brett starter issues

i made a thread on the wild brewing section and didnt get any help, so i am trying here.

made a 1L starter on 2/12 with wlp645, i was planning on brewing on 2/15 (tomorrow). although i read right after i made the starter that brett starters need 7-8 days...?

I am curious if i should wait until next weekend to brew (2/20-21)?

I am not seeing a single sign of activity in the starter, no bubbles, no pellicle; just separation.. starter is in my closest, 68-74 throughout the day. i dont have a stir plate so i will 'stir' it 4-5 times a day.

any help or suggestions is much appreciated. i dont want to pitch this into 5 gallons of wort and not get any activity.

 

I can't help you except to bump the thread back into the newest threads window. I have to say that I had my very first brett beer from Dubina Brewing which is a craft brewer here in AZ. They were at the Brewers Bowl last weekend in old town Scottsdale.

Man what a nice beer that was and a super nice guy. I can see why you would go to the trouble to get one going. Good luck.

 

Ive found that brett had a very different fermentation phase timeframe than sacch yeasts. I would definitely wait until you see significant activity that your starter is growing. 1 week seems about right to me. I usually starts small, then bump it up to my full starter volume.

Are you doing all all-brett beer? if so, Ive read you usually need lager-rates for pitching so I always do a slightly larger starter for my 100% bretts for insurance.

I had a topic about how weird the fermentation of a brett starter can be
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=569834

 

Keep in mind the Brett vials have a much lower cell count than the sacc vials. So yeah, wait until you see activity and maybe step up your starter again before you brew.

 

Starter times for Brett are typically a week; they have a different growth cycle. I would wait.

 

I direct pitched my first ever brett beer and let it ride. Beer dropped to 1.004. You don't always need a starter and you could just let it ride but anything is better than nothing I guess. Even waiting 2 days of shaking it will get more oxygen in there and get something going. You could always check gravity and see if there was any activity before brewing. A second option is to brew then when the starter shows activity pitch it.

 

Thank you all for the help. Saw my first signs of activity last night, will have to step up this weekend.

 

Very cool! What kinda brett?