So I have a 100% Brett Beer that has been sitting in the primary for two weeks, I took a sample tonight and the Brett has only taken the beer down four points. I know that Brett takes a bit of time time to take off but this does not seem right. The sample still tastes “clean” no sourness or off flavor. Could I pitch a packet of dry yeast (Saf Ale 05) to get fermentation started; then rack the beer to secondary with new pitch of Brett to condition in the bottle? Thanks all I hope you have a great holiday.
Can you give us recipe and process details? How much brett did you pitch? as I understand it if you pitch lots of brett it will work fairly quickly and cleanly much like sach. Does the sample taste sweet? you say it tastes ‘clean’ but that doesn’t tell us very much.
Recipe,
Process,
OG,
Pitching rate.
The recipe was a pretty standard Belgian Pale Ale: recipe 6.5 lb Pils 6.5 lb Belgian Pale Malt 1 lb Wheat with 1 oz Golding @ 60. The brew went well cooled to 70 F then pitched a decanted 3L starter of brett b… I used foil instead of air lock so i cant speak to air lock activity but there wasn’t any krausen/pelical for four days. After the fourth day a thin white splotchy film formed and is still present. The sample is sweet, is tastes like unfermented fresh wort. There isn’t a moldy/funky/sour taste which is why I thought I could pitch some yeast to salvage the batch.
Sorry the OG was 1055 and is currently reading 1051.
Patience. Brett works like normal Sacc, only slower as a primary fermentor. 2 weeks is nothing. You likely underpitched, put no big deal when using Brett. RDWHAHB!
You are measuring your SG with a hydrometer right, not a refractometer?
Did you aerate?
Yes I used my hydro for the FG, and I added two minutes of pure O2 right before pitching.
That was my first thought. Don’t Brett cultures only contain 100m cells?
I don’t know about other labs, but the Wyeast packs are supposed to be 30-50 billion cells. Which should be plenty, especially in a 3 L starter.
cytorunner: Did you check to verify that the starter fermented out? After two weeks with essentially no activity, I’m inclined to think there wasn’t any viable yeast.
When I went Brett-only with a vial of Brett Brux Trois, I had to step it up a couple of times to get a decent pitch. After that it fermented like a normal Sach, with only a slightly longer lag time of a few extra hrs. When Brett is used by itself, it doesn’t throw the funk that you get when it’s stressed as a secondary pitch.
With a 3L starter, there should have been quite the slurry of yeast to pitch. Did you see a lot, or was it more like the small amount from the initial vial?
I let the starter to about five days, and there was doubling of the visible cells at the bottom. If I had to do it again I would step up the starter over a week. I do not check the gravity of the starter at pitching, that a great tip I never thought to.