Brewed my first batch with Brett, a big Saison with a Czech-inspired ingredient list and double-decoction mash. OG was 1,080, and after 11 days it’s at 1,016. I racked it last night into my 5 gal ported Big Mouth Bubbler, it tastes great with a bit of Brett character coming through. Is it recommended for Brett beers to be kept in secondary for a longer period of time before bottling? I don’t have my kegging system anymore, I was planning on 1-2 weeks in secondary with another gravity check in about 7 days. I use corn sugar tablets and bottle directly from the secondary.
I wouldn’t bottle a brett beer with a gravity over 1.008, unless it has been stable for several months. The brett can slowly break down some of the residual sugars, and each gravity point will yield about 0.5 volumes additional CO2. My sacch/brett beers typically finish around 1.000-1.005, so you’re potentially looking at 8 additional volumes of CO2 in your bottles. Boom!
Amount of time in secondary completely depends on how attenuative the sacch strain is, but very generally speaking you probably want to leave it in secondary for 3 to 6 months. Instead of checking your gravity over a week to see if it’s stable, I’d plan on checking it a month apart to make sure it’s stable.
Think 3 months. But stability of gravity should be your indicator.
