Lambic Primary Fermentation

Hello. I am new to brewing lambics and had some questions aout primary fermentation. I am using the frumentacious framboise recipe in papazian's book: the homebrewer's companion. In the directions it says, "... if you are using glass fermenters, you will need to split the 5.5 gal batch evenly between two 5-gallon fermenters for primary fermentation. Allow batch to ferment with the fruit for one month(added @ end of boil & steeped in 150-160F for 30 minutes), then siphon into one secondary fermenter..."

I am thinking you need to split the batch if you are not using a blowoff... i plan on letting it primary ferment in an ale pail (as it will be easer to rack off of fruit) for the first month with a blowoff then rack into secondary. Does this sound alright? Will i lose some of the bacterias from the lambic yeasts if I use a blowoff? Thanks for any possible help.

I think the main reason for dual primaries is the fact that fruit takes up a ton of room, it grows with the yeast during primary fermentation, this is without knowing the details of the recipe. When I make fruit wine I end up with appx. 3 gallons from a 5 gallon batch fermented with fruit.

Using a blowoff will be fine, just dont rely on getting 5 gallons from the finished product if you use one ale pail.

Ya thats what I've experienced brewing fruit beers before too. Blackberry and kiwi wits, etc. and I've never really had a problem using an ale pail as a primary. The recipe calls for 8 lbs crushed raspberries. I've used 5 lbs before and there was adequate room in there.

WOW 8# of raspberries is A LOT of raspberries, I think you could easily get away with substantially less

also, I probably wouldnt heed much of charlies advice on sour brewing, I appreciate what he did for the hobby but now a lot of the things he recommends are a bit suspect, makes me think of that uncle that everyone has that had it together at one point, but not anymore

I would suggest going straight to the glass, racking lambics isnt necessary as the cake feeds the bugs, then in say 9mos or so, taste it and see what you think about the beer, for fruit lambics i like to use base beers that are much softer in character this allows the fruit to show through and the acidity doesnt become too dominant

Ya i know what you mean. Many of Charlie's recipes are hit or miss. I too thought that 8 lbs of raspberries was a bit extreme myself. I've had good experiences using 1 lb of fruit per 1 gallon of beer. I was probably going to end up going off of that.

The recipe is as follows:
4 lbs light DME
1 lb 20-40L crystal/caramel malt
.75 oz Styrian Goldings

Does that seem like a good base beer for a lambic. Again I am new to brewing these and am not really sure what to look for recipe wise. Thanks again for your help.