I believe it is about time to bottle my sour (Lambic inspired beer using ECY20 - Bug County with Apricot Puree added). The beer is about 13 to 14 months old and while I know the yeast/bugs are still active, should I add more yeast when bottling for this batch? I would assume the Brett is still active but my worry is that the pedio is as well which only poses a problem as I am under the impression that it does not produce CO2 as a byproduct of fermentation. I want to make sure that the CO2 producing yeast/bacteria get at the simple sugars first so I have a nice bottled sour. I have an active starter of WLP051 and I have a Brett culture that I can add (I know Brett is more tolerant of acidic environments).
I just bottled a 1 gal batch that I brewed in June of 2012. I used some rehydrated wine yeast and did about 1/3 of an eye dropper full into each bottle. Unfortunately I just did it on Sunday so I don't know if it did much yet. I would say to add some yeast to be safe, wine/champagne yeast is cheap. You will want to add priming sugar as well. Also, feel free to send me some of tht ecy20!
Yeah I was pissed that I forgot to pick up wine yeast when at my LHBS over the weekend! I may add a little bit of yeast to the bottling bucket just to make sure I get some very active yeast into the beer. I was hoping to open up this fermentor this week so I can toss a simple low abv sour (similar to a Berliner Weisse) into it to try to have ready for the later portion of summer.
I would add fresh (active) yeast as well as fresh Brett to the bucket and mix into the entire batch then bottle. I added fresh yeast to my Lambic and Blackberry Sour. I didn't reyeast on the Mango Sour (same as blackberry but split bathces) which turned into a Diacetyl bomb right after packaging, and it took forever to carbonate and clean up.
I always add wine yeast to my long-aged sours, just for insurance purposes. I'm sure they would all carb up over time anyways, but when I've invested a year plus in each of them, I want to make sure they do. Champagne yeast is super cheap and does the job.
I have had mixed results when not reyeasting. Some carbed up quickly, others took months and the rest didn't. Now I use EC1118 as it's readily available but I see more and more commercial brewer using DV10 instead. It's supposed to be cleaner then EC1118. I can't say I've ever noticed off flavors that could be attributed to the bottling yeast.
Semi related question: What's the shortest time anyone has bottled a sour? I am wondering if you could let it sit in primary for a few months then condition it in the bottle for the next year or so.
I've done 4 week primary on 2 beers and bottled, then let age for like 19 months now. I used 3726 on 5 gallons and 3726 plus RR dregs starter on 3/4 gallon, got them both down to 1.005, and then blended them at bottling. Regular reused 12oz brown bottles. No bombs. Had one hit a huge Diacetyl stage that I hate to wait to clear up. They foam up quite a bit upon opening, just like Orval.
Did you have to add additional sugar while bottling or did it just slowly carb over the year and a half?
Thanks. I think I'll give it a try in a month or two (I brewed it about 7 weeks ago). It seems easier to store in bottles rather than a carboy.
I would check gravity and make sure it is pretty low. If the gravity is very high I could see potential bombs happening. I don't know what a good gravity would be to bottle at to ensure enough carbonation though.
