How to Proceed as a Sour Gets Close to Bottling?

Hey All,

I have a sour flanders that is ~1 year old now. So I will probably bebottling in the next few months. I wanted to see if anyone had any advice on how to proceed as I get closer to bottling. Any advice would be great. A few things that I am wondering about though are...

[1] What yeast to use to bottle?
[2] What is a good carb level to shoot for in this? I know the guidelines but they are a little wide.
[3] If I were to split the batch at bottling and add *something* to half of the batch at bottling - are there any suggestions on what that *something* could be?
[4] Similar to #3, and thoughts on bottling 1/2 and just leaving the other 1/2 in the carboy?

Thanks for ANY advice in this area.

J

1. I haven't added fresh yeast to any of my sours and they all carbed fine, even after sitting for over a year.
2. For a 5 gallon batch, I would add about 2/3 cup dextrose.
3. Spices, a younger sour, etc.
4. If you leave the 2nd 1/2 in the carboy, flush the headspace with CO2 before putting the airlock on.

1 - I generally add some acid tolerant wine yeast, ie k1v1 or 1116, its likely it would carb otherwise, but there are too many other variables working against you in a sour, so its nice to minimize the risk

2 - this depends on what the current gravity is, the recipe, and what you want, I tend to go slightly lower than midrange for co2 for the style

3 - nothing, if you add something like fruit you would need to wait longer

4 - you could do it, but I would move to a smaller vessel or a corny keg that you can purge

Not much to add to the above except, #1. If you add yeast it may carb faster, my oud bruin has been bottled for a year with no new yeast and is just now starting to carb. #2. I'd say it's whatever you feel, you can taste it and imagine what level of carbonation you think will make it awesome. If you save half you could combine #3 and #4, and say add some fruit and then feed it more to reduce headspace, that way you keep the sour going.

#1. I also use wine yeast. It is cheap and it is a nice insurance that your 1 year beer hits the right carbonation. Your other choice is force carbing.
#2. My Flanders Red is right around 2.4-2.5 Volumes. I like to go higher because it is a lot easier to take out carbonation then add it. I also like to give these beers an aggressive pour to get all the wonderful aromatics out.
#3 I just found some sour cherry juice not syrup at a local ethnic market. Use your refractometer to measure the sugar and use this as your priming sugar. There could be some other juices (pomegranate, mulberry, fig) that would be interesting, too
#4 I wouldn't leave a half full carboy, but as ryan suggested move it to another container like a 1 gal jug. This is what I did and racked on top of a pound of fresh frozen sour cherries.