To Brett Or Not To Brett?

[Nokando]

Greetings brewers,

My first post on here, it's nice to make your acquaintance.

I'm brewing what I intended to be a Brett Saison - my first experiment with Brett.

The Saison base has been fermenting superbly for 9 days strong, from an OG of 1061 to it's current SG of 1005. I used Omega Saisonstein which lives up to it's reputation. I have to say it's dry, balanced and delicious already. My question is do I go ahead and leave it on Brett for a few months as planned, or just bottle it once primary fermentation has finished? I'd just like to know what your experience of adding Brett to an already dry saison is, and whether it will still add to the complexity and quality of the finished beer.

Cheers!

 

[Bubba Wade]

I would just go from primary to bottle. I don’t think addition of Brett will change the character much. However, I would be inclined to leave it in the primary a few more days. This yeast strain may go as low as 1.000-1.002 on its own. This will help avoid potential bottle bombs.

 

[Minbari]

Unless you dedicate a fermenter to it, not contaminating equipment for 1 batch.

 

[Donoroto]

Brett, once used, requires that the equipment be sterilized, unless you expect brett in every batch thereafter. StarSan is not enough. Iodophor is effective.

From 1.005 you don't have a lot of room for adding character.

One possibility would be to take off some and add brett to this smaller amount - perhaps you have a smaller fermenter? Then you can see exactly what brett can do for you!

 

[Dornbox]

I concur with @Donoroto about your FG and brettanomyces. I’m not sure if mashing at a much higher temp (say 158°f) would raise your FG much with those super attenuating strains. Unless you have some dextrose for the Brett to chew on, you’re not gonna get much character out of it.

I use to make quads that never fermented out super dry that Brettanomyces worked well with. But a saison by nature is dry which makes the style a tough match unless you can get the FG up. That said, I think my best brett beers weren’t crazy funk bombs so you never know. Put some in a growler with a brett tainted wood chip or cube and see what it does.

 

[Nokando]

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to split the brew leaving a gallon on the Brett in a demijohn, see what happens

 

[Nokando]

Footnote:
Saison FG = 0.997. Never had a yeast attenuate like that before! Target ABV was 6.5%, has ended up 8.4%!

 

[Dornbox]

@Nokando Not sure which strain you used but that’s typical for many of the saison strains especially the French versions. They’re monsters!

 

[Mark Farrall]

I do a brett saison every six months and while it's true that brett is one of the hardiest yeast out there, I've not needed to use iodine based sanitiser or heat sterilisation with my equipment. I do make sure to clean and dry the equipment that is touched by the brett and try to remember to give them longer soak in the sanitiser the next batch, but don't always succeed. I also have a fairly simple brew system that's easy to clean and dry every part after a brew.

You will get brett character even on a very dry primary. Brett doesn't just transform sugars it also transforms acids and phenols. Mostly it's transformed into other phenolic compounds, like the typical funk/farmyard tastes, but it can also transform phenols into esters. I get a tropical pineapple note from Brett C and it's probably from the transformation of phenols into esters rather than a by product of sugar fermentation. I don't think anyone really knows which type of fermentation creates more brett character and there's speculation on the effect of many things like pressure, oxygen presence and finishing gravity. And everyone's experience of brett character is different anyway.

Mine is a co-pitch of a few different brett strains and a saison strain. It generally spends 10-14 days in the fermenter, until the gravity really slows down and then I package. Most batches will keep changing slowly from 3 months until at least six months. Some will keep changing for longer, though not always for the better.

I think splitting the batch is definitely the way to go.