Lambic and regular beers. Same equipment. Risk?

Well, the title says it all.
I'm not really planning a lambic soon, (I'll fix my infections problems on my regular beers first!) but i'm curious.

If I want to do a sour beer with the same equipement in the same place that other regular all-cerevisiae beers, are they risks? I guess during the fermentation, there's no risk. But after it's bottled, and that my carboy, PVC siphon, bottling pail and eveything touched brett, lacto or pedio, etc, could it be difficult to sanitize that after?

No more than after any other batch. Pedio, lacto, brett and anything that might be infecting your beers today is everywhere in your house and on your equipment until you sanitize it. (After all, where do you think infections come from?) People will talk about the dreaded biofilm that will protect bacteria and wild yeast from sanitizer and carry infections over but if you clean your equipment thoroughly after use the probability of something sticking around and colonizing your equipment is very low. So clean after use, sanitize after cleaning if you like, then sanitize again before your next use.

All that said, a lot of us do have equipment we use just for sour/funky beers. In my case it's just because I bought some new equipment and decided I could get a little extra life out of the old stuff. Some people do buy a completely different set of equipment though. If it makes you feel more comfortable to have the second set, spend the $20 on bottling equipment and dedicate a fermentor to sours.

I've been wondering about this as well before getting into lacto/brett-fermented beers. I had kind of figured that proper sanitation would make it a non-issue, but I'm curious to see what others have to say.

I guess that If I age my pLambic for a year or two.. I will have time to buy another bottling pail and tubes. And just keep that glass carboy for lambic.

I was looking at Wyeast 3278.. many ones say to do no secondary, unless you use fruits. So I would guess like 6-12 months primary, 3-6 months with fruits...

And star san in the airlock to prevent spreading of the bacteria, if this can be an issue.

No issue with the bacteria coming out of the fermenter but with a long aging you do want to make sure the airlock stays filled as it will evaporate over time.

I like 3278 for lambic, also consider supplementing with dregs to improve complexity. I would do at least twelve months and then another 3-6 on fruit. More time will give you a more complex beer.

ReverseApacheMaster said:

No issue with the bacteria coming out of the fermenter but with a long aging you do want to make sure the airlock stays filled as it will evaporate over time.

I like 3278 for lambic, also consider supplementing with dregs to improve complexity. I would do at least twelve months and then another 3-6 on fruit. More time will give you a more complex beer.

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Ok thanks!

What about the aging temperature? Wyeast says 17-24°C ( 63-75°F)
My fermentation room is, from winter to summer 18°C to 23°C and my cold room from 10°C to 17°C (50-63)

I just age it at room temperature. I don't have a basement here so it's subject to regular house temperatures. It stays in the 18-28C range throughout the year and it's just fine. I'd probably be a little concerned with it getting down to in the low teens celcius but it will probably be ok. I'm sure the barrel rooms at the lambic brewers in Belgium can get fairly cool as well.

ReverseApacheMaster said:

I just age it at room temperature. I don't have a basement here so it's subject to regular house temperatures. It stays in the 18-28C range throughout the year and it's just fine. I'd probably be a little concerned with it getting down to in the low teens celcius but it will probably be ok. I'm sure the barrel rooms at the lambic brewers in Belgium can get fairly cool as well.

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Aging temp isn't a big deal with lambics unless you are using barrels. For the record, the Belgian breweries are pretty chilly, part of the reason they take so long to finish and become so funky

Ok. I can manage to keep it at 65 all year long. I might give it a try