Brettanomyces Lambicus

[porter1974]

I have 10 gallons of brown porter fermenting right now. I am going to take half, mix it with 6 lbs of cherry purée and a few pounds of frozen cherries.

Originally, I was going to rack the beer to another carboy, add the fruit and pitch the Brett. Now, I am thinking about adding the fruit and the Brett to the original carboy.

Does anybody see an issue with this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[RPh_Guy]

As long as there's space for the fruit, sounds good.

 

[porter1974]

It’s my first time using Brett. Do you need a blow off tube with it?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Well, the Saccharomyces you pitched will ferment the fruit sugar. You may or may not need a blow off for that.

The Brett fermentation won't need a blow off; airlock is fine once the Sacc fermentation settles down.

Cheers

 

[porter1974]

Thanks for your help.

 

[SanPancho]

dont be fooled. if you've got a healthy pitch of brett it has no problem kicking up a healthy krauzen and blowing out your airlock. if you made a starter for the brett- be careful with just doing an airlock. if you're pitching it right out of the pack, it'll take a while to get started, and your sach will probably have munched alot of the sugars from the fruit. not so much to worry about in that case.

 

[porter1974]

I plan on making a starter.

 

[RPh_Guy]

dont be fooled. if you've got a healthy pitch of brett it has no problem kicking up a healthy krauzen and blowing out your airlock. if you made a starter for the brett- be careful with just doing an airlock. if you're pitching it right out of the pack, it'll take a while to get started, and your sach will probably have munched alot of the sugars from the fruit. not so much to worry about in that case.

Sure, Brett can form a krausen under the right circumstances.

However, for this beer...
-Even with a Brett starter, the cake still has a lot more Sacc, and Brett is generally slower anyway.
-The amount of sugar in the fruit isn't very much after it's diluted in the beer.
-I've made a starter with Wyeast's B. lambicus and it never formed a krausen.

Still, it'd be safe to stick on a blow off until the fruit sugar gets fermented. If you still have a fair amount of headspace you won't need it.

FYI, making a starter isn't necessary when pitching Brett as a secondary. The flavor is the same and it'll still take at least 2-6 months to ferment and develop.

Furthermore, you might consider adding the Brett now, giving it time to attenuate and develop flavor, and then add the fruit closer to bottling time so it leaves more flavor in the finished beer. Either way is fine though and will be delicious. IMO the B. lambicus I've used has a really good fruity flavor without any actual fruit.

Cheers

 

[SanPancho]

the right circumstances..... you mean water+sugar? doesnt sound like any special sort of circumstances.

its called fermenting. brett is a yeast, and it ferments. it will throw krauzen.

nobody said anything about krauzen in a starter.

 

[RPh_Guy]

 

[SanPancho]

youve been saving that one for a while havent you big guy?
Nothing like being shown up to get the retribution juices flowing. But dont worry, doesnt mean you cant still do the grandstanding.

Carry on.