Longtime lurker, first question. I recently brewed an Orvalish clone. Towards the end of primary, closed transferred to a purged keg which I added Brett to and let age in closet for ~5 weeks. After that carbed in my kegerator. My question is- if I bottle off the keg and let the (heavy Belgian) bottles warm, will that be detrimental to the beer? Will the Brett still add anything more over time once it warms? I have an open keg, should I re-ferment in that? Its ok now, but Im looking for a more pronounced Brett presence and to see how it changes over time, so I want to bottle some. Thanks in advance!
Brett will continue to change the beer up until you drink it. And that happens faster at warmer temps. Whether the beer gets better or worse is somewhat subjective. But I can say that 5 weeks of aging for an Orval-like beer isn't nearly long enough, in my experience. I'd say 5 months is closer to the sweet spot than 5 weeks.
The brewers of Orval have said they like it at 6 months, on average, so yes. i'd be concerned about bottle bombs if you have not followed SG closely. Brett never quits.
I bottle Brett beers in champagne bottles. I do pay close attention to the "clean" SG, estimate how much further Brett will take it, and size (i.e. reduce or eliminate) priming sugar accordingly. I've never had a champagne bottle blow up, but I have had a couple of near gushers, i.e. foam that forms immediately upon opening the bottle, rising to the very top of the bottle. But I think it's just a matter of time until I open a spurter. Note: for a lot of bottle conditioned Brett beers, I'd recommend no priming sugar at all. But when you're shooting for Orval carbonation levels, you have to play a wee bit of Russian Roulette.
