Friday, June 11, 2010

Bottling of brett beers

Date - April 4, 2010

Bottled both brett beers today in part b/c I was thinking of entering them into the Puget Sound Pro-Am and needed some carbonation if I wanted to do so. Because the brett takes hold of anything plastic or porous, I used old equipment here and it will be set aside for future brett beers only. It was kind of time to replace some stuff anyways, so I purchased new hoses, siphons, bottling wand, etc. for all regular beers.

Nothing else really different here compared to other bottlings, but I was concerned about carbonation and possible bottle bombs w/ the brett. For a few weeks, I put the bottles in a big plastic bin and then left in my shower during the day to contain any possible mess.

1. Saison de Deux Médecine w/ Brett
  • 1.006 at bottling ~ 6.55% ABV and 89.3% attenuation
  • the brett took it from 1.014 to 1.006 FG and 75% to 89.3% attenuation
  • last time I used ~ ½ cup of sugar for just over 2 gallons of end product and it turned out quite over-carbonated; so ¼ cup per gallon is a little high
  • so this time I used closer ~ 1/5 cup of sugar per gallon (slightly under ½ cup total) and the end product (based on bottle filling) was 2.25 gallons
  • carbonation still seems like kind of a crap shoot to me though and is something I need to try to understand better in terms of volume of CO2, etc. that you want for certain styles and how to achieve that based on sugar and OG/FG

2. Rêve de Wallonia w/ Brett
  • 1.008 FG at bottling ~ 8.7% ABV and 89.2% attenuation
  • the brett to it from 1.010 to 1.008 FG and 86.5% to 89.2% attenuation
  • less impact of the brett (in terms of numbers) in this beer
  • same approximate sugar amounts used here

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