Kegs, Brett, and Old Ale

[AaronWesternNY]

I have some old ale CARBONATED in a friends keg. I have no experience with kegs. I like to pitch brett lambicus dregs into the keg and/or beer. This will eventually get beer-gunned into bottles. 1) Does my friends beer gun have soft parts that will be infected with brett after? 2) How ugly would things get if I tried to transfer out of the keg into a carboy and then pitched brett?

Any advice is welcome. Thanks.

[brewinhard]

The beer gun does have 2 soft parts that could become infected :
-the rubber tip
-the 10 ft of tubing the beer travels through

The rest is able to be properly sanitized w/o risk. If your friend does not mind allowing the wild ones to take refuge in his keg (which could infect future batches) then by all means, relieve the pressure on the lid and add your bugs. Put the lid back on and purge the headspace. Over time (providing on the residual sugars) the brett will create CO2 and the headspace can be purged once every week or two. I feel this is the best way to age with brett and seem to get the best results that seem more subtle than the "run away with your beer" effect (think fecal, excess barnyard). Brett L. is a bit fruitier in this category and would fit well with the old ale. I do understand about micro-oxygenation necessary for these yeast but I am only stating what I have experienced and enjoyed more.

You could also rack to a carboy. Just bleed the pressure over the course of a few days until most of the CO2 is gone. If possible, purge a carboy with CO2 and rack your beer over. Add the yeast and add an airlock. The only problem here is that you risk more oxidation of the finished beer.

BTW, those parts can be ordered pretty cheaply on-line (25$).

-Brewinhard