So I know threads like this have been posted before, but I hope this question is unique enough to get its own discussion going. I'm planning on kegging a berliner weisse with brett in the near future, and I only have one keg that I rotate from batch to batch. This will be the first brett beer going into the keg. The only thing I will probably change out will be the beer line and disconnect. The keg usually just gets a healthy scrub of star san between beers, then I hook it up once more and run the star san mixture through the beer line for a few pints. Question is, should I even be slightly worried about my next batch becoming infected with brett? You would think that 36 degrees F would pretty much halt brett from doing any kind of phenol-converting activity in the keg, but I could be wrong. What do you all think? TIA
Yes, you should be aware of the risk and take precautions against it. I brewed a Milk Stout in November for Teach A Friend to brew day and threw it into my keg (I do all Brett outside of that beer). Even in the keezer at 36*F it got overcarbed and started showing some phenols. After you use the keg for the BW I would break down the whole keg and do a good cleaning with a hot PBW/Oxi soak and rinse of all parts. Do a StarSan of all parts before reassembling the keg, then put StarSan into the keg and sanitize as usual. I would break down the QD on it and soak, StarSan, etc. I would run BLC or PBW/Oxi through the line and tap followed up by letting StarSan sit in them for a good 30 minutes or more before flushing with new StarSan. If you are super stressed you could boil the fittings, poppets, lid, PRV, and dip tube (flip it over to get both sides and let the steam move up through it) and boil or replace the orings, including the QD oring. I usually only do this treatment when moving from a sour beer with bacteria to a non-sour beer.
I would break the whole thing down, clean it thoroughly with oxiclean, and then sanitize it well. And to be honest, I'd bleach bomb the whole thing for ten minutes (max), including parts and pieces, if you really want to be sure. Brett is a pretty resilient organism. I don't keep separate equipment and some pretty righteous bugs are known to have taken residence in my fermenters, with clean beers afterwards - and I've had no issues whatsoever.
Thanks guys. Crazy that brett will still thrive in those temps! I use separate equipment for everything else that touches brett, but I'm cheap, and really don't want to spend another $50-60 on a dedicated brett keg just yet. Down the road it may be better to just get another one than to do a thorough cleaning/rinsing each time, and still run the risk of potentially ruining a clean beer.
I always assumed this was overkill, but I have a separate line that is dedicated to brett beers and use a pin-lock keg while the rest are ball lock. I prefer my Berliner Weisses with brett, but you could boil after souring to keep them clean if that's what you're going for.
I've always treated brett kegs like my others and just clean well and sanitize. All my kegs are mixed together at this point. Brett is yeast, why would you have to do anything different from something like 1056?
While I agree with you completely, it is worth considering at least that some leftover 1056 will have much less of an effect on a subsequent beer than some leftover Brett will. So, in my case, the extra step is just for peace of mind.
True, but it is also a yeast that could funk up your beer if you aren't careful, unlike 1056. I'll go with the 'super cleaning' method this time around and see how it goes
Fill the keg with boiling hot water = dead Brett. Less extreme methods such as routine cleaning and sanitizing have proven effective for me. Wild beers do not have dedicated gear in my brew house. No evidence of cross contamination has been observed.
A related question: what if you are using beer guns? I have a sour going that my son asked me to brew for his wedding this July, and I was hoping to keg it first and then fill bottles with the beer gun. The beer gun is expensive, so I don't want to dedicate it to just sours. How would you go about ensuring no Brett is still lurking in the beer gun lines after use?
I agree that the beer gun is pricy for dedication to exclusive sours. However, to duel purpose the beer gun you only need to have two sets of the "soft materials" plastics and rubbers, metals are fine. Therefore, all you need for the gun is the beer line hose and don't forget about the stopper in the end. If you are duel purposing your kegs, you'll want to do the same, two sets hoses, all your gaskets and if you have a plastic relief valve, you'll want two of those too.
So I'm guessing the same thing goes for bottles.. I don't know how hot dishwashers normally get but I would think that any bottle that sits upside down in a dishwasher would take care of anything living in there. It's hard enough keeping track of dedicated equipment, keeping track of brett bottles as well would get maddening.
As someone who brews a lot of beers with Brett and or bugs, I have very little issues with cross contamination, unless I'm being lazy. I keg Brett beers and I often don't worry about changing the lines, unless I'm planning on bottling from the keg to send to a competition. If not, in reality, at 36F over a relatively short period of time, you wont notice anything Brett can do.
I would think 36F would slow activity down a lot, but according to @jbakajust1 it can still funk up a batch if you aren't careful. See above. What would you call a short period of time, 2-3 months? That's about how long my kegged batches last.
What @Lukass said. Yea 2-3 months. More if I'm not drinking from it because I have other options, or less if I give most of it away.
