stageseven
Well-Known Member
I'm currently in the process of making my first "real" beer with Brett. I did an experiment a while back trying to make a gruit with Brett that so far has been a miserable failure, but I blame that on the wormwood. Anyway, for this batch I'm doing a Saison.. fairly straightforward all-grain recipe with a mix of pilsner, vienna, and a little bit of carapils and rye, as well as 1 lb of clear candi sugar. Mashed low at around 148F, and pitched at 65F with White Labs WLP565 Belgian Saison to start, and used a brew belt to ramp the temp up to 80 over a few days. When fermentation started to slow down, I added the 1lb of candi sugar and a vial of Brett Brux. I held this at 80 for a few days and turned the brew belt off.
It's been a few weeks now, and last night I took a gravity reading. It's sitting at 1.011-1.012, and there's still a bit of sweetness right up front. It's not the bone-dry saison flavor that I was looking for. I've read that Brett can take a while to do it's job, but the question I have is does it need to stay at 80+ the whole time, or is it ok to let the temp drop to ambient (low 70s)? I'd also like to get it out of the fermenter sooner than later, it's in a bucket right now lined with a turkey bag, so any issues with moving it over to a keg to let it finish out?
It's been a few weeks now, and last night I took a gravity reading. It's sitting at 1.011-1.012, and there's still a bit of sweetness right up front. It's not the bone-dry saison flavor that I was looking for. I've read that Brett can take a while to do it's job, but the question I have is does it need to stay at 80+ the whole time, or is it ok to let the temp drop to ambient (low 70s)? I'd also like to get it out of the fermenter sooner than later, it's in a bucket right now lined with a turkey bag, so any issues with moving it over to a keg to let it finish out?