Lambics and oak

Ok this is probably a stupid question and I know this is not to style but......... After finishing reading wild brews today a recurring theme wether al lambic or red-brown is that Brett and the other bugs like a place to live as well as Brett eating the celluloid in the oak. Now traditionally I know lambic is placed in used basically flavorless barrels to age but what if I don't have a barrel could I or should I put oak cubes in with a lambic ? Really more for a home for the microbes than anything else. Maybe like a French light toast boiled like 10 times over and soaked in some wine for a few days. Thoughts ?

From my understanding that would be what the majority of people seem to do. After the sour is done you could simply toss the oak cubes in a new batch and let the infected cubes do there magic.

I use oak cubes to help move bugs from batch to batch. I just have some meduim toast french oak that I soaked in busch ice for a day then changed it. I continued this over a four or five day period.

BryanThompson said:

I use oak cubes to help move bugs from batch to batch. I just have some meduim toast french oak that I soaked in busch ice for a day then changed it. I continued this over a four or five day period.

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And you put the oak in for the duration of the entire fermentation or do you add it x amount I days in ?

Yes, I'm not sure but I think that the yeast falling out of suspension will help strip any of the stronger oak flavors out of the final beer. I don't know that for a fact but it seems to be the case with the beers I've made so far.

BryanThompson said:

Yes, I'm not sure but I think that the yeast falling out of suspension will help strip any of the stronger oak flavors out of the final beer. I don't know that for a fact but it seems to be the case with the beers I've made so far.

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So just to make sure I do this right , there is no secondary with a lambic so you add the oak as you rack the wort into the fermenter to primary ? Also, how much oak do you use ?

Correct. You want the brett to be able to feed on what is released by the sacc as it is autolyzed. I added about one ounce of the cubes.