Hey guys, I just put a brett beer in secondary. It was at 1.020 when I racked to secondary (big beer, done with primary fermentation.) I am planning on leaving it in secondary with brett b until at LEAST November. Come time to bottle, will i need to prime??? Or will the brett continue to ferment in bottle, sans DME or dextrose, and carbonate the beer? (assuming the beer isn't at 1.000 by that point.)
you prime it like you would with any beer. otherwise, it won't carbonate. just a warning, though...you racked to secondary when the gravity was pretty darn high. i have a feeling that you'll need 6+ months for that bad boy to be ready. think you can expect it to drop by 1-2 points a month. you're looking for the gravity to be around 1.008, i believe, when you add brett. if you decide to bottle come November, make sure you install cork on your ceiling and sponge on your floor. what other, more experienced posters should answer is: is he best sitting and waiting for the brett to chomp or should he add a "finishing" yeast to the secondary to bring down the gravity a bit more?
While November may seem like a good time frame, each fermentation is different and I would advise waiting for the gravity to stabilize before bottling. Check the SG in September, October, November etc until it remains unchanged for at least month. The gravity may be 1.008, or it could be .998.
You can treat it like normal yeast when it comes to bottling. In my experience brett by itself is not super attenuative and finishes at 1.010 (I am sure that this depends on which strain you have but this is my experience).
I had a brett B beer finish below 1.000 (it was something like .998). That took 4 months but it was a 100% fermentation. Just check the gravity in November and see what it says. Bottle condition like you would with any other beer. What is the beer?
Shit, I have a 100% Brett L that is at 1.004 after 2 months in primary. I just pit ito on oak and DH'd it last night so I need to bottle it this weekend or else it is going to be WAY too oaky. Should I assume that it will go lower and just bottle it without any priming sugar? Should I prime as usual but go with some thick champagne bottles just in case? Or should I just bottle it and figure that 1.004 is too low to make bombs? It was at 1.006 last month before I added a lb of dark candi syrup.
