Brett/Sach Blend - to secondary or not

A couple weeks back I made a saison and pitched the Yeast Bay Saison/Brett blend at 70F. Boy did that vial smell awesome and the fermentation has been great as well!

I wanted to let the Brett work for a while, keeping it at 70F, to develop flavors. But at this temperature should I worry about the Sach, because there's so much of it, dying off and causing off flavors. Since Brett will eat some Sach from what I've read should I do a sloppy transfer to secondary taking some trub with?

This is my first run with Brett so thanks for helping the noob.

i'd just leave it in the primary, it should be perfectly safe, i've gone months without issue. if racking with help you rest easier, by all means do it tho

Thanks. I'm not a worry wort but when I've never done something I like to know I'm safe.

I'll second that. I've left beer on blends for over a year and it's been fine. RDWHAHB.

to offer an alternate opinion, i would rack. brett is indeed good at guarding against oxidation... to a certain point. depending how much air you've got in there, and whether or not you've opened it since fermentation finished, you could have too much O2 in there. racking to a smaller secondary for extended aging will allow you to reduce or eliminate the headspace above the beer.

what is your primary - a carboy or a bucket? if it's a bucket, i'd definitely transfer.

I'm using one of the new big mouth 6 gallon glass carboys. Since I do 5.5 gallon batches plus my OG was a little high so I diluted there isn't a whole lot of headspace. I've opened it once to check the gravity but that's it. Gravity was 1.07 and I'm expecting it to get a bit lower, shooting for 1.04, so I'll probably open it one maybe two more times.

EDIT: LOL, just noticed the gravity numbers. It's at 1.007 and I'm shooting for 1.004 which is was BeerSmith is telling me the FG should be.

sweetcell said:

if it's a bucket, i'd definitely transfer.

Click to expand...

Hear hear. Amen to that.

CreekBrewery said:

I'm using one of the new big mouth 6 gallon glass carboys.

Click to expand...

i believe the verdict is still out on how good a seal those big mouth lids make. i've read one report that they aren't the greatest.

CreekBrewery said:

I've opened it once to check the gravity but that's it. Gravity was 1.07 and I'm expecting it to get a bit lower, shooting for 1.04, so I'll probably open it one maybe two more times.

Click to expand...

the issue with opening up the lid and taking a sample is that you're mixing the CO2-rich environment with O2-rich air from the outside. all this assumes that you have a decent seal from the outside, otherwise that O2 diffusion would have already happened.

but that's me and my concern/paranoia about letting in too much oxygen. other have stated it hasn't been a problem for them. choose your own adventure.

CreekBrewery said:

It's at 1.007 and I'm shooting for 1.004 which is was BeerSmith is telling me the FG should be.

Click to expand...

i wouldn't put too much faith in an predicted FG of a brett beer. wouldn't be uncommon for the brett to take you lower.