The WHALES club has had pretty good success with oak barrel sour projects. The Flanders Red was excellent and from all indications, the Kriek is coming along wonderfully. One of my personal observations is that it's way to easy to kill a keg of this stuff and then it's gone forever. In order to keep some around for long term aging, some of it is going to be bottled.
Ok, assuming you get the bugs to attenuate down to something like 1.000 which is fine for beers like Flanders Red and Lambics of any variety, one would assume a normal priming sugar addition and a pinch of fresh yeast would be OK. I wouldn't have to account for any extended attenuation or anything right? Ok, maybe I'd back off to 3oz of sugar for the whole batch.
Where I'm getting confused is the next project is going to be an Oud Bruin which by style should be more malty/sweet focused and less sour. In a barrel aging schedule, it would really be hard to stop the bugs at the right level. Jamil suggests moving it to a keg during the souring phase and when it's right, chill it down to stop the bugs. OK, that works for kegging. If one puts it into a bottle, even a Belgian or Champagne bottle, it would probably explode if the bottle sits warm (right?). Let's suppose that the Bruin is allowed to attenuate to whatever in the barrel for a year. It would be out-of-style sour by then and the only practical solution would be a blend with some fresh beer. Great, but I still can't figure out how you'd bottle this safely.
Sulfite? Pasteurize? help!
Ok, assuming you get the bugs to attenuate down to something like 1.000 which is fine for beers like Flanders Red and Lambics of any variety, one would assume a normal priming sugar addition and a pinch of fresh yeast would be OK. I wouldn't have to account for any extended attenuation or anything right? Ok, maybe I'd back off to 3oz of sugar for the whole batch.
Where I'm getting confused is the next project is going to be an Oud Bruin which by style should be more malty/sweet focused and less sour. In a barrel aging schedule, it would really be hard to stop the bugs at the right level. Jamil suggests moving it to a keg during the souring phase and when it's right, chill it down to stop the bugs. OK, that works for kegging. If one puts it into a bottle, even a Belgian or Champagne bottle, it would probably explode if the bottle sits warm (right?). Let's suppose that the Bruin is allowed to attenuate to whatever in the barrel for a year. It would be out-of-style sour by then and the only practical solution would be a blend with some fresh beer. Great, but I still can't figure out how you'd bottle this safely.
Sulfite? Pasteurize? help!