Brett C starter going crazy

[Calder]

I just made a quart starter of Brett C from a vial of WLP645 - first step of 2-steps.

Expected a slow start. Gravity roughly 1.030, used cold starter wort (from fridge), and kept at room temp (high 60s). I was expecting it to be several days before I saw any activity, but it is going crazy after only 12 hours.

Plan is to decant and step up to a 4 pint starter, and pitch into a 2.5 gallon batch (I'm splitting an 11 gallon batch between 4 yeasts). The cake from this beer will be used for a 6 gallon batch.

My experience with Brett-B is that it is slow to start, and had expected the same with this yeast. What experience have others had?

 

[djbradle]

No slow start here except for the lag of the first pitch into a starter. I did a one step starter with 1000ml's of a 1.030 wort and the 645 formed a pellicle in 3 days at 66-68f. Shaking and shaking for another 3 days resulted with tons of retained CO2 each time. It was super foamy.

I then pitched the starter after mildly decantation the beer into a 1 gallon bpa of 1.061 at 62f to start and it started with a foamy krausen after 6-12 hours. This yeast as a primary fermentor is almost identical to WY3522 in terms of krausen thickness and reformation after top cropping. Very pleased with it's attributes in this vein.

In terms of smell it's definitely belgian-esqe with muted phenolics and stone fruit esters starting at the mid 60 ferm temp and up to 78f. At that higher temp after 3 days there's not much of a change in smells other than a sulfur component that increased after. Nothing out of the norm as it acts just like sacch so far.