Chunk wrote:What would be a sensible gravity to bottle at? I've seeded bottles with the same yeast mix and priming sugar before (beer was 1010 when it went in) ... and had no problems yet.
Cheers for the help and for taking an interest ... I would definetly send you a bottle if you werent all the way over there on the other side of the pond!
The correct gravity would be the one it finishes at. You can't really use a number to say that it's done (like bottling every batch at a certain gravity). For example, my Irish Red finishes at 1.011 (occasionally at 1.012), but my Blonde stops at 1.008-1.009 - I've had huge brews stop and be fully attenuated as high as 1.017. If you know your yeast and how much it likes to attenuate, you can use brewing software to get an assumed terminal gravity but it really depends on your OG, fermentation temp, pitching rate, etc. My house yeast attenuates 76-80%; 1.050-1.010 is 79%, but so is 1.100-1.019 (obviously taking a larger pitch rate to not stress the yeast and still get my 79%)
With a brew that uses Brett it's a little more of a guessing game, so to speak (unless you've used the same strain several times and can estimate its capabilities). Let it do it's thing and check the gravity every few days or so. When you don't see any more changes, let it sit for a few more days just to be sure. Lagers are tricky like that as well; sometimes it's difficult to tell the difference between done and really really slow. I've got 90 gallons of fermentation space, so letting one sit around for a month to finish & condition isn't an issue.
That being said, I haven't tried putting any significant age on any of my brett brews - they sit at a little lower than room temp for a couple weeks to get some carbonation in there, then I keep them cold and drink 'em down within the next 3-4 weeks. Another option would be to get some bottles with a thicker wall (i.e. Belgian bottles) that can hold more pressure. Not saying you're going to have bombs, but when working with brett/bugs it should definitely be a thought. Hell, bottling any beer you should always make sure it's done - if I've brewed a recipe a few times, I know where it's going to stop, but if it's a new recipe/yeast, I always give it some extra time.
BN Army // 13th Mountain Division 