Brown ale with Brett. To keep or not to keep?

[Not For Horses]

A few weeks ago I went to bottle my current brown ale. I opened the lid to discover some funk on the surface. Bugger.
I thought I'd be clever and leave the last few inches in the bucket and bottle the rest and I would somehow keep the funk where it belongs. The 70s.
How wrong I was. And not just because of Heavy D & the Boyz.
Sure enough, there on the surface of every bottle is the same funk as before.
Turns out, after much reading and looking at pictures, I have a brettanomyces infestation.
So my question is, do I find a vessel to pour it all back into and let the brett do its funky thang, or toss the whole lot and pretend like it never happened?
The few bottles I have opened don't smell or taste terrible, just kinda funky. Not bad funky, like funk-ayyyyy.

 

[mxd]

R U sure it's brett ?

You can garb a bottle of orval and taste that to make sure it's brett.

the brett will keep fermenting so either put em in a fridge and drink, if your not that interested then toss them (and the bottles) to minimise another outbreak.

 

[Not For Horses]

Pretty sure it's brett.
Would sterilising the bottles in the oven at 150 for an hour or two kill brett?

 

[mxd]

Pretty sure it's brett.
Would sterilising the bottles in the oven at 150 for an hour or two kill brett?

it should ?? but to be sure

 

[MartinOC]

it should ?? but to be sure

The bottles should be OK at those temp's, but I'd get rid of the bucket & anything else that came in contact with the beer once you noticed the infection.

 

[Not For Horses]

How much of this is coming from hear say and how much from actual experience?
brett is the ugly cousin of our beloved saccharomyces. Is it really that hard hard to kill?

 

[hsb]

brettanomyces infestation

Never seen these words paired before, not in relation to beer anyhow? What you have is a brettanomyces party.

It's still yeast, just clean and sterilise thoroughly if you want to eliminate it?
FWIW I would have racked it, let the Brett do its thing, then bottled if it tasted OK. Any Brett in the brewery before? 100% certain that's what it is?

Don't know how far along your bottled beer is, but I wouldn't tip it for any other reasons than

a. it tastes foul

or

b. it may explode

 

[Not For Horses]

Oh it's a party alright. Just nobody invited the cool kids.
I'm not 100% certain it's brett. 99% though.
First time I've seen it here.
It's about 2 weeks in the bottle now. I think I'll transfer it all back to a secondary before I have bottle bombs and then get to work sterilising everything before I bottle some other stuff tonight.

 

[fcmcg]

Not for horses, your milling grain , right ? Like alot of grain ? For pepole on here ?
Might i suggest that you don't have brett but rather you have a lactic infection...
Grain is full of lactic bacteria...another reason why we boil our wort....
If your milling ALOT of grain anywhere near where your fermenting etc...i suggest that could be your culprit...

 

[Not For Horses]

No actually. Everyone seems to have their own mills. So I don't mill any more grain than the next brewer really.

 

[fcmcg]

okay....fair point...
Um..so wild brett can live on the skins of fruit...did you dangle an apple in the fermentor ? :lol:

 

[Not For Horses]

I do make quite a lot of cider from fresh apples. Could've come from there I guess.

 

[manticle]

How much of this is coming from hear say and how much from actual experience?
brett is the ugly cousin of our beloved saccharomyces. Is it really that hard hard to kill?

I've found it hard but not impossible. Depends on the fermenter, your attachment to it and your willingness to take a risk. I like brett so I'd consider trying to salvage it but it does hit lower gravity than most sacch yeasts so caution with anything remaining bottled especially if you bottled early or primed high.

 

[adryargument]

If its brett it will continue to taste lovely, if its not it will end up tasting like nail polish.

 

[Not For Horses]

Just transferred all the bottles back into the original fermenter. I'm now boiling all my bottling paraphernalia in sodium hypochlorite for an hour or so.
I suppose I'll just wait 6 months and then taste my funky creation.