how long do you age your lambic

I brewed a lambic with Wyeast 3278, fermented in primary for 4 weeks, and have been letting it sit in secondary for another 6 weeks (at about 64F). How long is a good time to let it sit before I bottle it? I don't know if time has anything to do with it but the more sour the better, since I'm going to backsweeten with splenda at bottling.

I read in BYO that you really want these to age for months. I've got a Framboise Lambic that I'm making now. It sat in the primary for 9 months. Then I racked it onto 9# of raspberries and will let it sit like that for another 9 months.

My straight Lambic has been in secondary with nice pelicles on top for 6 months. 6 months from now, I'll have to see if it is done. And isn't 64 a little cool?

64F should be okay. From reading the BYO article, the author didn't recommend any temperature control for the fermentation (I'm just leaving mine in my basement with temp fluctuations from 62F to 70F) since that mimics the fermentation conditions in Belgium.

Even after 9+ months, I have no pellicle. I must be keeping a good CO2 layer on it!

During primary it fermented 68-70F. Its my first lambic but I assumed the secondary temp like normal beer wasn't as critical.

Except lambics go through several fermentations (sacc., pedio and brett, sometimes multiple rounds of pedio and brett fermentations) so the temperature is important all the way through.

I think 2.5 months is way, way too early to bottle. The brett probably hasn't even reached full potential which means there's still a lot of fermentation to go.

As I understand it you dont necessarily want to move a lambic to a secondary as the brett and bacteria will eat the dying yeast. Also one year would be absolute minimum. Two to three years would probably be better. Again I'm only on my first one, so I could be wrong.

I would start thinking about mixing\blending it at the 2 year mark. you need to make this beer every year and then start blending to taste. I know that's not what you were thinking. but that's the only way to make a good lambic.

I'm reading Wild Brews at the moment and you are WAY far away from being done. Now you're doing a cultured fermentation instead of a spontaneous but still it will take a while for the Sacc to do its job which will in turn allow the lacto pedio and brett do their jobs. When your gravity gets to 1.000 I think you're safe to bottle.

kind of off topic, but is it true what they say? Do you have to use seperate equipment when using lambic yeast? I've heard it contaminates equipment permanently.

It does not contaminate permanently. You just have to be very careful and clean/sanitize very well. That being said, I am fermenting my lambics strictly in glass to make cleaning/sanitizing those easier. Additionally, small items like transfer tubing that are cheap to replace I use only for lambic transfers and then dispose of them. However, things like autosiphons, etc. I just let soak in a strong bleach solution and then rinse and wash thoroughly before the next use. Have had no issues yet.

I just have separate pieces of small plastic equipment for using anything with Brett in the beer. I've marked everything that I've used on Brett with blue sharpie so I know for sure. I'll even mark the better bottle because I'll be doing more brett'd beers and have plans for other sours in the near future also. So I keep my stuff separate but I have a decent handful of fermentors that allows me to do so.

I'm stuck on the back sweetening with Splenda thing...that sounds terrible

I agree. However, my wife is in love with Lindemans lambics, and the recipe I got for it says splenda is a similar substance that they use to sweeten.

Stellrbrewr said:

I agree. However, my wife is in love with Lindemans lambics, and the recipe I got for it says splenda is a similar substance that they use to sweeten.

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I'm not badmouthing the splenda option, as I do like Lindemans as well (also the very similar New Glarus and St. Louis Lambics). However, you might be best off bottling say half the batch with splenda so that you can also have a regular portion. Another option, as BobbyM (I think) suggested, is to just bottle the whole batch like normal and then get some fruit syrup. Then you can put a squirt of syrup in the glass to sweeten it up as you drink rather than sweetening the whole batch.

Stellrbrewr said:

I agree. However, my wife is in love with Lindemans lambics, and the recipe I got for it says splenda is a similar substance that they use to sweeten.

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Lindemans uses acesulfame potassium as a sweetener (it's sold in Europe as Ace K, Sunett, or Sweet One, but rare in the US), which has the advantage over saccharine or aspartame of being relatively heat-stable and shelf-stable even in acidic conditions. That makes it ideal for something like a lambic that is acidic and might be cellared a while.

Sucralose (splenda) is similarly heat-stable, shelf-stable, and pH-resistant, so it's probably the best choice among commonly available artificial sweeteners in the US for people trying to emulate the Lindemans flavor.

If you are using Splenda brand, though, it does contain dextrose and maltodextrin for body. So you should add it beforehand and let it ferment out before priming and bottling. 100% sucralose isn't hard to find and wouldn't require that.

I have my lambic still sitting on primary after 2 months, I was going to transfer onto fruit after 6 months. Could I pitch on the yeast cake after 6 months to a year of a lambic sitting on it? I used the Wyeast Lambic blend yeast, I also have one on Roslare.

yodalegomaster said:

I would start thinking about mixing\blending it at the 2 year mark. you need to make this beer every year and then start blending to taste. I know that's not what you were thinking. but that's the only way to make a good lambic.

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Exactly

Are you sure Splenda will not get broken up and digested over time by brett? I'm pretty sure a friend tried backsweetening a bretted cider once that ended up overcarbing in the bottle due to a fermentation that picked back up after similar Splenda backsweetening.

Splenda is sucralose-based. I think this is a case like maltodextrin and lactose where normal sacch. strains aren't able to digest it but brett can over time. Maybe (if you insist on backsweetening) look into it first to be sure you can use it with brett.


One final consideration. . . Are you adding fruit? Lindemans backsweetens their fruit lambics, but their straight gueuze, Cuvee de Rene, is not sweetened. If I remember correctly, the same is true of Boon. If she likes the sweetened fruit lambics, maybe go that route (and then obviously give it more time for the brett to ferment the fruit sugars.)

Jaymo said:

Are you sure Splenda will not get broken up and digested over time by brett? I'm pretty sure a friend tried backsweetening a bretted cider once that ended up overcarbing in the bottle due to a fermentation that picked back up after similar Splenda backsweetening.

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As noted above, Splenda contains sucralose, dextrose, and maltodextrin; if you use it, you want to let the latter 2 ferment out completely before bottling.

One final consideration. . . Are you adding fruit? Lindemans backsweetens their fruit lambics, but their straight gueuze, Cuvee de Rene, is not sweetened. If I remember correctly, the same is true of Boon. If she likes the sweetened fruit lambics, maybe go that route (and then obviously give it more time for the brett to ferment the fruit sugars.)

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Whether they sweeten or not is unrelated to whether they add fruit.

They backsweeten the entire regular lineup, including the straight gueuze from the regular line:


The Cuvee Rene line is different and unsweetened, but that has nothing to do with whether it has fruit or not--the Cuvee Rene Kriek (with cherries) is unsweetened, just like the Cuvee Renee Gueuze: