I am assuming, since Brett is a yeast, that I will not have to have a dedicated set of fermenting and bottling gear. Is this correct? Can I ferment with Brett in my plastic Speidel fermenter, then do my usual cleaning/sanitizing and brew the next batch with saccharomyces?
Planning an all-Brett IPA using WLP644.
I would recommend against it. But, once something is packaged and chilled, any influence from the brett would be slowed.
Brett creates s film which makes it more difficult to clean and sanitize away than brewers yeast. I would probably stick to something solid vs plastic unless you want to dedicate it.
Good to know! I don’t mind dedicating the fermenter, since I have a conical for my regular brews. My question now is about my Blichman Beer Gun. Can I use it to bottle a Brett beer without tainting all subsequent bottled beers?
I have never had a problem of later contamination after making sours (Flanders Red). After bottling, I just sanitize everything with a bleach solution (which I don’t do for “regular” beers) and then follow my normal sanitization routine for the next batch.
I use my counter pressure filler for both regular beers and sours with brett/lacto/pedio/whatever. I do usually boil it in water for 15-20 mins before using it on a non-sour batch again… and I have a dedicated line for the sour beer filling…
Actually scratch that… I forgot I bought new beer line for my filler a few months ago. I have not bottled a sour since I purchased it… But this new line allows for boiling temps so I am planning on just boiling it along with the filler itself 
Here is the line I bought for my filler. It’s been working great for my regular beers thus far. Silicone and can handle up to 20psi… Which is about double what I’m usually bottling at.
So long as your cleaning and sanitation practices are good it will not be a problem using the same equipment. Oxyclean/PBW will help break down any pellicle protecting brett/bacteria/wild yeast from your sanitizer and then you can sanitize as normal.
Thanks for the link!
I’m nervous about the same thing as well. I’ve only bottled mixed ferment beers with the Beer Gun so far.
I have successfully bottled a brett-only beer after brett-bacteria beers, but its only a matter of time before risking it catches up with you. Ask my funky quad (accidentally used the wrong sample thief).
When I go to bottle the next clean beer, I’ll probably buy another accessory kit ($20 is worthwhile insurance to me).
I am worried about the rubber ball (valve seat) at the end of the gun. It doesn’t come with the kit (it should), but I’ll probably also buy a spare ball for clean beers and keep it with the kit.
This is a good read for anyone using Brett: http://wineserver.ucdavis.edu/pdf/attachment/118%20sanitation%20agents%20to%20fight%20biofilms.pdf
I was worried about cross contamination as well. So, for my beer gun I have seperate tubing and rubber stopper for bottling my sour beers.
nice!
Maybe I am misreading that but I read it as though they were looking at chemicals used for both cleaning and sanitizing in the same shot, which would be different from using a detergent first (like PBW or Oxy) and a sanitizer second. Nothing wins like caustic but I doubt many homebrewers have a tank of caustic.
It would be nice to read the entire paper. Being out of college, I do not have access to journal databases.