brewing with brett

[Just_another_drunkard_666]

Ok, so this is my third biab all grain. Third beer ever actually. It's been hot as hell where I live so I figured it would be a good time to get a little funky and brew up a saison. Found a recipe I liked hit the brew shop. Local shop owner asked if I wanted to go traditional or off the rails a bit. I said screw it, let's go off the rails. Experimenting is part of the fun right? So he gave me this from escarpment labs:


New World Saison

A new world Saison blend containing Saccharomyces and Brettanomyces to produce a fruity, funky beer with rustic charm. Brett character increases during aging. NOTE: the Saison yeast in this blend contains the STA1 gene, meaning it is a diastatic yeast. Many Saison yeasts are diastatic, due to the desire for very high attenuation levels. However extra care must be taken to ensure these yeasts do not cross-contaminate non-diastatic yeasts. Contact us for more information. Attenuation: 80+% // Optimum Temp: 20-25ºC (68-77F) // Alcohol tolerance: 12% // Flocculation: Medium



I didn't think too much of it, sounds cool. Brewed it last night, it's bubbling away. Now I'm reading about diastatic yeasts and brett and couple sites are suggesting that any tubing/fermentors/air locks it comes into contact with are compromised and should be used for only that or tossed? Is this just paranoia? I mean, I'm kind of surprised my local shop didn't warn me as he is aware I'm a novice. Or is this just novice paranoia again. Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated.

 

[khannon]

Glass or stainless can be easily sanitized.. I use bleach, and rinse well, and give it plenty of time to dry.
Pail fermentors are cheap, and it is probably best to dedicate it and pick up a new one. Airlocks and tubing are the same. Still clean and sanitize, and just mark them sour...
I did the same with a bottling bucket and wand.

That being said, as long as you are diligent, and clean/sanitize everything, you should be fine.

 

[RPh_Guy]

First, you know this is going to be fermenting a while, right? Like maybe 2-8 months to reach stable final gravity.

Sanitation is important with these yeast types because a just few cells can cause problems in "clean" batches.

Diastaticus var and Brett die to StarSan and other sanitizers just fine. That said, if your sanitation isn't up to par, then you'll have problems. The general suggestion is to keep separate plastic & rubber pieces specifically for these types of beer. This is because plastic is more difficult to santize due to microabrasions and/or biofilms.

I'm kind of surprised my local shop didn't warn me as he is aware I'm a novice.

Yeah, not very nice :/

 

[Just_another_drunkard_666]

First, you know this is going to be fermenting a while, right? Like maybe 2-8 months to reach stable final gravity.

Nope sure didnt. I did understand a saison would take a while but never even considered that long. Just wanted to take advantage of the heat. Gotta say im more than a little bummed out but its fermenting now, nothin i can do but wait.

Guess ill have to collect some more equipment and make something more simple in the mean time.

 

[RPh_Guy]

It'll be worth the wait! Take care to protect it from oxygen.

 

[Just_another_drunkard_666]

It'll be worth the wait! Take care to protect it from oxygen.

Thanks. I suppose racking to secondary in a week or two and forgetting it exists for a while is à good course of action?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Thanks. I suppose racking to secondary in a week or two and forgetting it exists for a while is à good course of action?

You probably want it in glass, stainless, or PET (HDPE isn't the best) during aging.
Yeah, try to forget about it for a few months. Just make sure the airlock stays full.

 

[Just_another_drunkard_666]

thanks for the advice. Probably brew something else up next week to keep things going. cheers.

 

[Amadeo38]

I wouldn’t be bummed - you’re going to get bit by the bug early, pun intended. This beer will be fantastic, in about five months IME. If you’re a sour/funk head already, you can also start pitching bottle dregs into secondary from sour beers you really like.

What was your recipe? At what temp did you mash your BIAB? If it doesn’t have super funky character before you rack to secondary, I’ve heard of people doing a small steep of Special B malt to give the Brett something to chew on and increase the funk. If your beer was low mash temp and primarily highly fermentable malts, the funk may be a bit subdued.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Brett is very similar to sacc: yeah it needs some attention to avoid cross-contamination, but good cleaning and sanitation practices should keep you sitting pretty. Don't let some scare you into thinking it's the boogeyman that they're making it out to be. Now, true bugs... that's a different story.

 

[Just_another_drunkard_666]

What was your recipe? At what temp did you mash your BIAB?

Planned to follow this pretty much exactly:
https://www.themadfermentationist.com/2009/11/hoppy-french-saison.html

cut it down to a 10 L batch because my stove is not ideal for large batches.

2.33kg belgian pils
.31kg german wheat

Grabbed 100g saaz so upped that a little.
1.25 saaz 60
1.0 saaz 5
1.25 saaz 0

However at the shop he must have misread my grain bill because i had an extra 1kg grains when I got home.(making a total of 3.64kg grains, not the 2.64 listed above)
It was all ground together couldn't tell which one I had received extra of, so I figured I'd just stick with 10L and make something higher gravity.

OG: 1.072 1.073 ish.

Mashed at around 64c (148F) it dropped a little halfway i had to heat it a little, jumped up to about 51 for a little.

I was also fairly drunk while doing this which probably didn't make the situation any easier.

Also boiled for closer to 90 because I felt there was too much in the kettle. I keep having problems with my water calculations. I'm always off by a L or so in either direction. Need to hone this in. 9L in the fermentor.