Slow carbing with brett...

[coldrice]

Bottled a brown ale that experienced a 6 month long secondary with brett in an oak barrel. been in the bottle for about 1 month+ and the cap makes a very small hiss when pried off but doesn't seem to be gaining any speed. is popping off the caps and adding a brett starter to each bottle stupid/futile? Was hoping to enter it in the competition of competitions next month. it tastes great, just chock full o sugar and not ready... arrgghhhh

 

[robtotten]

Did you add yeast when bottling?

 

[coldrice]

Admittedly, no. Therein lies my stupidity because on bottling day and several days leading up to that I was even thinking, 'you know, I should add some brett at bottling like Orval does.' Lo and behold, here I am.

 

[SickTransitMundus]

Brettanomyces can take a VERY long time to attenuate fully. It took 6 months to grind my last bretted quad from 1.014 to 1.006 (!). If I recall correctly, Orval doses with brett and ale yeast at bottling to speed up the carb.

You've clearly got some active yeast left, since you're seeing minimal carbonation. It'll just take a while to finish.

 

[robtotten]

You could try carefully opening a few bottles, sprinkling a tiny bit of ale yeast in, and recapping. Check those in two weeks! They'll give you something to periodically sample while you wait for the rest of the batch to carb.

 

[coldrice]

really, ale yeast? not more brett? its 11.67% alcohol in there, too. not a real friendly enviroment for most ale yeasts...

 

[Teacher]

Many strains of ale yeast will do just fine in that environment. You could also add champagne yeast if you're worried about that.

 

[coldrice]

will the ale yeast not add flavors that i never desired in the finished product?. being that the idea was to finish with the flavor of brett, this is a concern for me. if i add more brett will it not even help speed the process? i understand that it works slowly, as i have witnessed myself, but it has been my thought that a higher population will work more quickly.....