Mixed Sacc/Brett Fermentation Timeframe

I just pitched a stepped up starter from a bottle of Allagash Midnight Brett into a gallon of saison wort (pretty low gravity ~1.030). I have no idea of the proportions of sacc v. brett in the starter, but there were probably ~3ml of compact yeast slurry at pitching. Since it's only a gallon I don't want to take a lot of gravity readings, and since I've never done a mixed fermentation like this, I'm curious about when folks think it might be done. I'm prepared to wait, I just don't want to wait 8 months if it will likely reach terminal gravity in three months.

Assuming a healthy fermentation, it should be done much sooner than that. I've done a lot of sacc/brett primary saisons and some have reached terminal gravity in as little as 4 days.

OP: get a refractometer. you only need a few drops to take a reading.

TNGabe: FG with brett in 4 days? that seems shockingly quick. did you let that beer sit around for a few months to see if it went any lower? from 1.030, the sacch will take it down to 1.004 (for example) really quickly, but the brett might take months to chew it down to, say, 1.002. that's a very slow change. for a while it might look like 1.004 is the FG, unless you wait.

sweetcell said:

OP: get a refractometer. you only need a few drops to take a reading.

TNGabe: FG with brett in 4 days? that seems shockingly quick. did you let that beer sit around for a few months to see if it went any lower? from 1.030, the sacch will take it down to 1.004 (for example) really quickly, but the brett might take months to chew it down to, say, 1.002. that's a very slow change. for a while it might look like 1.004 is the FG, unless you wait.

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I didn't take any more hydrometer readings on the bottled beer, but the carbonation level didn't increase over the months it was bottled.

Have you brewed many saisons with both sacc and brett in primary? Highly fermentable wort and highy attenuative sacc won't leave much behind for the brett to ferment. Brett wil never completely exhaust the supply of fermentables and in my experience seems to prefer metabolize flavor compounds to anything left after the sacc has fermented to 95-100% apparent attenuation, but YMMV.

TNGabe said:

Have you brewed many saisons with both sacc and brett in primary? Highly fermentable wort and highy attenuative sacc won't leave much behind for the brett to ferment. Brett wil never completely exhaust the supply of fermentables and in my experience seems to prefer metabolize flavor compounds to anything left after the sacc has fermented to 95-100% apparent attenuation, but YMMV.

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interesting! nope, i have never pitched sacch and brett together. i have only used brett in secondary with my saisons. in fact tonight/this weekend i need to take a gravity & taste sample on a saison in secondary that is 6 months old, i haven't touched it since it was transferred. it was at 1.004 at end of primary so i am curious about what the brett did. i'll let you know.