6 months in my accidental Lambic- Advice needed

My lambic started with a long brew day back in July and a pack of Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend laying around. I brewed a 8 gallon batch wheat ale with a 55/35/10 White wheat, German Pilsner, and Caravienne and decided to experiment at the last minute with no thought with 4 gallons of wort. I pitched US-05 and 3278 at the same time at roughly 70 degrees (I assume this is not the correct method).

That was 6 months ago now and today I had the first tasting. So far it seems good, real nice sour aroma and the taste is great. Light sourness up front with a light malt finish. This being my first sour, I am debating to add fruit or not at this point or if I need to add additional dredge from another sour to increase the sourness a tad. Thoughts?

There is still a light pellicle on top of the brew and plan to give it at least a few more months.

Sorry if it seems like I am rambling a bit ha.

You didn't need to use the S-05, otherwise all is good.

6 months is not long, it is probably just starting to sour. You can add dregs from other beers if you want, but it is not necessary. It should continue to sour for at least another 6 months.

I was going to add the dregs from one more sour I plan I drinking today and just letting it ride.

Nothing wrong with adding dregs, more complexity is never bad. Give it another few months before thinking about fruit, 6 months is very young for a sour.

Yeah I waited to this point just to give it a taste to make sure all was going well.

I would like to bottle around late June or early July, would adding fruit hinder this at all? I would prefer to wait but with a move around that time I would like to have this brew bottled prior to.

cuse88 said:

Yeah I waited to this point just to give it a taste to make sure all was going well.

I would like to bottle around late June or early July, would adding fruit hinder this at all? I would prefer to wait but with a move around that time I would like to have this brew bottled prior to.

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Most of the fruit lambic producers wait until the beer is sufficiently sour before racking onto fruit for a couple of months. The reason for this is that fruit character can fade over time. If you rack now, it'll continue to sour and maybe lose fruit character by the time you get to June/July.

If you absolutely need it to be bottled by then, I would wait until March/April to put it onto fruit.

What fruit? I go anywhere from 3-4 mos to past 6....depending on the fruit and the amount.

Thing is, with sour beers...they're done, when they're done. Nothing you can do about that. It's the beers choice, not yours. It may not be ready yet when you move. How far are you moving? Are you willing to bottle beer that's not ready after waiting over a year just to remain on schedule?

Yea, the moving distance is key too. I moved with a Flanders in a carboy where I had always made sure the airlock had water. The move was just across the city and it sloshed around really good but it held up amazingly well.

It's quite the move 5+ hours so my concern is infection/oxidation during the move.

Would transferring it into a corny keg and purging with co2 be an option for travel if the beer is not yet ready for bottling?

cuse88 said:

It's quite the move 5+ hours so my concern is infection/oxidation during the move.

Would transferring it into a corny keg and purging with co2 be an option for travel if the beer is not yet ready for bottling?

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Yes you could keg it.

Or just plug the fermenter. There is no real activity, and little entrained CO2, so it should be OK.

cuse88 said:

It's quite the move 5+ hours so my concern is infection/oxidation during the move.

Would transferring it into a corny keg and purging with co2 be an option for travel if the beer is not yet ready for bottling?

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It is already infected

You could use a solid bung, or yes, put it in a purged corn. You could keep it in there for a while, just remember to vent it once a week