Farmhouse Ale Blend (wlp670) - new equipment?

[thomasjr16]

So I used the farmhouse blend in a saison that I only fermented for a total of about 5-6 weeks and never thought about the Brett yeast contaminating the equipment.

Since its a blend of farmhouse yeast and Brett, should that equipment (fermenter, bottling bucket, tubing, auto siphon) be "quarantined" and not used for future brews since it was exposed to some Brett and could infect future brews?

The bottling bucket was only used for an hour or so but does any amount of contact time warrant separation from other equipment with saccharomyce yeast.

My standard cleaning procedure post fermentation is a good scrub with hot water and then rinse. I then clean/sanitize the buckets before the next use.

 

[edroberts]

Plastic is more porous than glass, so getting a full clean is a bit more difficult. However, Brett will die just like any other yeast using good cleaning methods. That said, a little brett can go a long way if it's not completely knocked out.

Very hot water does a good job of breaking though the protective barrier brett can put up, so that's the first thing I'd recommend if your plastic can handle near boiling temps. Warmed StarSan can also help a great deal in killing off brett. Also a dilute bleach solution can do the trick.

 

[madscientist451]

It depends on your budget. If you can afford some new stuff, go ahead and get it now and mark all the brett equipment in some way. But there have been many reports of people reusing the sour/saison beer equipment and just doing their regular sanitation procedures with no problem.
If your IPAs and Lagers start tasting weird, you'll cuss yourself for being a cheapskate, but then perhaps you won't have a problem.

 

[thomasjr16]

Thanks for the input guys. I was actually planning on an 11 gal batch using my new plastic conical that's on its way but after second thought, I'm just going to split the batch into two bucket fermenters and mark them all "Brett" as Brett since I can't remember which one I used last.

I really liked the results from my first go around so I'm planning on keeping this strain in rotation for a bit.

It's just dumb luck that I thought of this before adding in my new plastic conical and upsizing to 11 gal batches.