Adding Yeast Before Bottling a Sour

I plan to bottle a Flanders Red I made in February of 2009. I'm going to lightly carb it (2-2.2 volumes or 3.5oz dextrose). Given it's age, do I need to add yeast when I bottle or do you think it will natural carb with what's left in it? Is there a way to test for this before bottling? Thanks.

I would probably sprinkle a pack of dry yeast into your bottling bucket just to be safe. Put it in with your priming sugar so it gets mixed well and only use 1/3-1/2 of a pack. Any yeast will do since you won't get any flavor from it.

I ended up adding 3.5 oz of corn sugar and about 2/3rds of a package of Nottingham yeast to the bottling bucket. Should help with the natural carbonation in the bottle. When I bottled, the whole basement smelled like I was walking through an orchard and it's nice and dry with a bit of bite.

I've successfully bottled two batches of sour, and both times I added champagne yeast with the priming sugar. Both carbed up nicely in about 4 weeks, but that may have been slowed by cellar temps.

For one of the two, I split the batch between bottles and draft so I got to compare natural vs. force carb. I didn't find any real changes in the two, so I am going to stick to yeast with priming sugar in the future.

I also added nottingham yeast in mine and after three weeks it's almost there. I couldn't help myself I've waited so long and it is way past my expectations! In the future I plan on adding yeast just in case. I think it would be fine if you didn't but could possibly take longer if there's not much yeast left.