adding fruit to brett saison secondary

i would have waited 3 months before racking on fruit. let brett do its thing an bring the gravity down closer to 1.000. but oh well.

hold at 68. think there were studies that showed that increased temps may not cause increase funk.

and letting it sit for 2 more months when on a fruit puree? you're really pushing it. multiply that # by at least 6, in my opinion, if not more.


if i were brewing what you brewed, i'd do this:

-heat for 3 weeks
-let it sit in primary for 3 more months
-either rack to secondary that has the fruit or add fruit to primary. let it sit for 6-12 months.

 

I recently brewed a saison with a "clean" saison strain, let it complete fermentation (pretty close to 1.000 on its own), then added Brett from dregs from RR Sanct. This was only a one gallon batch, but I only let the batch sit with Brett for three weeks before adding mango. I pulled a sample this week at a month and a half on the mango, and I was really impressed with the funk developed by the Brett. This has been held in the very low sixties since Brett was added.

I probably could have waited longer to let the Brett develop before adding fruit, but I have a handful of one gallon batches to experiment with.

I tend to think you will be fine, and that as stated above, you will get good results holding in the sixties.

 

a simple break-down...

brett likes to munch on things that are flakey. corn flakes, oat flakes, wheat flakes. so add some of that to your recipe.
brett will eat anything. complexity is the key.

now, why add the fruit after initial fermentation is done? maybe someone else can explain. i'd just think that it has to do with the order of operations; you want brett to eat the sugars from your boil first. once done, you then rack to fruit. probably increases overall complexity if you do it that way.

 

Who is this Brett you speak and will he eat my ex-gf as she was a little "flakey"

 

um...resisting the urge to answer that question....

 

so, thinking this through, the question would be: why would you want the saison yeast to tackle the fructose? what benefit would there be to the beer's flavour?

 

Once primary fermentation is done there's no need to keep it that warm. Brett doesn't need the warmer temperatures that saison strains need to produce certain flavors. You can just keep the beer at room temperature. That is fine for brett unless your room temperature is extremely cold or hot.

The sugars in fruit are simple sugars and likely to be consumed by the sacc before brett gets into it. If your beer has been in primary for a week then sacc is still dominant. Brett is most likely still in a growth phase so it's not consuming sugars as fast as sacc will.

Brett can metabolize starches but it doesn't need starches to create flavor. Brett will consume leftover sugars and starches as it finds it but brett will also metabolize the esters to create brett flavors. There's no need to feed more sugars or starches into the beer.

You may have added the fruit a little too early but it's done and it won't be fatal to the beer. Let it ride for a few months at room temperature. Bottle when the gravity is stable and you like the flavor. The beer can reach a stable gravity but still have changes in flavor over time. If you don't like it after a couple months try it again in another month or two.

 

KEEP IT TOGETHER, SON!!!