Carbonating with Brett brux

[Andrewleo]

Hi all,

I currently have a 5 gallon saison in the secondary, brewed with 3711. It's reached its final gravity at 1.003 or 1.004 (it's a little hard to tell). I tasted it, and it tastes pretty good, but I was hoping to split half the batch and get a little weird with it. So I bought 2.5 lbs of raspberries and I'm going to put them in a 3 gallon carboy with half of the beer, and bottle the rest as normal - the main question - I also bought a bottle of Brett brux at the store, and was told I could carb with it. So after about a week of the fruit on the beer, should I just rack to the bottling bucket with the Brett and no additional sugar? Or is this all a bad idea?

 

[Bensiff]

No no never never watch my head shake. I highly do not recommend throwing brett into a sacc beer for carbing. It is completely unpredictable as to what you are going to get. Now, if you used that particular strain of brett during fermentation and you were at terminal gravity, I'd say go ahead. But, take note at what I just said...that particular strain...meaning I wouldn't even brew with one strain of brett and add another at bottling, bottle with a strain that brew already has experienced when it comes to brett. If you don't, then at least do some serious experimentation and keep the bottle stored where they can go boom safely until you figure out what the sacc/brett combo does.

 

[secondbase]

It's hard to say how much the brett will eat. I've had mixed results bottle conditioning with brett, with and without priming sugar. What I can tell you is that at FG of 1.004, even if the brett took it down to 1.000 you would only get 2 volumes of carbonation in your beer (you get 1 volume for every two gravity points). Here is what I would do: bottle with brett and prime just a little lower than normal (I'd probably go with 2 volumes to be safe). Now if the brett consumes those last four points, you'll be at 4 volumes which is highly carbonated but not out of style. You will need to bottle these in thick bottles (orval, champagne, etc) as standard 12oz bottles are not made for this kind of pressure. And lastly, I would let the beer condition for several months before tasting. Brett can be a slow worker and I find that the 4 month mark is where it starts to come together. Nothing worse than realizing you are totally in love with where a beer is when you only have a six pack left. My experience with brett is that your patience is rewarded.