Brett character when added at bottling

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nberk

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I have a 5 gallon batch of saison fermenting now that I pitched WY3726
(a Seasonal Saison yeast). I'm going to bottle the majority of this
clean, but would like to add some Brett to some of the beer. My
question is do you believe there is a difference in the resulting
Brett character in a beer bulk aged with Brett versus doing an
inoculation at bottling and then allowing the beer to age in the
bottle?

I have some Belgian blonde that I did a Brett inoculation (WL650; B. brux) at bottling
and the change in the beer is quite pronounced, but I feel the Brett
character to be somewhat one dimensional. In comparison I have a
Saison that was brewed using WL670 that was bulk aged. This beer does
have some noticable Brett character, but it's got a fuller flavor
profile and more depth.

There are obviously several other variables at
play when comparing these two beers. But it did raise the question in my mind if the one dimensional character of the Funky Bel blonde may be in part
due to the difference in when the Brett was inoculated.
 
The difference you are likely experiencing is the difference between brett in primary fermentation, and then just brett for bottle conditioning. The level of character would depend on the level of attenuation by your sacch yeast. The main difference I've found over time is that brett will reduce and reuse esters of the sacch yeast when just using brett for bottle conditioning. If there's decent extract remaining then you'll get high carbonation.
 
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