I have about four gallons of a brown I soured with brett lambicus in October '11 sitting in a bucket in my cellar. About five months ago, I racked about a half gallon of it into a carboy and blended it with a couple gallons of a freshly brewed brown ale, which had finished at 1.010. Five months later it's still at 1.010, but it tastes fantastic, and I would like to bottle it. I have very little experience with making sour beers. If I bottled it would I risk exploding bottles? How do I go about priming it? I'm at a loss. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
I think if you have a gravity of 1.010 in another week you've hit FG and you're ready to bottle. You've probably been at FG for a while. What temp do you have the beer at? Also, you'll need fresh yeast for the sugar in the priming solution.
But not too much fresh yeast...I'd say a half pack of a dry yeast (US-05) would be sufficient for a 5 gal batch
I'd go with a 5g packet of Red Star Pasteur Champagne. It'll only eat the priming sugar, and costs $0.75 at my LHBS.
Thanks for your reply. I have a packet of Lavlin Champagne on hand. I assume that'd work? I have three gallons of the blended beer, so if I used a half packet, give or take, it'd probably be ok? Do I just use the normal amount of priming sugar and sprinkle the yeast into the bottling bucket at bottling time? Thanks again. I'm pumped about getting this stuff into bottles.
Thanks! In the fall (when I blended the batches), the cellar temp is around 60, but in the middle of winter it's at 50. Like I said, the gravity hasn't budged. When I soured the original batch the pellicle formed during the middle of the winter, so it didn't seem to me that low temps completely deterred brett activity.
Not to go off on a tangent, but, since there's not likely to be any more yeast derived flavors, might baker's yeast be a suitable option for carbonation? (about $.03 at Costco)
