3763 Roselare - Leave on yeast or rack to secondary

I heard several references to leaving the beer for lambics and flemish sours on the yeast cake during the extended aging. The biggest reason I've heard is that the bugs use the autolyzed yeast for food. So here goes:

1. Is it a best practice to leave the beer in the "primary" for this style for the whole 12-24 months?

2. Could I rack some of the yeast to a secondary and get the same effect?

3. Any advice as my intention is to repitch another batch of the same beer on the yeast cake and take advantage of the higher bug counts. I will be blending the two beers to taste somewhere between 12-24 months.

4. Also wondering if the same would apply for the 3278 Lambic blend.

I leave my sours on the yeast cake. I have heard that racking to secondary after primary fermentation is finished results in a cleaner sourness, while leaving it on the yeast cake can add a more "rustic" note to the beer. Has anyone else heard this?

Clint04 said:

I leave my sours on the yeast cake. I have heard that racking to secondary after primary fermentation is finished results in a cleaner sourness, while leaving it on the yeast cake can add a more "rustic" note to the beer. Has anyone else heard this?

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From what I've read doing google searches, you may be correct. Some people mention that their sours aren't as "complex" as they expected and they allude to a secondary which I assume means they racked off of the yeast cake.

I'm curious to hear what everyone else has to say.

I usually brew with a clean Belgian yeast and rack at about 7 days and then add the bugs. This allows me to get the beer off the trub, but still leave plenty of yeast in suspension for the Brett to feed off.

Racking the beer at about a month off a 'bug' cake will not give you much additional sourness. You want to wait about a year (maybe 8-10 months), when most of the sacc has died before putting a new beer on it. There are a couple of reasons why sour cakes make sours quicker:

1) There is less sacc yeast in an old cake so the bugs get a chance to sour the beer before any alcohol is made. They work slower in an alcoholic environment.

2) There are a lot more bugs. It takes 18 months to 2 years for the Lacto and Pedio to get to their maximum populations in an alcoholic environment. Without alcohol and at decent temperatures, lacto can get to high populations in a couple of days.

I just let it work slowly; I have about 35 gallons at various stages.