When is my happy accident ready to bottle?

[Miraculix]

Hi!

I made a red ipa around four months ago which got infected with wild brett.

So I transferred to glass, airlocked it and since then it is sloooooowely going on.

The taste test during the transfer displayed a good portion of funk and no sourness. It was a bit too bitter for my liking.

I did taste test yesterday, four months later, again. It tastes surprisingly boring the bitterness has mellowed down to a nice level but also the funk went down a bit. Gravity was something between 1.005 and 1.01. It wasn't bad, I just expected more funk.

My question is now, how do I see if it should be bottled or aged further?

Will probably check in one or two months again anyway, but any additional tips?

Thanks,

M

 

[mirthfuldragon]

I have done two brett fermentations so far: a saison (Wyeast 3031) and then I threw the 3031 at some apple juice for (reasons).

I bottled the 3031 blend saison at 3 months, because it was hitting about where I wanted it. After bottling a month, I found it boring and wish I would have left it in secondary for a while longer. I bottled the apple juice at 7 months and I am happy with it. It was atrocious at month 2 and 4 and is really pleasantly funky right now - reminds me of an appley dry gose, if that makes sense.

If it tastes boring, (a) wait, and (b) add some dregs from commercial brett beers.

The more I read about brett, the more it intrigues me. There are so many strains and varieties of strains and they mutate, so the entire concept of brett fermentation is literally and figuratively evolving constantly.

 

[Miraculix]

I have done two brett fermentations so far: a saison (Wyeast 3031) and then I threw the 3031 at some apple juice for (reasons).

I bottled the 3031 blend saison at 3 months, because it was hitting about where I wanted it. After bottling a month, I found it boring and wish I would have left it in secondary for a while longer. I bottled the apple juice at 7 months and I am happy with it. It was atrocious at month 2 and 4 and is really pleasantly funky right now - reminds me of an appley dry gose, if that makes sense.

If it tastes boring, (a) wait, and (b) add some dregs from commercial brett beers.

The more I read about brett, the more it intrigues me. There are so many strains and varieties of strains and they mutate, so the entire concept of brett fermentation is literally and figuratively evolving constantly.

Great, thanks!

I have no problem having it standing there for a couple of months more if the chance of improvement is given

 

[AMessenger]

Sounds like the makings of a historical IPA. I might try some oak aging and dry hopping to play up that angle.

 

[Miraculix]

Sounds like the makings of a historical IPA. I might try some oak aging and dry hopping to play up that angle.

Unintentionally, but yes. I guess that makes it a real recreation, as the historic ones where also not intentionally infected with brett.

Now all I have to do is find a sailing ship and ship it to India and back.

 

[radwizard]

How big is the batch?

If this was mine, I would dry hop it (with something noble), and re-ferment in the bottle (if you have bottles you are comfortable with) with Brett. I would think about using Orval dregs for the Brett.
That sounds tasty to me, but it would be cooler if you could ship it to India and back - I'm pretty sure you get some kind of next-level street cred for that!!

 

[Miraculix]

How big is the batch?

If this was mine, I would dry hop it (with something noble), and re-ferment in the bottle (if you have bottles you are comfortable with) with Brett. I would think about using Orval dregs for the Brett.
That sounds tasty to me, but it would be cooler if you could ship it to India and back - I'm pretty sure you get some kind of next-level street cred for that!!

Mad street credibility and probably some decent haters from the lodo crowd

The batch is about 6 or 7 gallons and the brett was introduced by accident 4 months ago.

Just to keep it "my own little culture", I won't add any commercial brett or bottle dregs to it. Dry hopping might be an option before I bottle, but if I'd do it now, most of it will be gone at bottling day.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Probably it's a bit boring because
1. Racking to secondary removed a lot of flavor precursors that would have been available from decaying Sacc cells.
2. Only 1 (or very few?) Brett strain(s) present. Intentional mixed fermentations have somewhere between 3 and millions of Brett strains with a mix of species.
3. From what I can gather, Brett seems to prefer microaeration (via barrels or PET carboys) not available in glass if it was topped up. However I've heard it does well in bottles supposedly because of the pressure. Don't quote me on that. YMMV.

In any case it might get better with additional age.

Glad it was a happy infection!