Beer Forum

Hey BN Army.

I brewed a Saison back on 9/12 (OG 12.9*P, FG 2*P). Fermentation went great, tasted delicious warm/uncarbonated. Because of this, I primed and racked 2L into a hefty flip top growler so that I could have a taste of the base beer (10/8)

The day we brewed, we soaked some medium toast french oak cubes on some chardonnay... Sanitized the bowl, threw in the oak and chard. and covered with cellophane...

On 10/8, we transferred the rest to another carboy for secondary, added only a few of the chard. oak cubes, and maybe a dash of chard. At that point, we also added Brett Brux.

Now, 10/13, we have a pellicle forming... Needless to say I have yet to brew a brett beer - the pellicle was a surprise to see at first!





Originally, I was planning on moving the beer day 8-10, to leave the potential for a touch of residual sugar for the brett to get started on, and hence the oak would have only soaked for a 8-10 days as apposed to 26... probably a bad call to hit it with that after the extended soak. I tasted the wine it was soaking in, and it wasn't acetic, just very oxidized... we will see how it goes.

I'd love to get the BN Army perspective on the brew, maybe from some people with a ton of brett experience/souring experience.

Regardless... the Brett... it's workin' now.

Thanks BN'ers.

If its your first time its freaky, but it always looks alittle different to me. Iv'e done 3. It should look something like that. With that said I had a beer look like that I inoculated that tasted like shit for 9 months and then turned into the best beer ever at bottling one year later...Really.

So just wait a bit, cause even if its an infection. Theres nothing you can do about it.

My RIS on brett brux primary fermentation looks like that after only eight months. But then again, I only looked at it after 3 weeks when I added oak chips and then again last week.

That's pretty much EXACTLY what my 1850 historical porter looked like on the Wyeast Lambic blend after a few months.


Adam

The brett forms a pellicle at the air/liquid interface in response to oxygen available in the headspace of your carboy. The bigger/thicker the pellicle the more oxygen available. The brett does this as a kind of response to keep other unwanted critters (think acetobacter) out of the beer while they can feed on the residual sugars. I have had some sour beers form decent pellicles and other have just been slightly spotty and still turn out quite sour, so the presence of a pellicle does not necessarily indicate any increase in beer funkiness. Do keep in mind that brett will not sour your beer per se, but rather add earthy, funky, wild aromas and flavors to the finished product.

There is a newly used strain of brett (B. custersianis) that might be capable of producing citric acid in beer providing a citrus like component, but the judgement is still out there (in carboys, I assume....). You do not need to wait for your pellicle to drop to package the beer. Taste the beer from time to time (not too often, as this allows oxygen to ingress which can stale your malty aromas and flavors in the finished product), and when it tastes good to you, package it up. Do make sure that your FG is below 1.009 or so to decrease the chance of continued fermentation and bottle bombs if you plan on bottling.

Welcome to the wild word of funk!

Cheers -
Brewinhard