I am planning on brewing a 5 gallon batch of Saison in the near future. After fermentation I plan on kegging 4 gallons, then racking the remaining gallon to secondary where it will meet French oak cubes and a brettanomyces culture. After about a month or so I will bottle it. I plan on saving the oak cubes to use in future batches with the assumption that they will be harboring brettanomyces. Any ideas on how to store them until the next batch?
Don't just leave them out in the open in the garage... I did that and the fruit flies loved it. Maybe if it were covered.
sanitize a ziploc bag, place them inside and then store in the fridge. i have nothing to back this up, just seems like it would be fine.
I don't think you'd be able to get them dry or store them in a way that preserves the brett without exposing them to lacto/pedio/aceto etc.
I would also be aware that not all strains of brettanomyces have the ability to survive in wood: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8aon7xmi3bna1e2/Brettanomyces-Yakobson.pdf "most of the Brettanomyces species which dominate during Lambic brewing do not generally have the necessary β‐glucosidase enzyme present to hydrolyse cellobiose." slide 7 (cellobiose is the sugar from cellulose in wood/plant material)
I was thinking of maybe putting them in a jar with just enough finished beer to cover them, screw the lid on tight, and store in the fridge. Whether or not the brett is living in the oak, I guess, would just have to be verified by the next batch. Experimentation, trial and error......
