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added brett starter info
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=Starter Information=
When pitching just Brettanomyces from a commercial pure or blended culture and no other microbes, it is recommended to make a starter for the culture. If the Brettanomyces is being pitched into secondary, no starter is necessary unless the brewer suspects that the Brettanomyces has lost a lot of viability due to age, heat exposure, etc.
There are two concepts unique to Brettanomyces compared to Saccharomyces when considering doing a starter. First, Brettanomyces performs best in a "semi-aerobic" environment. This means that the oxygen levels are low, but also not non-existent. An initial blast of oxygen into the wort, and foil left over the top to allow the air to slowly diffuse into the starter should be enough oxygen for the starter. With too much oxygen introduction, Brettanomyces can produce a lot of acetic acid. Since Brett does not flocculate very well, and cold crashing a Brett starter can lead to difficulties, limiting the acetic acid production during the starter fermentation by refraining from too much oxygen exposure is advised <ref>[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12655458 Brettanomyces bruxellensis: effect of oxygen on growth and acetic acid production. Aguilar Uscanga, Délia1, and Strehaiano. 2003.]</ref>.
The second aspect of Brettanomyces cell growth is that it typically takes about 7-8 days to reach it's maximum growth <ref>[http://www.brettanomycesproject.com/dissertation/propagation-and-batch-culture-growth/propagation-results/ Yakobson, Chad. The Brettanomyces Project. Propagation and Batch Culture Results. Retrieved 2/17/2015]</ref>. Thus, each step of a starter for Brett should be 7-8 days.
The steps for creating a Brettanomyces two step starter are as follows:
# Make approximately 300 ml of 1.030-1.040 gravity wort.
# Verify that the wort is a "semi-aerobic" environment.
# Pitch the Brett.
# Wait 8 days.
# Pour another 700 ml of 1.030-1.040 starter wort into the starter.
# Wait an additional 8 days.
# Pour the entire starter into the fermenter (a lot of Brettanomyces will stay in suspension, and is usually hard to decant even after cold crashing).
=See Also=