1 Gallon 100% Brett

[rubyroo]

I am looking to try my first 100% Brett fermentation. I will probably use WLP650. I'm wondering if the vial will be enough to inoculate 1 gal of wort at 1.050 - 1.060 or if i should prepare a starter?

 

[mredge73]

From WLP website:
General Use of Wild Yeast for Primary Fermentation:
- General brewing pitch rates apply for primary fermentation
- Our general recommendation is 1L per 1-1.5BBLs
- Fermentation timeline will be slower – closer to 15-21 days depending on the strain


Following this you need 22ml-33ml per gallon, check my math.
General yeast pitching rates call for roughly 35B cells per gallon, each vial contains 100B cells brand new.
You need about 1/3 of the vial, I would probably use 1/2 just to be on the safe side as the vial contents do degrade over time.

 

[Morrey]

I am looking to try my first 100% Brett fermentation. I will probably use WLP650. I'm wondering if the vial will be enough to inoculate 1 gal of wort at 1.050 - 1.060 or if i should prepare a starter?

Like mredge73 suggested with his math, one vial will certainly be more than adequate, and you can likely only use half and be fine. If I remember correctly, your Brett is in a screw lid vial making it easy to use half and simply recap the vial for another gallon later on.

IF YOU DO end up making starters with Brett down the road, it is highly recommended to do a long, slow starter to prevent the development of acetic phenols that will have a vinegary smell. I make 1L starters for a 5G batch by using a short stir bar and spinning it so slowly it barely makes a dimple vortex. I let it spin close to a full week or at least 5 days.

 

[jfolks]

White labs Brett vials are a rip off - they only contain 2 billion cells (white labs Brett pitch rates are designed for secondary Brett fermentation - which only requires a small amount). Wyeast provides 80 in their Brett packs - so that's a better bet. Or make a starter. Or just underpitch! Brett is very forgiving

 

[rubyroo]

Thanks all for the information.

I will look into the volume of cells on the WL vile and also look into Wyeast smack packs.
Knowing what kind of pitching rate I should aim for will be helpful and I can make the calculations based on cell count at packaging and the age of the package.

 

[SanPancho]

brett primaries are mostly the same as sach. more yeast/less ester and less yeast/more ester, ceteris parabis.

one big difference is that brett moves pretty damn slow vs sach. so be very careful about sanitation if you're gonna underpitch. it can take as much as 5-7-10 days to hit krauzen if you underpitch to generate esters. oxygen helps speed things up, just like with sach. dont be afraid to add o2. it helps.

and in general, brett primaries dont spit out as much brett character as when brett is in secondary. since theres a ton of food and no competition brett has no stress and less ester production.

lastly, think about where you want to end up. brett can eat all the way down to under zero, i.e. 0.996 FG. its crazy.

long story short, for one gallon, a white labs vial is fine.

EDIT- sorry, forgot to mention as noted by other folks that you should still make a small starter for the brett. not so much to build up cells, but at least to get it active and moving again. it is a slow mover after all. even 100ml of starter is fine, you just want to wake it up and get it moving.

 

[rubyroo]

I'm okay with less esters. I would like to see it ferment about as quick as Brett can. (21 days or so?). I am going to buy a commercial culture in the next few days. For the time being I am working on culturing up some bottle dregs of Anchorage / Jolly Pumpkin. I really need to invest in a stir-plate.