Playing with brett without extra equipment.

[mje1980]

I'm a total noob with funky and sour beers, but am getting right into them. I was setup to keg a saison the other week and got thinking it'd be good to try some of it with brett, as I've seen lots of positive reviews about brett and saison. I didn't really want to sacrifice one of my fermentors though. I had an orval in the fridge at the time and the ole brain started ticking. Here's what I did. May not be new or revolutionary but it went well.

1.) drink orval.

2.) add wort of beer to be bottled to the orval bottle. I just put it under the tap, but if you're really scared, use a Pyrex jug to transfer. Swirl it round in the bottle to get it moving.

3.) bottle the rest of the beer as normal, leaving a few litres

4.) split the wort from the orval bottle into 4 or 5 bottles ( I used belgian ones, and would only use them ), fill the rest of the way, prime, and bottle as normal.

No hoses or fermenters came into contact with any bugs.



As i mentioned I'm new to this so any thoughts and comments are welcome. I do have a dedicated 10 litre cube for secondary with brett, but the above needs no extra equipment, other than the Belgian bottles I suppose.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

Step two. Do you mean add the finished beer from your primary fermenter? I hope you're not priming unfermented wort?

I think its a valid experiment, but adding the orval dregs for bottle conditioning only will only get you so far. A sour primary or secondary would taste quite different. A 5l glass demijon can be purchased for $15-20. Add the cost of a dedicated airlock and hose and you're still south of $30 but getting a much wider experience. If you didn't want to go that far, a 2l sherry or glass juice bottle (my markets sells 2l apple juice in glass) and an oztop would allow you do a sour primary without too much outlay.

In either case, you'd probably need a few bottles of orval and/or a starter to have enough to do primary on a few litres.

 

[manticle]

My experience with Brett is that it will attenuate quite low* so your finished beer might become more finished. Having said that, if it's a saison that finished very low, you might be alright.

*Low as in to a low gravity obviously - that's high attenuation really

 

[mxd]

I've only used brett once, I went from fermenter, 20 ltrs, to cube (become dedicated brett cube) then added the dreggs of 2 orvals, left for 5 months (went from 1.020 to 1.008??), then kegged in my dedicated ginger beer kegs (i.e the stuff I don't drink so didn't bother me if I then had brett in ginger beer).

 

[mje1980]

Step two. Do you mean add the finished beer from your primary fermenter? I hope you're not priming unfermented wort?

I think its a valid experiment, but adding the orval dregs for bottle conditioning only will only get you so far. A sour primary or secondary would taste quite different. A 5l glass demijon can be purchased for $15-20. Add the cost of a dedicated airlock and hose and you're still south of $30 but getting a much wider experience. If you didn't want to go that far, a 2l sherry or glass juice bottle (my markets sells 2l apple juice in glass) and an oztop would allow you do a sour primary without too much outlay.

In either case, you'd probably need a few bottles of orval and/or a starter to have enough to do primary on a few litres.

Cheers mate, I have 2 glass 11 litre carboys on the fridge right now with roselare fermenting an oud bruin, which are both spewing gunk haha. The above is just playing around really. Yeah im not priming unfermented wort mate.

Manticle, I did lots of research around bottling with brett etc, and the saison was 1.004, so I should be sweet.

For kicks I chilled and opened one of the saisons. Only a few weeks old and there is definately a brett component to it, so far it's quite nice with the fruity saison. Will try to leave til at least Xmas before sampling again.

 

[mje1980]

I'm a total noob with funky and sour beers, but am getting right into them. I was setup to keg a saison the other week and got thinking it'd be good to try some of it with brett, as I've seen lots of positive reviews about brett and saison. I didn't really want to sacrifice one of my fermentors though. I had an orval in the fridge at the time and the ole brain started ticking. Here's what I did. May not be new or revolutionary but it went well.
1.) drink orval.
2.) add wort of beer to be bottled to the orval bottle. I just put it under the tap, but if you're really scared, use a Pyrex jug to transfer. Swirl it round in the bottle to get it moving.
3.) bottle the rest of the beer as normal, leaving a few litres
4.) split the wort from the orval bottle into 4 or 5 bottles ( I used belgian ones, and would only use them ), fill the rest of the way, prime, and bottle as normal.
No hoses or fermenters came into contact with any bugs.
As i mentioned I'm new to this so any thoughts and comments are welcome. I do have a dedicated 10 litre cube for secondary with brett, but the above needs no extra equipment, other than the Belgian bottles I suppose.

Ah crap, as pointed out by mr no tip, it is not wort that I'm bottling, it's finished beer. Sorry, I must've been sober when I wrote that

 

[mje1980]

Update. I doubt I really have to worry about bottle bombs, I drink them way too quick haha. When young they seem to have a fruitiness that compliments the beer. I do have a few I'm trying to age but I'm not doing so well with that!.