Questions about Brett drei...

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by Cabbage_pants1, Nov 22, 2013.

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  1. Cabbage_pants1

    Cabbage_pants1 Initiate (0) Apr 16, 2012 Indiana

    I recently acquired a 5 gallon batch of wort from the brewery I work for...we spiked it with a single strain of 5 month old brettanomyoces drei yeast. I have never rocked a single strain of Brett yeast before and because of this I have no clue what to expect... It's about 2 days into what should be its fermentation but I see no signs. Every other experience I've had with Brett i kicked off the souring with a normal ale yeast... Then added a collection of strange bugs and fungus... Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated... Thanks k bye
     
    #1 Cabbage_pants1, Nov 22, 2013
  2. OldSock

    OldSock Maven (1,418) Apr 3, 2005 District of Columbia

    You pitched a single 5 month old vial of White Labs Brett Trois? Those only have about 2.5 billion cell when the are fresh; for a 100% Brett ferment you want at least ale pitching rate. So ~100+ billion cell depending on your OG. Hopefully it kicks off soon, next time make a starter!
     
    #2 OldSock, Nov 22, 2013
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  3. Thorpe429

    Thorpe429 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,705) Aug 18, 2008 Illinois
    Pooh-Bah

    Do you have a specific method for getting up to ~100b cells, or know of a calculator that provides the ability to enter the initial cell count? Unless I'm missing something, I don't see that on Mr. Malty.
     
    #3 Thorpe429, Nov 22, 2013
  4. OddNotion

    OddNotion Pooh-Bah (1,915) Nov 1, 2009 New Jersey
    Pooh-Bah

    I think mr malty makes the assumption of the number of cells in a fresh tube/pack and uses a time dependent calculation to come up with the amount left that is viable after X number of days/months.
     
    #4 OddNotion, Nov 22, 2013
  5. Thorpe429

    Thorpe429 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,705) Aug 18, 2008 Illinois
    Pooh-Bah

    Right. The only thing I could think to do when utilizing Mr Malty would be to use the date to intentionally get the viability number really low to reflect the different in Brett cells per vial as opposed to Sacc cells in "normal" vials.
     
    #5 Thorpe429, Nov 22, 2013
  6. OddNotion

    OddNotion Pooh-Bah (1,915) Nov 1, 2009 New Jersey
    Pooh-Bah

    Hmmm I did forget about the whole not having a Brett option... I have heard of people using lager rates, although that still does not take into account the tiny tiny number of cells in a WL tube.
     
    #6 OddNotion, Nov 22, 2013
  7. OldSock

    OldSock Maven (1,418) Apr 3, 2005 District of Columbia

    I like: http://www.yeastcalc.com/

    Brett doesn't grow in exactly the same way/rate as Sacch, but the key hear is getting a lot more cells than you start with. Brett takes about a week to reach peak cell density on a stir-plate. So it takes a couple steps, and a couple weeks.
     
    #7 OldSock, Nov 25, 2013
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  8. Thorpe429

    Thorpe429 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,705) Aug 18, 2008 Illinois
    Pooh-Bah

    Awesome, thanks for the link, Mike. I hadn't seen this before and had just used lager pitching rates from Mr. Malty after letting the starter go for 2 weeks being stepped up once, based loosely on interviews I've heard with Chad Y. It'll be nice to have something a little more concrete to use as a measurement.
     
    #8 Thorpe429, Nov 25, 2013
  9. Cabbage_pants1

    Cabbage_pants1 Initiate (0) Apr 16, 2012 Indiana

    So! The fermentation kicked off like a champ!... I actually used about 7 times the suggested amount on this batch as it was designed for a 7 barrel pitch a gift from a brewery I work for we split the pitch between about 6 carboys... Great success... Haha thanks for everyone's help!
     
    #9 Cabbage_pants1, Nov 26, 2013
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