Two attempts at growing brettanomyces claussenii

Posted on January 27th, 2008 by John Little

WLP645 Brettanomyces claussenii is described as having “Low intensity Brett character. Originally isolated from strong English stock beer, in the early 20th century. The Brett flavors produced are more subtle than WLP650 and WLP653. More aroma than flavor contribution. Fruity, pineapple like aroma. B. claussenii is closely related to B. anomalus.”

The first picture is of my first attempt to grow a brettanomyces claussenii starter. I poured a vial of WLP645 into a sterile quart jar of wort and placed the jar on a stir plate for a couple of weeks (with the lid turned open a bit to allow oxygen in). The picture shows the result. It looks like a good bit of slurry has accumulated in the bottom of the jar, but the slurry is really dark and I’m not sure what that disgusting stuff on the top is.

first attempt at brettanomyces claussenii starter (view 1)

This is a close up view of the stuff growing on the top. Click any of these pics for a high resolution version. I decided something must have been wrong with this culture, or perhaps I contaminated the starter with some sort of mold. I didn’t use it.

first attempt at brettanomyces claussenii starter (view 2)

The next two pics are of my second attempt at growing a brett. c. starter. I purchased a new vial of WLP645. This time I poured a couple of quart jars of sterile wort into a vase and placed on a stir plate, covering only with aluminum foil to allow oxygen in. The vase on the right is the Brett. C., and the one on the left is a WLP001 starter. Notice the difference in color. I pitched the 645 and the 001 into their respective starter wort at the same time.

second attempt at brettanomyces claussenii starter (view 1)

The next picture is of the Brett. C. stater about a week later after I’d added a couple more quarts of starter wort. You can see the line that had formed around the inside of the vase during the first week. Since this starter looked so good (and smelled good too), I decided to use it in my first ever 100% Brett only brew, a Saison. It’s going to be a while before I know how it turns out. For now I just wanted to record what I observed with the 2 different starters.

second attempt at brettanomyces claussenii starter (view 2)

Filed under: Brettanomyces, Saison, Starters

5 Responses to “Two attempts at growing brettanomyces claussenii”
  1. Brian, on March 3rd, 2008 at 10:13 am Said:

    In the first batch, isnt that the pellicle? I know it looks a touch moldy, but mine had some similar goodness on it when it was fermenting as well. I almost think that when brewing with Brett its better to use a fermenter that you cant see through, cause there is some scary stuff going on in there.

  2. John Little, on March 3rd, 2008 at 9:14 pm Said:

    I’m not sure if that’s a pellicle or not. Maybe they all look different, but this one was extremely ugly and foul. It really looked like mold. I just didn’t trust it. I guess with more experience, I’ll get more comfortable with it.

  3. Bill, on June 19th, 2008 at 1:55 pm Said:

    I would recommend against allowing a lot of oxygen in and would look for a more airtight container. Brett produces more acetic acid when it has oxygen than it does without it. I have gotten similar white mold in some carboys of lambic where the airlock dried out. I think your mold problem was because of oxygen. Because Brett grows very slowly, I don’t use starters and just pitch the tubes direct into the secondary. My understanding is that it can take months for Brett to really gro, so I don’t think a starter does much good. Maybe I’m wirng but I was told that by an employee from a different yeast manufacturer.

    Thansk for sharing your info and the pics.

  4. Anton, on July 22nd, 2008 at 1:56 pm Said:

    Interesting. The first one kind of looks like a pellicle but if you look at the closer picture the spider web looking stuff with the black spots definately looks like mold. Bill is correct with the acetic being produced but also it would require a lot more oxygen than you would get from a starter, more so from a barrel that has been aging for quite some time. The white labs vial is perfect for innoculating a five gallon batch, just bring to room temperature and pitch the yeast. However for doing an all brett beer I would recommend doing twice the ammount of yeast than when using a straight sacro strain. Limiting the amount of oxygen will also stress the brett out and cause a more pronounced flavor in the beer than introducing oxygen either before or during fermentation.
    John, I think you did the right thing by throwing out the first, always trust your instincts even when working with something you haven’t worked with before.
    One other thing to remember is that brett will work really slowly, so you may have a very vigorous begining to your fermentation but doing rush it. I would expect it to act more like wine yeast so maybe two months would be a good time to check the gravity and see how close to being done it is.
    thanks for the posting and good luck.

  5. Anton, on July 24th, 2008 at 6:14 pm Said:

    mycelium. Thats what you got. Showed it to a friend who knows that kind of stuff. Good job throwin it out.

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