Hi All,
We have a young Brett and sour beer program. The bugs we have been using so far have been limited to lab strains of Brett, Lacto, and whatever came in on the whole fresh fruit we stuck in whichever barrel (likely a good deal).
We have a Pinot Noir barrel which was storing a Flanders Red style beer, pitched with Lacto more than a year ago. It obviously developed a Brett infection. It's almost certainly not one of our lab strains, as those barrels never even got in the same room with this barrel, and I have a good idea how it came about, as unfortunately this barrel spent a summer or so empty and dry as we were struggling to find an opportunity to brew beer for it (and had less experience storing barrels).
Anyway, now the beer inside smells pretty strongly of acetone. Obviously it will be dumped.
My question is, has anyone had much luck re-introducing barrels like this into their sour program?
It's a really nice barrel and it would be a shame to write it off.
With a good hot water cook, and maybe a healthy pitch of some other Brett, could this barrel be salvaged?
Or once you get ethyl acetate formed in a barrel, is it a lost cause, and time to turn it into a planter?
Thanks for your input,
Jesse Shue
Brewmaster
Golden Valley Brewery
We have a young Brett and sour beer program. The bugs we have been using so far have been limited to lab strains of Brett, Lacto, and whatever came in on the whole fresh fruit we stuck in whichever barrel (likely a good deal).
We have a Pinot Noir barrel which was storing a Flanders Red style beer, pitched with Lacto more than a year ago. It obviously developed a Brett infection. It's almost certainly not one of our lab strains, as those barrels never even got in the same room with this barrel, and I have a good idea how it came about, as unfortunately this barrel spent a summer or so empty and dry as we were struggling to find an opportunity to brew beer for it (and had less experience storing barrels).
Anyway, now the beer inside smells pretty strongly of acetone. Obviously it will be dumped.
My question is, has anyone had much luck re-introducing barrels like this into their sour program?
It's a really nice barrel and it would be a shame to write it off.
With a good hot water cook, and maybe a healthy pitch of some other Brett, could this barrel be salvaged?
Or once you get ethyl acetate formed in a barrel, is it a lost cause, and time to turn it into a planter?
Thanks for your input,
Jesse Shue
Brewmaster
Golden Valley Brewery
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