Saison with bret and white wine lees?

[promontory]

I am going to brew a Saison and add a little bret to funk it up a bit.

I recently had a saison that had been aged in white wine barrels. I have access to white wine lees from a local winery. They were careful not to oxidize after racking as best they could. Thinking about fermenting the saison out then pitching the white wine lees and waiting another week or so... any ideas? Can't find anything about this...

thanks

 

[lowtones84]

Only one way to find out in my opinion! Perhaps make a small batch first to try it out? I would think racking onto lees would give quite a different character than a barrel that white wine was in, but I don't really know.

 

[promontory]

I think so two. I am just trying to impart the white wine flavour. I guess I could rack into white wine...

 

[lowtones84]

Yeah, you could do either. If I was doing it I would still like to try it with a smaller batch personally just to see how it came out. Recently I soaked a wooden dowel in merlot, then cabernet and put the dowel in secondary with something close to a saison, and later it will go into a lambic. I don't know how it turned out though. You could always buy some french oak cubes and soak them in a white that you enjoy, then rack on those.

 

[lpdjshaw]

I did something similar last year. I brewed a Saison then after primary fermentation was complete I split off 2.5 gal and added Brett Brux and some toasted oak chips that had soaked in Chardonnay. I left it for 6 months, bottled with dry champagne yeast and corn sugar then let the bottles sit for another two months. The beer came out fantastic, not as "funky" as I was hoping but definitely has that Brett smell and a little tang to it. I had one bottle after a month and the next one after 2 months in the bottle and it seems to be getting Brettier. I've read that the pressure in the bottle wil also help develop more Brettyness over time as well.
I don't think you're gonna get any Brett characteristics after only a couple weeks, that stuff takes a long time.