The Yeast Bay Amalgamation II

[yoop89]

Longest lag time ever! Is this normal for Brett blends? I made a simple 1 quart starter with some 1.030 runnings saved from the last brew(about a week ahead of time). I would swirl a couple times a day and by this past weekend it was down to 1.015 on brew day. Brew day went well. Ended up with 6ish gallons of 1.049 wort and pitched the whole starter @ 72*F, set the ferm chamber to 74*F.

Next day, no activity(oh well had some longer lag times before).

Day two, no activity, starting to worry the thermometer was off or something went seriously wrong.

Day three, glass carboy, no krausen and no bubbles. Never had a yeast take this long. Tempted to pitch new yeast but this was a competition beer and has to be re-created if it places so I decided to stick with it.

Finally! Checked on it before bed on day 3(72 hours post-pitch) and I had a small layer of krausen. Checked on it this am and had a nice healthy 3" krasuen and the ferm chamber smelled delicious as the starter did.

First time using Brett by itself so wondering if this is what I can expect everytime or did I just get lucky that it finally took off?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Brett is slow. Longer lag time is expected. Fermentation may take 3-6 weeks.

 

[couchsending]

Pretty standard for Brett

 

[yoop89]

I planned for the longer fermentation but didn’t expect the longer lag time. Good to know it’s expected. After looking over the site my starter may have been lacking as well.

Ferm chamber is smelling lovely. Excited to see the progression of this one.

 

[jfolks]

I’ve had lag times exceeding a week with Brett. Miraculously it still makes “not contaminated” beer

 

[yoop89]

I’ve had lag times exceeding a week with Brett.

I dont think I could have made it that long! Very impressive.

 

[jnxbrews]

Initially i'd say the starter process and size for brett is a little off here, you might be okay though. I stepped up Amalgamation II to 2L (did not decant did not refrigerate) over a few weeks and pitched it into 1.052 wort at 75F and krausen started forming at the end of the second day. Mine went from 1.052 to 1.002 in 4 weeks. Grapefruit/citrus bomb. Dry hopped with nelson and motueka and bottle conditioned it.

 

[yoop89]

@jnxbrews , when did you start looking for terminal gravity? Just pulled a sample last night as the krausen has dropped significantly and I wanted to check on it. My sample was @ 1.010, hoping for a final gravity of around 1.004-1.006. 1.006 would give me 85% att. which is the high side of TYB range. Wouldn't mind if it went as low as yours though(thought I was hopeful for 1.006)

 

[jnxbrews]

@jnxbrews , when did you start looking for terminal gravity? Just pulled a sample last night as the krausen has dropped significantly and I wanted to check on it. My sample was @ 1.010, hoping for a final gravity of around 1.004-1.006. 1.006 would give me 85% att. which is the high side of TYB range. Wouldn't mind if it went as low as yours though(thought I was hopeful for 1.006)

I brewed this on 3/1 and it went from 1.052 to 1.010 in 8 days. Krausen only hung around for a day or two and wasn't anything spectacular. The sample taste on day 8 was in a weird spot, some phenols, but crazy big citrus too so I decided to not check back until the end of the month. It was at 1.002 on 4/2 and the sample tasted great. 4-6 weeks has been pretty typical for me for 100% brett ferments, though some cultures take longer- I have another one that is still creeping along at 2 months (TYB184).