What precautions to take brewing with Brett?

[Chris7687]

So, I completely made an airhead mistake in purchasing a new recipe. I wanted to make a saison and purchased some yeast to do so. Unfortunately, the yeast strain I purchased contains Brett, WLP670 American Farmhouse Blend.

I have never brewed a Brett beer before, nor did I have any intentions for the foreseeable future. But since I already made the starter and have the recipe, looks like I'm 50% committed. With that being said, what are the precautions I need to take with handling Brett? I have heard people have completely separate stir bars, carboys, kegs, etc. that will never come in contact with a standard yeast strain batch again.

What do I do with the stir bar and beaker that I made the starter in? Can I never reuse the plastic Better Bottle carboy again for a standard beer? Can I never use the keg for a standard beer?

I'm kinda nervous and frustrated with myself for stepping into the "Brett" world with no experience or intentions to ever step into it!!

 

[Chris7687]

Should I maybe use the glass carboy over the plastic for better sanitation after use?

Also, when cleaning the carboy and keg after the fact, is there anything I need to do with properly cleaning my sump pump?

 

[JoshuaW]

Brett isnt as bad as lacto. Just clean everything as soon as you are done with it, and again before you use it. Be super cautious about your sanitization process. If you dont have scratches in anything, and are diligent about cleaning, you shouldnt have any problems. If you are concerned about it, just have your next brew using that gear something that will go nicely with brett

 

[secondbase]

I share my glass carboys between clean and mixed fermentations. Glass is easy to clean and is hard to scratch so you won't have to worry about cross contamination with a good sanitation regimen. I would keep a separate set of plastic equipment for your wild beers, including beer lines, o-rings, any plastic tubing, and stopper/airlock. There are a lot of brett boogeyman stories floating around and most of them don't hold any merit. Welcome to the wild side.

 

[m00ps]

I go by the rule that anything plastic that touches is after the pitch of brett should be kept separate from the rest. Glass and steel is OK provided you soak in pbw or something

 

[SeraW]

I did exactly what you did. After the batch, I sanitized everything like normal, including auto siphon and Better Bottle, and no trace of Brett in future batches.

I've started to think people freak over nothing. This is why we sanitize, right?

 

[m00ps]

well brett is still a yeast, which have larger cells than bacteria so they are easier to clean. Although brett is much hardier than sacch since it has evolved ot survive in wood barrels and eat more complex sugars

 

[Chris7687]

How long of a one soak are you all recommending for post Brett sanitization?

Keeping this stuff out of my kegs and going to bottle it and age it.

 

[Conman13]

I've done several brett brews and never had a problem sharing any equipment. This includes plastic fermenters, siphons, kegs, etc. I follow standard cleaning and sanitizing procedures for every batch. I don't do anything different with my brett batches. I'm starting to think the fear of it infecting future batches is unfounded. As long as you are a very clean brewer, you should have a similar experience.

 

[ChrisRyan]

I made a tank 7 clone before I had any idea what I was doing... which meant I did not clean or sanitize any better than every other brew. No issues.

 

[m00ps]

tank 7 doesnt have brett in it....