Repitching raspberry Lambic style

Back in January, a friend of mine wanted to make a raspberry lambic style ala Lindemans Framboise. I knew that making a lambic style would take a while. Since I put it its in the tertiary, its sat through seasonal temperature variations in my basement, prety much unmoved since early february.

At this point its the SG has been stagnant for 3 months. Temps are down to the low 70s and high 60's in my basement so I figured I'd try to repitch the yeast. Should I stir the whole thing and repitch? Rack off the raspberry puree 'trub' and repitch?

My gut feeling is to give it a good stir and repitch with a sizable starter of Wyeast 1056.

Any thoughts?

Data:

Primary Fermentation was 7 days.
OG: 9.6% Brix
Wyeast 1056 smack pack

Secondary fermentation was 14 days
SG: 4.2% brix

Tertiary fermentation is 240 days (and counting).
SG: 4.2% Brix
Added Oregon Raspberry Puree
Added Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend smackpack.

If you used wyeast 3278, you shouldn't have used 1056. At this point, there's plenty of yeast to take care of things. What is your gravity at?

Suthrncomfrt1884 said:

If you used wyeast 3278, you shouldn't have used 1056. At this point, there's plenty of yeast to take care of things. What is your gravity at?

Click to expand...

4.2% Brix

Sorry...didn't notice that.

I used 3278 in one of my lambics and didn't make a starter for it. It did its thing for 2.5 years and I didn't pitch fresh yeast at bottling; there was still enough horsepower left in the yeast to bottle condition (left in the bottle for a year before sampling). I would be very hesitant to stir it at all. I made a kriek and racked off the cherries about a week or so before bottling, to get the fullest effect from the fruit/pits. In your case, I would let it sit until sometime next spring, maybe even early summer. Then package/bottle and let sit until the same time the following year. It takes a while to make a good lambic, but you will be rewarded when you taste it.

The person who wanted me to make this also bought all of the ingrediants for the batch, so I need to do what she wants. What she wants is a Lindemans Framboise clone beer.

That said, its got EXCELLENT potential for a true Lambic style, as the sourness and barnyardy flavors are developing rather nicely. I am about half way tempted to simply bottle this and tell her that the batch failed, then offer to brew something a little more to her liking.