Beer Forum

I'm brewing Jamil's Belgian Specialty Recipe in BCS and I need some advice. I'm torn between going from the primary fermentation and go straight to bottles adding the wlp650 at bottling time or aging in a keg for a month or so adding the wlp650 to the keg and then bottling later. What do you think? I'm leaning toward kegging it, that way I can add some oak chips and maybe some hops.

Well if you want to oak it (I would) then I think you answered your own question. If not then...well....fuck it! Kegging is so much easier! You won't have to bottle for a while.

Whatever you do, don't add Brett in the bottles. It could easily ferment more than you're expecting and then you have grenades on your hands. Once you add the Brett it needs to ferment at room temperature for at least a month, possibly much longer. It works very slowly.

a10t2 wrote:Whatever you do, don't add Brett in the bottles. It could easily ferment more than you're expecting and then you have grenades on your hands. Once you add the Brett it needs to ferment at room temperature for at least a month, possibly much longer. It works very slowly.

+1 brett normally takes 3months to a year. I have bottled with it many times. Only in belgian bottles though.

a10t2 wrote:Whatever you do, don't add Brett in the bottles. It could easily ferment more than you're expecting and then you have grenades on your hands. Once you add the Brett it needs to ferment at room temperature for at least a month, possibly much longer. It works very slowly.

+2.... I just did my second attempt at this. First time was 1 month in the secondary (also pitched dregs from two Orvals).... Second time was almost 5 mos. in secondary. I prefer the second, which has a lot of Brett character AND the fresh hop aroma. The first attempt took longer to get funky, and by then the hops had mellowed.


Mylo