My First Bret Beer

[ZenBrew]

For my first sour beer I decided to do it with raspberries and brettanomyces lambicus.

To start, I fermented a basic beer as the base with brittish ale yeast. After two weeks I transferred that beer to the secondary on top of 4.5 pounds of raspberries. I put 6 campden tables in to kill any bugs on the raspberries and let it sit for 24 hours.

At that time I poured the bret lambicus into secondary. It has been 24 hours since I put the bret in and I'm not seeing any airlock activity yet.Is this normal?

Basically, I have two concerns at this point, they are:

1. Did I put the bret in too soon after the campden tablets? It seems like 24 hours should have been enough time to let the campden tablets wear off.

2. I didn't aerate the beer when I put it into the secondary. Did I need to do that for the bret to start fermentation?

 

[SmCranf]

I'm no pro but I have a couple ideas:

1. A good pitch of brett would have taken over any odd bugs that were living on the fruit.

2. I have an Oud Bruin in the back of the closet now, brett is visibly working but there is no airlock activity that I am aware of.

3. This could just be a matter of waiting

Hope it works for you!

 

[ZenBrew]

I tend to agree it is probably just a matter of waiting, but if I did something really incorrect, then I'd like to fix it sooner rather than later!

 

[masonsjax]

I don't know anything about the campden tablets, I've never used them.

You don't want to aerate beer that's already started to ferment. Brett doesn't need aeration but you probably won't see any airlock activity either. Brett yeasts generally work slowly when pitched as a secondary fermenter.

You mentioned this being your first sour. Brett doesn't make a beer sour. You'll need bacteria for sourness, like pediococcus, lactobaccillus, or acetobacter. Alternatively, you can do a sour mash, kettle souring, or use acid malt or lactic acid additions.

 

[ZenBrew]

I'm glad I didn't aerate it then! Good to know about the airlock activity. After some time, I should see signs of fermentation such as the yeast culture on top right?

Good point about this not being a sour. I should have said my first wild organism beer.

 

[masonsjax]

Your British ale yeast will ferment the majority of the sugars before the brett gets started. The ale yeast should show the normal signs. After that, no, you might not see any sign of the brett until you taste the beer months later. Sometimes a pellicle forms, but I very rarely see one myself.

 

[ZenBrew]

Very intersting and informative.

You've been a ton of help! Thank you so much!

 

[fermentology]

There wouldn't have been much noticeable activity from Brett in secondary, besides the formation of a pellicle. Your beer also probably won't be all that sour since you're not using any bugs.