I have a couple experimental bottles of a Berliner Weisse bottled with Orval dregs. Anyone make a Brett Berliner and have thoughts about ideal aging time for some nice character without being overpowering?
A proper traditional Berliner Weisse should contain Brettanomyces bruxellensis. Usually it would be left to bottle condition for several months to give the Brattanomycesw time to work its magic.
Yes, I've done a couple of Berliners with Brett, it takes a couple of months for it to express. If you had any off flavors during the souring, the Brett seems to "work" on them and clean them up; well, turn them to funkiness, at least.
In terms of expression of Brett character, it also has a lot to do with the viability/vitality of the yeast as well as pitch rate. I realize Brett is usually a tenacious little creature, but these are still factors. You mentioned bottle dregs. Did you just pitch the dregs from a couple bottles into your bottling bucket? Any idea on the age of the Orval bottles?
It was kind of a last minute throw together, I was bottling a few leftovers and had a pretty fresh Orval in the fridge. Dregs from one bottle of Orval in one 750 and one 12 oz bottle. The thought was to test for a larger amount of my next batch of Berliner.
Oh cool! Dregs from one fresh bottle into roughly 3x the volume should be plenty for quick results. I'd taste the smaller bottle after 2-3 months like the others above suggested. Let us know how it goes! Cheers!
