I took 5 litres of a recently brewed black ipa (I took the 5l before the dry hopping) and stuck it into a Demijohn, and put in a vial of WLP650, put in a bung and airlock.
The FG of the Sacc Fermentation was about 1.014, so my plan is to leave the demi for about 6 months in the attic, it's cellar cool up there usually.
Do I expect to see a new vigorous fermentation to kick off, airlock bubbles and krausen, or will the brett get to work quietly and just do what it does?
I can and will be very patient with it, so no bother if leaving it longer than 6 months would do good.
Anyone got advice or observations?
Don't expect it to be violent. It will chug away quietly. You'll get a pellicle after a couple of weeks that will show you it's working. Definitely be patient when using Brett in secondary, it takes longer to make an impression as it has less to work with. I've had best results from 6 months onwards.
great, I didn't know to expect a pellicle at all, I might post pics once that comes on it, but I was super careful with my starsan and all anyway, as usual.
Thanks!
Question
will the pellicle appear and stay, or will it disappear after a while?
As far as I remember, I've had a pellicle on every brett beer I've made so far. They hang around as long as the vessel stays undisturbed. I've read that it's possible for them to drop on their own, but have yet to experience that for myself. Sometimes when you move the vessel around, you knock some co2 from the beer and it causes really cool pellicle bubbles to blow up on the surface.
You won't necessarily get a pellicle on the beer unless there's oxygen ingress. If you transferred under CO2 you may not even see one. What I would do is try and keep the temperature above 18c or the Brett will go dormant. Even better is keep it up at about 25c. I do a lot of primary and secondary Brett fermentations and the only time I see a pellicle is when I introduce dry hops which carry in oxygen along with them. Keep it warmish and be patient and you should be fine!
Good point. I've never transferred under CO2, so I've always had some oxygen pick up and pellicle as a result. Not to the detriment of the beer though.