Maintaining a Brett culture.

[orangemen5]

I'm planning on maintaining a Brett culture in a 1/2 gallon growler. I plan on using a stopper and airlock on it and feeding it every few months to keep it going.
I was just wondering how much headspace I should leave in the growler. Should I fill it to the top or will it not matter because the Brett will be feeding constantly and producing CO2. Thanks.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

Do you secondary with Brett or have pure Brett? If you are feeding fairly often head space is less of an issue. You might also consider going solera style in a keg.
I have a batch of cider fermenting with just dregs from one orval bottle (no additional Sac pitch(although Orval might have ale and lager yeast mixed in?)). It might be undrinkable with the vast under-pitch, but I guess we'll find out soon enough.

 

[orangemen5]

I don't have a pure Brett culture. Was going to start with some bottle dregs from Stillwater ,Goose Island Matilda,and an Evil Twin all Brett beer.
Not sure what "solera style in a keg" is but I have plenty of extra kegs on hand.
I think Orval is fermented with a sacch strain then filtered and repitched with Brett and sacch at bottling.

 

[oli-aus]

I have just started the same thing in a 2l water bottle with an airlock.
Something I heard on the sour hour podcast is that keeping Brett at fridge temps will tear the cell walls apart (doesn't sound like you plan to do that but I thought it was interesting and un-expected).

Considering you can make really fruity iPas (interaction with hops/ fermenting hot) with Brett as well as clean fermented beers (fermenting cold) and then funky beers if you use it as a secondary yeast, I think it's a great culture to have on hand.
Good luck!

 

[MrFancyPlants]

Simplified, Solera is the mixing of old and new beers.

I had a 15.5G Sankey for a while that I used Solera style for secondary fermentation. I didn't have brett in my solera, but it would be perfect for expediting the brett funkyness.
I filled the Sankey with three 5G batches of the same base beer. Then as needed I would pressure transfer to a 5G corny for a camping trip or party etc.. Then I would top off the Solera with a new 5G batch when ever I had a chance to brew.
On a smaller scale you could do the same thing with a 5G corny, but have a pint every now again to see how it is progressing, and top of the corny with a portion of what ever clean batch you are brewing.

 

[orangemen5]

I've been reading up on solera style sour brewing since you posted this. Sounds like you can have a sour readily available all time once it get going. The Its definitely something I want to try
Thanks for posting this.