Freeze a Brett Beer before bottling???

[Rothrock Brewing Company]

Okay here's the details. I have 5 gallons of an Irish coffee Stout that has been sitting in a 5-gallon whiskey barrel for several months. The whiskey barrel has always contained Brett and has always made the beers that go in it incredible.

My original plan was to keg this beer then pressurize it and serve it. Unfortunately plans have changed and I have decided to bottle it instead so that it can age and hopefully smooth out. Because this style of beer contains some lactose and other non fermentable sugars, I am worried about the Brett consuming those sugars that the bottling yeast cannot - during aging and making possible bottle bombs.

My thoughts are to remove the beer from the barrel and put it into a sanitized container to then freeze solid for some small amount of time. Then the beer can be pulled back out, thawed, and then have corn sugar added to give it about 1.5 volumes of carbonation to then bottle.

With Brett being a yeast and not a bacteria or other weird bug - do you think freezing would ruin the batch or successfully kill off the Brett and somehow work out?

 

[Nosybear]

Okay here's the details. I have 5 gallons of an Irish coffee Stout that has been sitting in a 5-gallon whiskey barrel for several months. The whiskey barrel has always contained Brett and has always made the beers that go in it incredible.

My original plan was to keg this beer then pressurize it and serve it. Unfortunately plans have changed and I have decided to bottle it instead so that it can age and hopefully smooth out. Because this style of beer contains some lactose and other non fermentable sugars, I am worried about the Brett consuming those sugars that the bottling yeast cannot - during aging and making possible bottle bombs.

My thoughts are to remove the beer from the barrel and put it into a sanitized container to then freeze solid for some small amount of time. Then the beer can be pulled back out, thawed, and then have corn sugar added to give it about 1.5 volumes of carbonation to then bottle.

With Brett being a yeast and not a bacteria or other weird bug - do you think freezing would ruin the batch or successfully kill off the Brett and somehow work out?

I was wondering about your rationale for freezing the beer.... Answer to it killing off the Brett, no. I once made a Strawberry Wheat beer using frozen strawberries and the notion that freezing somehow sanitized them. After shooting an entire bottle of the stuff out all over the kitchen, I can attest to the fact that freezing is not a cooler form of Pasteurization. As to ruining the beer, also no, freezing will not. What I would do is just leave it in a carboy, out of the light, until ready to continue packaging. That way, if the Brett goes after the lactose and other non-fermentables (as it will, as it will), it won't blow anything up, it will just continue to bulk age until you're ready to package and consume it. You could hypothetically Pasteurize the beer, get a Pasteurization table, heat the beer to the proper temperature, hold it there for the proper time, then cool. That's how the big guys make beer that is shelf-stable for years....

 

[GFHomebrew]

What about potassium meta bisulphate?
Like you wine dudes do nosey....

 

[Nosybear]

What about potassium meta bisulphate?
Like you wine dudes do nosey....

Could work - I don't know the dosage for beer. Lots on Brett here: https://www.themadfermentationist.com/2008/06/all-about-brettanomyces.html

 

[J A]

Freezing won't even reliably kill all the regular yeast in a beer. Probably would do it if kept low enough for long enough but icing pretty solid and then thawing isn't enough to do it. Tablets will be the way to go. I think that's a pretty common approach.