Beer Forum

I tried to take advantage of the Limited Release "Old Ale" yeast from Wyeast over Christmas time, so I've brewed 2 or 3 batches using that yeast. I knew it had a strain of Brettanomyces in it, but I figured it was designed to be used like a regular yeast, so I did a primary fermentation and then bottled a few weeks later. Well the beers are definitely funky, already. The bottles even have a pellicle forming.

I have another batch in the closet that I need to bottle, but I just noticed that a Pellicle is beginning to form in the fermenter. So my question is, what should I do? Should I just bottle, or should I add it to the graveyard of carboys that I have funky beers in with pellicles? I knew the old ale yeast was going to be good for aging, but I was hoping to enjoy some in the mean time too.

Anyway, should I bottle or let the pellicle form and wait for it to fall, like Vinnie from Russian River talked about on the session?

input appreciated.

Thats what she said.

Mike

I used this strain on a big old ale earlier this year and I too had a nice pellicle form in the primary and the beer was only 3 wks old (in an old sour bucket). I racked mine from under the pellicle into a keg ontop of 1oz of french oak for some further aging and funkification.

Getting back to your question, I don't see why you couldn't just bottle the beer pellicle or not. Just do your best to leave most of the pellicle behind in the fermenter when racking over. As you have already observed the beer will form another pellicle in the bottles due to the introduction of oxygen during racking/bottling. This pellicle will help protect the beer from further major oxidation although it sure looks scarey when you give someone a bottle of it to try. What types of beer did you use this yeast for?

I did two versions of the "Archaic" recipe from Sean Paxton & De Struise, and I did a recipe that was basically everything I had left over from 2010, lots of dark malts, rye, oats, honey malts, etc.

thanks for the input

I've got a smoked brown ale going right now with this yeast and I want to bottle after about three weeks in primary, but I'm worried about bottle bombs. Have you had any over-carbonation problems yet with the brett continuing to work in the bottles? I'll probably drink this batch pretty quick so it might not be an issue, but I would like to age some if I'm in the clear. I'll probably use some heavier belgian glass for some just to be safe.

You know you have a great hobby when you can spend time debating the finer points of packaging and consuming anything that grows its own shell.

Sam, just make sure the fermentation is DONE then add a sugar you can rely on for conditioning. Assume something like dextrose is 90% fermentable(I think it been a while) malt extract would only be 80-85% fermentable, honey is like 95+% etc etc.
The bret shouldn't make much of a difference, as far as I have been told, besides it might take longer.
I just wouldnt push up your carbonation levels to like 3.5 atmospheres in the bottles to be safe.

Spelt wrote:You know you have a great hobby when you can spend time debating the finer points of packaging and consuming anything that grows its own shell.

By this logic, Brett brewing is right up there with turtle and snail farming!