working with Brett

I'm currently in the process of making my first "real" beer with Brett. I did an experiment a while back trying to make a gruit with Brett that so far has been a miserable failure, but I blame that on the wormwood. Anyway, for this batch I'm doing a Saison.. fairly straightforward all-grain recipe with a mix of pilsner, vienna, and a little bit of carapils and rye, as well as 1 lb of clear candi sugar. Mashed low at around 148F, and pitched at 65F with White Labs WLP565 Belgian Saison to start, and used a brew belt to ramp the temp up to 80 over a few days. When fermentation started to slow down, I added the 1lb of candi sugar and a vial of Brett Brux. I held this at 80 for a few days and turned the brew belt off.

It's been a few weeks now, and last night I took a gravity reading. It's sitting at 1.011-1.012, and there's still a bit of sweetness right up front. It's not the bone-dry saison flavor that I was looking for. I've read that Brett can take a while to do it's job, but the question I have is does it need to stay at 80+ the whole time, or is it ok to let the temp drop to ambient (low 70s)? I'd also like to get it out of the fermenter sooner than later, it's in a bucket right now lined with a turkey bag, so any issues with moving it over to a keg to let it finish out?

 

Great post. I'm planning a similar process using Brett this summer and look forward to hear how your brew comes out!

 

What, no bog myrtle on hand??

 

Nope, haha. Bog myrtle was one of the things I was looking for, but I went with what Brewmaster's Warehouse had in stock... wormwood, elderflowers, sweet gale, and rose hips. Made a great smelling potpourri, but a terrible tasting beer...

 

Brett can take a looooong time to fully attenuate. Months, in fact. I'd keg it and leave in a corner for a while.

I sometimes add brett to a dark strong ale at kegging after fermenting out with saccharomyces. Last time I did it it took three months to drop from 1.014 to 1.006, and I did not consider it presentable for another three months.

 

I just racked 4 gallons of Biere de Garde on top of a cake of Brett B as well. I definitely plan on lettting it sit for at least 2 months, then I'll probably take 2 gravitys readings ~10 days apart to see if it is safe to bottle or not.


Let us know how yours turns out

 

the 70s will be fine. when brett is pitched late it takes a bit cuz all that is left is the more complex sugars which it takes awhile to chew thru.

 

Awesome, that is exactly the answer I was hoping for. 3 months of sitting in the corner is no problem, 3 months of sitting with a brewbelt on... that I wasn't looking forward to.

 

Ambient temps are fine but you might be looking at 3-6 months, if not longer for brett to finish and arrive at a tasty flavor.