Transfer to secondary early for brett?

[v01gt]

Hey everyone,

Has anyone every transferred to secondary before primary fermentation is complete?

I brewed a brown saison over the weekend. I'm leaving town in a couple days and probably won't be back for at least a month. I'm thinking of transferring to secondary and pitching my brett starter before I go. I assume all this will do will just leave more sugars for the brett to work with, but just want to make sure this isn't too out of line as this is my first brett in secondary beer. Has anyone done this before? Here is the recipe for context:

OG: 1.064
IBUs: 20
SRM: 13.5

10 lbs 2 Row
1 lb Wheat
8oz Acid malt
4oz Special B
2oz Carafa III
1oz EKG @ 60min
Primary Yeast: RVA 263 - Ghost Saison (fantome sacc strain)
Secondary Yeast: Wyeast 5112 - Brett Brux - 800mL starter, pitch most of it and save a little for the future

 

[Jumpman]

Go for it. it can't hurt plus it will def leave more room for the bretts to eat and get funky!!:fro:

 

[berebrando]

I think it's a great idea. I did this recently, transferring a nearly finished saison on top of slurry containing Brett and Lacto. Time will tell whether it gets funky or tart.

 

[TAK]

I think it was from American Sour Beer that I recall mention of cold crashing to halt primary in order to save sugars for the bugs. Transferring would be essentially the same thing, just without dropping out as many Sacc cells.

Go for it and report back!

 

[beergolf]

According to Chad Yackobson the brett does not need a lot to chew on. So no need to try to stop fermentation or anything like that.

But in your situation I would transfer and add the brett.

i often transfer to a secondary after about a week and add the brett. Let it go as long as it needs. Since I usually have a few going it ends up being 3-4 months. The final gravity drops down very low. Bottle them and enjoy.

 

[tagz]

Why not just toss the Brett into the primary?

 

[worterworld]

My Flanders red ale was in primary for two weeks, it has been in secondary for just over 7 months. I could have done a week in primary, but I have a thing about two weeks(weird, I know). You should be fine. Good luck!

 

[v01gt]

Thanks for the responses, everyone. I figured this plan would work, just thought I would throw the scenario out there. Going to transfer to secondary tomorrow and let it ride for a couple months.

Why not just toss the Brett into the primary?

For one, it's in a bucket. My last two batches have been sours and turned my better bottles to the wild side, so I thought keeping my buckets clean was best. For two, I just picked up six 5-gallon carboys, figured I'd put them right to use and get something funky going :rockin: