[James K]

I have two beers I will be bottling in a few months and am looking for help/information on how I might be able to condition these beers.

First I have a saison that stalled at 1.020 using 3711 yeast. I added brett b after moving the batch into secondary. I want to bottle the beer in mid August for an October competition. In the secondary the beer looks to be infected. Almost like a moon colony or something. How should I bottle condition this beer? Or what should my next steps be? I use 750ml bottles and my last beer I bottled I used yeast and sugar to carbonate.

The second beer I have is also a saison but with wlp550. I just brewed this and it is still in primary. I want to spike this with wlp655 after it finishes.

Should I bottle these two beers in a similar fashion? I do not have a bottling gun and use an auto syphon and bottling bucket.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[reverseapachemaster]

In both cases you don't want to bottle until the gravity is stable (or account for continued fermentation) and the flavor is where you want it. Gravity moves slowly on these beers so you should take tests 3-4 weeks apart to see if there is continued movement.

If there is any chance you are not at FG for the organisms in the beer then you should bottle in thicker bottles. You can prime as usual with those beers. You can add fresh beer or wine yeast at bottling. I usually do if the beer has sat more than six months as an insurance for timely carbonation. If the beer has sat for a long period it may be necessary to increase priming sugar to account for the CO2 that has left suspension. Priming calculators assume an amount of residual CO2 in suspension greater than what is normally in aged beer.

[James K]

Thanks.
I imagine that everything should work. I just have a brix reader. I know the brett has eaten away at sugars. I can see the drop on the side on the carboy.
Should I be worried about the moon colony/crowson at the top of the carboy? It's a very thin layer. I was going to draw the beer from the bottom and then the bottom/last bottles would have to worry about it.

[brewinhard]

Thanks.
I imagine that everything should work. I just have a brix reader. I know the brett has eaten away at sugars. I can see the drop on the side on the carboy.
Should I be worried about the moon colony/crowson at the top of the carboy? It's a very thin layer. I was going to draw the beer from the bottom and then the bottom/last bottles would have to worry about it.

If you added Brett B. then what you are observing is a thin pellicle. Pellicles typically form from the brett cells responding to oxygen to help protect their nutrient source (your beer underneath). Give it some time to work on the remaining sugars prior to bottling. Brett can take at least a couple mos to drive the gravity down.

Besides that, Reverse gave some great tips and insight in his post!