Stinky Primary over a month

[wulf]

Yeast: Brett cultures from Anchorage's Tide and its Takers + Seizoen Bretta
OG: 1.060
Current Gravity: ~1.010
Week 5 In Primary

At week four there was still airlock activity (1 bubble every 1.5 minutes) and the smell knocked me on my ass. Rotting eggs and sewage and citrus (from the lemon peel addition) and looked like this.

Pitched some sacc to speed it up. It's been over a week and fermentation appears done, but still stinks. Should I leave it in primary longer? Secondary it? Or bottle and hope the smell conditions out?

 

[m00ps]

Dont bottle a mixed fermentation beer that early. Im not sure the sacch will be able to do anything at this point. 1.010 seems high for an FG for a beer like this. I would either warm it up a bit and let it ride longer, or secondarying it may rouse the suspended yeast

 

[Calder]

Since you fermented with brett first, this will not act like a mixed fermentation. You should be ok to bottle.

Have you tasted it. It is not worth bottling if it doesen't taste any good.

 

[wulf]

Thanks for the responses. I will give it a taste and another gravity sample tonight.

I know long primaries are a good thing but this saturday will mark 6 weeks, how long can I leave it in?
I ask because I want to know if I should wait for smell to dissipate, or assume it might condition out after bottling

 

[Skep18]

I'm not an expert as I haven't ever brewed these sours/lambics/etc style beers before but I think these strains take quite some time to develop the beer, like a year. Maybe all this is just an early stage of the process.

Per Wyeast Labs...

Brewing with Brettanomyces Yeast Cultures and Lactic Acid Bacteria

Brewing beer with wild yeast and bacteria adds a new level of complexity to an already complex process. Making beer with these specialty cultures is less precise and much less predictable than brewing with a single yeast strain. The rewards however can be tremendous if a brewer has patience.

The most important factor to keep in mind is that these cultures take time to fully develop and do their jobs. A good lambic or sour style beer usually takes 1 to 2 years to fully develop. The temperature at which the beer is fermented and then stored will play a large role in determining how quickly the characteristic aromas, flavors and acidity develop.

They continue with the following for one specific beer type, but other types in the article follow similar time guidelines...

Fermentation
- Pitch with combined culture.
- Alt or Kolsch ale yeast (Wyeast 1007 or 2565 respectively)
- Lactobacillus (Wyeast 5335)
- 5 parts yeast : 1 part bacteria
- Ferment consistently at 60° for 4-6 days.

Bottling
- Prime with fresh wort (10% saved wort from the main brew) and new Lactobacillus culture. Adding more bacteria is not necessary, but will help to speed the lactic acid production.
- Store at approximately 60°F for 3-18 months (until desired lactic acid level is achieved).

Maybe transfer to secondary or bottle and start the waiting game?

 

[m00ps]

FWIW, ive found if you co-pitch the brett at the start of fermentation you can hit FG and develop brett character quicker than seocndarying with it. I have a brett wit that I got into the bottle in 9 weeks. At 2 weeks, it already tasted like a brett beer. I mightve been able to bottle it even earlier

 

[wulf]

Thanks everyone for the info. My last beer was a saison with brett co-pitched which turned out great, I should have expected an 100% brett to act wayyy different hah.

Maybe transfer to secondary or bottle and start the waiting game?

I'm wondering which one of the two would be best [edit] after reading more it seems there's not even a remote risk of autolysis with Brett. In the primary it stays! I'll check it out at 2 months.

 

[m00ps]

Thanks everyone for the info. My last beer was a saison with brett co-pitched which turned out great, I should have expected an 100% brett to act wayyy different hah.



I'm wondering which one of the two would be best [edit] after reading more it seems there's not even a remote risk of autolysis with Brett. In the primary it stays! I'll check it out at 2 months.

I dont think this is a 100% brett beer. Both the beer you mentioned you harvested from have a blend on brett & other yeasts. Anchorage uses brett & a champagne yeast I think. Not sure on Logsdon but I would guess its Brett and saison yeast. That's why its not finished faster

All my 100% brett beers have been entirely finished at 3 weeks time