Brett Lambicus

[crookshc]

Have a question for you wild ale brewers. This is my first attempt.

I brewed a Belgian Dubbel recipe in May of 2014. Mashed high, and used WLP500 in primary. After a few weeks, transferred to secondary and pitched a vial of brett lambicus and a couple oak spirals. I pitched another vial of brett lambicus a month later.

For the last 7-8 months, the gravity has hung at 1.024. There is some brett funk, and no acid. It's really good, just way to sweet, and I can't bottle for the threat of bottle bombs.

I'm planning to pitch some champagne yeast to finish this sucker.

Question - There is zero oxygen left in this brew, which the champagne yeast will need. Knowing that brett can turn a beer to vinegar if enough oxygen is present, should I hit it with a small amount of oxygen? Or should the champagne yeast be able to power through on its own?

Any other advice?

Thanks!

 

[MileHighBrewer]

Your gravity should've been lower just on wlp500 alone.

What temp is it/has it been at?

 

[Sarge]

I'm not so sure the champagne yeast will help you. Most of the simple sugars are probably gone.
How high did you mash? Maybe to many unfermentable sugars remaining.

 

[crookshc]

Mashed at 162. OG was 1.070.

WLP500 brought it down to 1.030 in two weeks then crapped out.

Since racking, I've kept it in the warmest spot of the house. In winter, this was about 70 degrees, in summer, it has gotten up to 80.

Even though the Brett dropped it another 6 gravity points, I'm still nervous that it's going to pick back up in the bottle. 1.024 is a huge gravity to bottle with brett.

Thoughts?

 

[IslandLizard]

I agree the WLP500 should have attenuated this. Maybe there is way too much dextrin, although mashing at 162F is not crazy.

My feeling is the Brett needs more time, it's a slow worker, and if anything can do pull this off, it's Brett. Perhaps pitch another Brett strain or better yet, some Brett dregs (no bacteria) and see what happens in the next 6-12 months. As long as you keep oxygen out (flush headspace with CO2), and prevent souring bugs from entering, it only gets better with time.

 

[MileHighBrewer]

I agree, you are in for a long haul. Most of the time we are asking brett to do cleanup work on 5-12 points, 20ish is asking a lot. Especially in a fairly high abv environment.

Champagne yeast will do nothing here. Maybe, if it has not budged in another 2-3 months, pitch a starter of wlp099 or a sachet of cbc-1 to finish off more. Its always a risk with bottling brett...but i think you will end up with enough booze to severely hamper its feeding even if you make it to like 1010

 

[beergolf]

How are you taking the reading to get 1.024? Refractometer or hydrometer? Recipe? mash temp?

I would think it is almost impossible to be at 1.024 with that yeast and 2 vials of brett. It should be quite low actually.

 

[passedpawn]

[duplicate threads merged]

 

[crookshc]

Thanks for the input - I think MileHighBrewer is right. Long haul it is. I'll see where it ends up towards the end of summer, and maybe hit it with some high grav yeast. I hadn't heard of the cbc-1 before - I'll likely give that a shot.

 

[Calder]

Champagne yeast will do nothing.

The brett is still building its colony. It goes slow in an anaerobic environment. It will keep working for 18 to 24 months. Bottle now and you will have bombs.

You will not get acid/sour with brett.

 

[lowtones84]

I'm guessing you wanted extra sugars for the brett to work on, but mashing at 162 is incredibly high. Even with my English mild where I want a lot of residual sugars, I mash at 158. Dubbels are generally pretty dry in my experience, so next time I would mash much lower. Low 150's or upper 140's.

As for now, I think you're in for the long haul as others have said. The Brett is going to take a while to do it's thing.

 

[allouez86]

Next time mash between 148-152.

 

[Devils_Chariot]

In my understanding Brett needs some O2 expsoure to produce acetic acid. SO I would ad a new pitch of brett with 500 mls of a 1.020 starter wort. Let it eat through the starter. Then shake the starter to get some o2 into it. Add the brett starter and keep it in the 70s.

I used this on a a bier de garde that stopped at 1.022. It ground it down to 1.006 in 5 months at 68F.

 

[rcsoccer]

Mashing high is normally suited better for sour beers where you add some Lacto or Pedio. Brettanomyces doesn't really go for the real complex sugars like the bacteria do. I think a good idea would be to pitch some bottle dregs from commercial beers that are 100% brett fermentation. The strains available to commercial brewers are vastly different than the ones available for homebrewers. To quote Michael Tosmieire, "Bottle dregs are yeast/bacterial strains with a resume." They are more robust and hardier because they have been exposed to a beer environment for longer. Try something from Crooked Stave if you can. Chad makes some great beer. You get a free beer with your yeast purchase!

Cheers!