Brett Secondary Pitch in Higher FG Beer

[troglodytes]

I'm getting ready to pitch some brett into a 5 gallon batch on of a Belgian Ale. I created a 300mL starter of 1.030 wort and poured it over the dregs of a fresh local nanobrew's unfiltered brett saison. After 4 days there is clear activity and I'm ready to transfer the beer to secondary over the 300mL of brett starter and just let it ride for some months.

The only worry I have is that the Belgian probably has a fermentability down to single digits, but "stalled out" at 1.016. I estimate it has somewhere between 7 and 10 points to go, with sacch, and brett could probably get it lower. I know its been tested that only small pitches of brett are necessary in secondary, but are there enough remaining sugars that I need to worry about getting to FG with such a small pitch of brett? My other option would be to pitch a starter of 3711 at krausen (currently spinning on my stir plate for other reasons) along with brett, but I'd only want to do that if necessary.

Thanks!

 

[jfolks]

No worries! Just rack the beer into another carboy and pitch your Brett.

 

[sweetcell]

yup, the brett will take care of it. that is in fact a lot of sugar for brett. give it at least 6 months.

 

[troglodytes]

yup, the brett will take care of it. that is in fact a lot of sugar for brett. give it at least 6 months.

Ok, I initially figured that just given time, it would eventually complete, but then got worried that maybe such a small pitch would fizzle out before fully attenuating. Thanks for confirming.

 

[troglodytes]

yup, the brett will take care of it. that is in fact a lot of sugar for brett. give it at least 6 months.

Its completely understandable that this beer will not be ready for 6 months with the amount of sugar the brett has to go through. But I'm wondering about bottling timing. I have heard that under pressure (in bottles) the brett expression comes through much quicker than in an unpressurized carboy. I'm also a little worried about evaporation after 6 months in a carboy. Can I bottle this when it hits, lets say 1.010 (probably by next month) with no priming sugar in anticipation that the brett will carbonate it slowly over the following 4 months.

I'm not trying to bottle to start drinking as soon as possible. More so, just want to free up a carboy, minimize evaporation and get maximum flavor in less than a year.

 

[sky4meplease]

From my understanding it only takes a drop in gravity of 1.002 to 1.004 to sufficiently carbonate a beer.
So if your happy with the beer at 1.010 then bottle it up and drink it when its carbonated to your liking but I wouldn't forget about it for too long.

 

[chrilr]

You are really in the dark on fg. You have no previoud beer to gauge final gravity from. That being said, wait till your gravity is stable for a couple months and bottle in heavy glass or keg. I have also noticed Brett expression quicker in 12oz bottles vs 22 oz.

 

[troglodytes]

I am in the dark on FG, but it would seem that my active brett went to town a lot faster on my 1.016 gravity beer than anticipated. I just took a gravity reading and in 5 weeks it dropped from 1.016 to 1.006, where its currently sitting today. I have to make an assumption that the FG will be no lower than 1.000 so if I were to bottle now I could be dropping another 6 points in the bottle which would bring me to 3.9 vols in bottle (way too much).

If I do wait until the gravity drops to stable (lets say 3 months to get to 1.000), should I be afraid of the amount of head space I have and the risk of oxidation? It's currently in a 6.5 gal glass carboy with about 1 gallon of headspace. I taste tested the gravity reading and it already has a fantastic amount of character this early in the game, which was surprising and made me want to bottle even more to ensure no oxidation or creation of acid by the brett occurs. If I'm good to wait, I will, I just don't have an available smaller secondary carboy with less headspace in which to transfer.

Once I have stable gravity, I'd be bottling with priming sugar...correct? Or will the brett consume other compounds as it ages to produce co2?

 

[sky4meplease]

As long as your not mucking around in it too much it should be relatively safe from oxygen being in the glass carboy.
If it smells like vinegar then oxygen intake may be a problem.
You could pasteurize if you think it will be good as is at 1.006.