In “The Many Faces of Brett: Overview,” we offered up a broad overview of the three most popular strains of Brettanomyces for homebrewers and what they can do for (and to) your beer. But once you’ve decided you’re ready to ride that horse out of the barnyard and into the funky sunset, where do you start?
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered . . . with a sweaty blanket.
Contamination and Sanitation
Brewers are part mad scientist, part artist, and we’re not immune to a little superstition. So perhaps it’s no surprise that brewing lore often dictates that beers fermented with Brettanomyces be kept strictly asunder from those made with Saccharomyces to avoid contaminating the latter with the former. It’s also commonly claimed that Brett is harder to get rid of than other microbes, which does have some truth to it, but reality is probably less apocalyptic than legend implies.