Hello all just bottled an old ale made from the wyeast old ale blend. I had the beer in a 6.5 gallon glass carboy that I left in my closet for 7 or 8 months. OG was 1.07, after a week of fermenting the beer was down to 1.010. I also added some oak cubes as I have heard brett can eat that too. I used a carboy hood with airlock and flushed with CO2 every few months. I tested a sample and the beer was down to 0.998! From reading online Brett is not supposed to be a super attenuator so did something else get into my beer and make it attenurate this low? I have a lambic going next to it but I have no reason to think they got cross contaminated. The beer does not taste sour but does have some definite fruity funkiness so I am pretty sure the brett did its work is this normal for it to take a beer down this low? It has been sitting at that gravity for a couple of months so I figured it was safe to bottle. Tastes really good and surprisingly not thin even with that crazy low gravity.
Super attenuation from Brett?
- Thread starter jtejedor
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Suthrncomfrt1884
Well-Known Member
I've never seen brett go that low...but I haven't done a ton of "all brett" beers. Also, the brett doesn't feed off oak, it feeds off the oxygen that is introduced because oak is so pourous (sp?). Since you had your carboy sealed with an airlock, the oak just added flavor. It's possible that it had some other bugs on it, though.
ReverseApacheMaster
Well-Known Member
Brett can consume the cellbiose in the oak, which is a disaccharide that brett can hydrolyze into simple sugars and chew up.
Brett is superattenuative so it's completely possible that the beer went down below 1.000. Brett is a powerful critter, it can break down leftover starches and complex sugars (such as the dextrins from crystal malts) so it can convert more than just the sugar the sacc strain was too tired to consume.
If you used old ale blend, then it's likely not all Brett. Maybe whatever else in the blend drove it down?
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