugar since with the sugar you're training the yeast to be "lazy". Thought there might be something similar going on. I'll try it out and if I get no action I'll report back.

I have done what you asked several times and with good success.

Just so you know Brett may or may not attenuate the beer any further it really depends on the strain and the current sugars available. A big misconception about Brett is that it needs sugar like Sacc to produces flavor and that is not true. Brett will take the current esters, acids and phenols and depending on the strain transform these to different esters, acids and phenols.

Awesome, thanks for the insight.

No problem. The Brewing Network podcast with Chad Y from Crooked Stave addresses a lot of this.
http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/866

I actually listend to it after I posted this, very informative.

Almighty said:

No problem. The Brewing Network podcast with Chad Y from Crooked Stave addresses a lot of this.
http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/866

Click to expand...

If you can actually put up with all the stupidity of listening to a full Brewing Network show; that show is 4 hours and 8 minutes with only about 12 minutes of content... I used to have a piece of software that would remove the commercials from recorded TV episodes; I wish someone would take the Brewing Network MP3s and just remove the BS stupidity and fart jokes from each episode so we could actually get to the content...

I just can't make myself listen to episodes of the Session any more; it's too painful...


Adam

Brett's pretty resilient. I'd think you should be fine.

I don't know, pitching 2 year old bottle dregs could be risky...

boostsr20 said:

I get what your saying and I dont have direct experience with it, but I doubt you will have an issue. I'd consider adding some French oak chips in with it to help give the Brett something else to eat and a little oxygen.

Click to expand...

Brett will eat the oak? I tossed some oak that I soaked in a mix of vodka and red wine into secondary of a saison and it kinda bubbled and formed a small pellicle. Is it just fighting the air in the wood or is it actually eating something?

Coff said:

I kept thinking about why you make a starter with DME and not table sugar since with the sugar you're training the yeast to be "lazy".

Click to expand...

that rule is for brett's bigger, stupider cousin: sacch