Sour priming

That is where it starts to get tricky. You could bottle it as is, no sugar and no extra yeast, and depending upon the feelings of the bacteria, they may decide to wake up/bloom and self carb your bottles. Is your FG under 1.005 yet? I've heard tale of bacteria going low like wine, going down to .990s. It is certainly safer to force carb, but if you are he'll bent on bottle prime, I would say go easy on the priming sugar, and skip the yeast. Just my $.02, I'm sure others can weigh in with their opinions.

 

I'm very curious about this as well, as I have a sour that has been in the carboy for 13.5 months now and is just about ready to bottle (currently at 1.011). Looking forward to any and all responses.

 

I usually use a tiny pinch (1/4 tsp dry per 5 gallons) of champagne yeast, add priming sugar as for any other beer, but only for sours that are at least a year old and 1.005 or lower. Works every time and I've never had bottle bombs.

 

i've had typical "neck gushers" a la Jolly Pumpkin. i haven't made enough sours to confidently tell you what to do, but my 2 cents?

-no champagne yeast - there is PLENTY of brett in what you have
-prime on the low end of the style spectrum to be on the safe side
-usually, for sacch, i assume that it is carbonated after 2 weeks and tastes good after 4-6 weeks from bottling time. for brett, and depending on the strain, i wouldn't sample it for at least 4 weeks and i assume that it takes 9 weeks from bottling to get the true flavour

 

Great info here guys, thanks! Just stole a taste of my 6 month old sour last night. Never considered what I was going to do when it's done.

 

This is what I follow and it has worked very well every time.

http://microbebrewer.blogspot.com/2013/04/spring-time-in-rockies-sour-beer.html

"
Bottling Sour Beer:
I have now used this method for 5 batches of beer and it has worked out very well each time. I would like to note that the beer that I use this for is almost completely flat and has no fermentable sugars left. I use freshly cultured champagne yeast because it is both acid and alcohol tolerant. It may produce a tiny amount of fruity aroma but I have not noticed it in the bottles. For 5 gallons I dissolve 3.5 ounces of table sugar in 1 cup of water and bring it to a boil. I then add the sugar water to the bottling bucket along with about 5 milliliters of Champagne yeast slurry (the slurry is fairly liquid). After a quick and gentle stir it is ready to bottle!"

 

I've bottled 5 sours now. The first was a 3.5% abv sour mashed Berliner style, that I fermented 6 weeks w/ German Ale and RR Supplication dregs (built up starter). No reyeasting, but only 6 weeks old, was drinking in 3 weeks. 2nd was a 1 gallon experiment with a Belgian Strong that finished @ 1.021... over a year on dregs and it hit 1.002. Didn't reyeast, never carbed, opened each bottle and reyeasted, still waiting on carbonation. 3rd was a Lambic that I bottled @ 12 months, reyeasted, was drinking it in 2 weeks. 4 & 5, Sour Blonde split - one on Blackberries and Oak, the other on Mangoes and Dry Hopped. Reyeasted the Blackberry, drinking in 2 weeks. Didn't reyeast the Mango, drinking after 3 months and the DH is fading fast.

Since you want the fruit character to be evident, you will want to start consuming as early as possible. I would recommend reyeasting and carbonating at 72*F for 2 weeks, then check a bottle. I filled a mini plastic water bottle (8-12oz?) and tightened down the cap tight to carb with the rest, when it is solid and no longer gives when you try to crush it, then the beers are carbed.

Just a side to the whole yeast or not discussion, check that FG again, I wouldn't bottle that at 1.009... I did that once, it wasn't pretty.

 

Here's my question:
what if you're using brett as a primary yeast? you aren't going to have to finishing out as low as you would if it is a secondary yeast, correct?

 

My understanding is that Brett as a primary works just like a Sacc primary, something around 75-80% att and then stops, doesn't keep eating the sugars like when added in secondary, and doesn't super att unless bacteria is involved. So if the beer is a single strain of Brett, no Sacc, no bacteria, secondary on pasteurized fruit (no bacteria or Brett from fruit skins) then 1.009 should be fine to bottle. ***I have yet to brew a Brett only beer yet (next month) and am assimilating this from other threads here, articles/interviews by Chad @ Crooked Stave, and Old Sock***

 

i just bottled an all-brett blonde. to be on the safe side, i primed on the lower end of the style range. unsure if i want to leave the beer for a year (or more) for aging.

brew all-bretts, man. they're fun!

 

What about using brett and sacc together in the primary?

 

what about it?
sacc multiplies at a fast rate, thereby inhibiting the brett growth curb (or delaying it). once the sacc eats what it cans and starts to die out, the brett slowwwly multiplies as it eats the leftover goodies.

same concept as (don't feel sick...i'm a pharmacist) a woman getting a yeast infection. yeast is always there. it finds its opportunity to grow and goes crazy.

 

Most 18 month old or younger sours do not need to be re-yeasted, but I often do anyway to speed things up and act as insurance. 1-2 grams of wine or Champagne yeast rehydrated is all it takes. Otherwise I prime as normal, depending on how much carbonation I want. As long as the gravity is stable for a few months, it doesn’t really matter what the gravity actually is. I’ve had sours finish as high as 1.020 (started at 1.120) and as low as 1.000. Just like a clean beer, the FG depends on the microbes and fermentability of the wort.

 

I also add a little champagne yeast as insurance and to speed carbonation. I prime slightly differently than I do normal beers. With any beer that has sat for more than six months or so (especially through summer) I add enough sugar to prime to one or two tenths above the desired CO2 volume. The reason why is that CO2 comes out of solution in beer as beer gets warmer and CO2 comes out naturally over time. My sour/wild/brett beers sit at ambient after primary fermentation ends. During the summer that part of my house can get up to 80F. So not only do I lose CO2 to temperature but the long warm period accelerates losing CO2 due to time. If you keep your beers at cooler temperatures then your time and temperature losses are probably minimal, even over a couples years, and you may not need to add additional priming sugar.

 

When you add your insurance yeast do you have to use heavy duty bottles or can you get away with typical bombers and 12 ounce bottles?

 

I've got a Lambic in Sierra Nevada bottle that is over 8 months in the bottle, in the garage, no probs yet. My Blackberry and Mango sour Blondes are both in standard 12oz bottles, no probs. My first beer, a sour mashed, then feremented with 1007 & Supplication dregs starter, bottled after only 6 weeks in standard 12oz bottles, and left in the garage through 2 summers have not popped. All were bottled to 3-3.5 vols CO2.

 

The amount of yeast doesn't determine the amount of carbonation produced, that is controlled by the available fermentables. Wine yeast will produce CO2 more rapidly than the residual microbes, but they won't make any additional CO2. I use standard bottles for most of my sours.

The key is waiting for a stable gravity before bottling. The 6 weeks mentioned above by jbarajust1, would be really pushing things for most methods.