I've been planning a Tripel for several months now, but haven't yet gotten around to brewing it yet. My initial plan was to ferment with WY3787, then split off half the batch and add Brett B. However, now I'm thinking that since I made the $15 investment in a pack of Brett B, I may as well inoculate the entire batch. So my question: if I co-pitch WY3787 and Brett B in primary, should I still transfer to a secondary after about a month's time, or am I safe to just let it go in primary for how ever many months it takes for gravity to stabilize?
I have homebrewed three batches of a Belgian Pale Ale using the yeast blend of Wyeast 3789. It is my understanding that it is a blend of Bastogne Ale yeast and Brett B. I have always just conducted a primary and then bottled when primary fermentation completed; no secondary. I have no idea how a co-pitch of 3787 (I use that yeast a lot) and Brett B will 'behave' but I can report that my 3789 beers come out very, very funky. Based upon this data, I would be willing to bet your co-pitch will be very, very funky as well. So, if you want a very, very funky Tripel perform a co-pitch. Otherwise you might want to conduct a primary fermentation with 3787 and then secondary with the Brett B? Cheers!
If your batch goes like my three batches you will get much more than a bit. My last batch (bottled 1/5/17) went three weeks in the primary. OG = 1.055 FG = 1.006 Cheers!
I have my maiden voyage with Brett (in this case, WLP650) getting under way. Primary is with WLP550. Still agonizing about exactly when to add Brett, but my Brett was about a month past its best-by date, so getting it to the point where it "looks" viable is confounding the decision.
Hmm, maybe it's all relative, but the two times that I've had Orval I didn't think it was all that funky. I know they don't add their Brett until bottling, so maybe I just had some fresh bottles which didn't have time to develop that Brett character.
Yup, Orval needs time in the bottle to develop funk. Based upon my readings Orval adds Brett twice: in a secondary after primary is complete and also at bottling. Cheers!
It's up to you. Co-pitching should result in more Brett character, as opposed to adding Brett at secondary. Personally, I would copitch, and then rack to secondary. A little extra oxygen won't hurt the Brett, (might help actually). Then again, probably fine just leaving in primary. There is no "wrong" way to do it.
Thanks for all of the replies. My biggest concern was if the Brett were to take a long time to finish up, would leaving the beer on the trub for a long time be as problematic as it is with normal clean beers. From @JackHorzempa's experience, it doesn't sound like the primary fermentation should take that long. I'm planning to age this beer for at least a few months before consumption, but was hoping to do that in champagne bottles instead of in a carboy.
I immediately bottle post primary fermentation and that 'works' for me. I personally do not notice a lot of difference with bottle aging. My beers are very funky 'young' and equally funky 'old' (I have aged up to three years). Cheers!
The brett in this blend will finish up faster than adding brett in secondary. You can do a short secondary to remove yeast/trub but it is not mandatory. You can bottle at 4-5 weeks after pitching yeast if you don't have too much caramel malt in the recipe (sounds like that won't be an issue) and you get it a little warm, ~70F, at the end of fermentation. You should have some decent funk as soon as your bottles are carbonated and it will continue to develop for a long time. I use Orval dregs rather than the WY blend, but they are pretty similar. I like the resulting beers best at 12-18 months after bottling but they are very tasty much sooner.
That shouldn't be a problem. I haven't finalized the recipe yet, but I'm looking at something like this for fermentables: Pilsner - 13 lb Munich - 1 lb Cane Sugar - 2 lb I might put a little Rye in there somewhere just for head retention and to be adventurous, but I haven't decided yet.
