WLP648 Uncertainty...

[shredthrash]

Hi all,

I brewed a saison today and half of it was innocculated with a starter of WLP648. This was my first 100% brett beer and I realized too late that I may have made some mistakes...

Firstly, I made a starter with WLP648 whose BB date was 9/22/18; 1.036 wort with pale DME and a pinch of Yeastex; the starter went on a stir plate for ~40hrs prior to pitching - I wasn't aware that Brett starters, etc were wildly different than sach and I pitched anyways...

I later learned that my handling of Brett was far, far less than ideal, but it is what it is, so I was just looking for opinions from the community; I pitched my starter, which was 1.5L, into 4g of 1.060 saison wort at 22 C. Based on the limited available literature on 100% Brett fermentations... I made a stupid...

Is there any chance that fermentation will take hold of the high sugar wort before it's too late...?

Comments...?

Thanks!

 

[specharka]

Hi all,

I brewed a saison today and half of it was innocculated with a starter of WLP648. This was my first 100% brett beer and I realized too late that I may have made some mistakes...

Firstly, I made a starter with WLP648 whose BB date was 9/22/18; 1.036 wort with pale DME and a pinch of Yeastex; the starter went on a stir plate for ~40hrs prior to pitching - I wasn't aware that Brett starters, etc were wildly different than sach and I pitched anyways...

I later learned that my handling of Brett was far, far less than ideal, but it is what it is, so I was just looking for opinions from the community; I pitched my starter, which was 1.5L, into 4g of 1.060 saison wort at 22 C. Based on the limited available literature on 100% Brett fermentations... I made a stupid...

Is there any chance that fermentation will take hold of the high sugar wort before it's too late...?

Comments...?

Thanks!

You’re good. Fortunately Brettanomyces doesn’t require as high of a cell count as Saccharomyces to get started, and pitching at standard ale rates (0.75 M cells / mL-P) will actually mute a lot of the esters that are formed during the growth phase. I dare say you’re going to have something rather delicious on your hands.

Be prepared for a long lag phase (+72 hours) and even longer fermentation phase (+30 days), be patient, and don’t ramp the temperature too high (<25C). That strain is excellent for primary fermentation, you’re in good hands. RDWHAHB

 

[shredthrash]

Thanks a lot for the reassurance!

Update: so after around 27 hrs from pitch time, I discovered what looked like a bunch of microorganisms that had risen to the top of the liquid in the carboy and were literally floating on all of the cold break and trub that somehow rose up from the bottom of the carboy where it had initially settled after the cool in.

All that I did was give the carboy a few good whirls for oxygen, as I hadn't done any aeration of the wort prior to pitching and only had the above mentioned starter on a stir plate with minimal agitation .

Looking forward to seeing where everything heads from here! Not worried above above threshold levels of acetic acid from the minimal oxygen I must have gently put into solution. I was just trying to get a teeny bit to help stimulate growth as I was under the impression that I massively under pitches and had my starter on the stir plate far too late .

This is my first 100% Brett fermentation at home! Super excited!

 

[shredthrash]

PS I thought it would be a bit more obvious in the pictures, but the "microorganisms" that I was referring to are all of those little white colonies all over the top of the trub.

 

[shredthrash]

Here is a shot of the carboy at 50 hours after pitching (for the sake of interest into 100% brettanomyces fermentation)