My attempt at Brett

[thedisasterparty]

Hey guys. 6 months ago I made a sasion. I fermented it down with White labs Saison I yeast. After fermentation i transferred it to a secondary and dumped in a vial of Brett Brux Trois. I then ignored it. When i came back to it in 3-4 months I noticed that it didn't really look like it formed that layer on top that bug and brett beers are supposed to. I then came back in 2 months and noticed that it looked the same, even though the temp in the house was warming up over the past couple months. I finally took some out and tried it. There seems to be very little sour taste, although there is a acid like smell. It's mostly dry and ends a bit dull, almost with an off flavor.

Should I give it more time? Should i just do primary with Brett? I'm not sure why i'm not getting a more wild flavor.

 

[tally350z]

Give it more time. Put it in a dark corner and come back after another 8 to 10 months.

 

[sweetcell]

what is the current gravity of the beer? if it's dropped since you first moved it to secondary, then you know the brett is at work in there.

brett doesn't automatically create a pellicle. it will make one only in the presence of oxygen. if your secondary doesn't have any O2 in it (ex: during racking you kicked up CO2 in the beer, and it pushed out all the O2), then you won't get a pellicle.

brett, on its own, will not give you sour. it'll give you funk, barnyard, mustiness, etc... but not sour.

 

[mkeckjr]

As sweetcell says, brett does not sour a beer. When used after primary fermentation has completed brettanomyces will feed on sugar and esters and produce what is often referred to as a "funky" flavor that has "barnyard" characteristics. These characteristics tend to show up in the beer on the order of 3-6 months.

If sour flavor is what you want, you should use microorgasms like lactobacillus and pediococcus, possibly in conjunction with brett. Those will give you the acidic characteristics you think of as sour (lactic, acetic). Depending on the bugs you use, and how you use them (e.g. if you use them with saccharomyces), this could take a very long time to develop sour flavor, on the order of 1.5 to 2 years. There are a lot of posts on making "fast" sours like Berliners via sour mashes.

If you use Brett as the only yeast in a primary fermentation, you will not get the traditional funky brett flavor in the beer (at least not for a very very long time). I have used WLP644 and WLP650 as primary strains and they just produce ale-like beers. 644 is quite a bit fruitier, 650 is pretty clean. If you do this, pitch at lager rates, not ale rates, but ferment at ale temps. Reading your post, if you want sourness, this will definitely not give you that.

 

[sweetcell]

Depending on the bugs you use, and how you use them (e.g. if you use them with saccharomyces), this could take a very long time to develop sour flavor, on the order of 1.5 to 2 years.

it can take that long, but that's really on the long side. lots of folks get decent sours in 9-12 months. pedio is the one that takes a long time, and you definitely want to use brett with pedio since pedio leaves some nasty diacetyl that the brett will eat up.

lacto will sour a lot faster than pedio, however it can't deal with hops... generally you need to keep IBUs under 10 or 15. this is why lambic brewers use aged hops.

 

[thedisasterparty]

Thanks for the info guys, I guess I learn something every day. I think beers like bolavard's brett (which is sour) gave. me the wrong impression on brett. Would you recommend that I aerate it at this point (6 months in) or is it wayyyy to late for that. And what temp should I try to keep it at?

 

[sweetcell]

yes, too late to earate. you'll likely end up only oxidizing the beer.

brett likes it slightly on the warmer side, like mid to upper 70's. but it will work gfine in the 60's. supposedly Russian River age their brett & sour beers in the low 60's.

 

[Polboy]

As a side note I'm fermenting my first sour beer and it is a split batch inoculated with white labs 655 and wyeast roseale after primary fermentation with regular yeast, i added bugs in october 2012, white labs is acid sour (like WTF sour) when wyeast is very dry and complex, I never had such a different beers from split batch