Abstract: A Brillouin fiber optic gyroscope has a cavity loop that includes a first length of optical fiber wound as a first number of turns in a first direction to provide a selected system response that includes the dynamic range of gyroscope rotation rate, the resolution of the gyroscope rotation rate measurement, the relative lock-in range and the relative Kerr-effect-induced beat-frequency bias. The cavity loop further includes a second length of optical fiber wound as a second number of turns in the same direction as the first number of turns and wound as a third number of turns in an opposite direction to the winding direction of the first and second number of turns. The effect of the second and third number of turns is to increase the overall length of the optical fiber in the cavity loop to reduce the pump power required to generate Brillouin laser light within the cavity loop without increasing the Sagnac effect within the cavity loop.