Experimental Sour Dubbel

Hello all, just have a quick question about my experimental sour dubbel. I brewed an standard dubbel extract kit and after two weeks I transferred to the secondary. I then decided to pitch a pack of wyeast roeselare and threw in Bourbon soaked oak cubes. It's been sitting in the secondary for 7 months now. I took a reading and it's at 1.012, but the sourness and oak is pretty much right where I want it.

Now here's the question, I plan on transferring to the bottling bucket around July 1, a total of 8 months in secondary, however the airloc is still bubbling. I also read, you should add extra yeast when aging after long periods. The OG was 1.072.

Should I be concerned if it's still bubbling and if not, should I add t-58 or EC-1118 champagne yeast to the bucket? Or should I use a different yeast? I currently have both those yeasts on hand...

Thanks, Josh

I wouldn't rely on the airlock to determine if it is still fermenting or not; rely on your hydrometer. I've made a few lambics over the years, but no dubbel lambics. All my 'single' lambics took about 1.5 years in the primary/secondary before bottling, with about 90% of that time in the secondary. Seven months in secondary seems a bit too short, especially for a dubbel.

As for your question about adding extra yeast at bottling, I used Wyeast 3278 for a few batches already and never added extra yeast at bottling and that pitch sat for about 1.5 years before bottling. Carbonation (sitting for about a year at least) was good.

I wouldn't add any champagne yeast or any other yeast. Lambics take time to complete and 7 months in secondary is just starting your count down. Let it go well past 7/1 for a very good dubbel lambic.

1) He's not making a lambic. It's just a sour beer with Roeselare.

2) Like Avid said, rely on your hydrometer. If you get consistent readings over 3 weeks, then bottle as usual. If you're worried about not drinking it before you get bottle bombs, pasteurize the bottles as outlined in the cider forum stickys on this forum. I did it for a Flanders Red that finished at 1.012.

I'd increase hydrometer readings from 3 weeks to 2 months. It can be very slow at the end of these mixed cultures to give a change in gravity. Plus the other thing that throws the hydrometer off is the acids. Lactic acid is much more dense than ethanol so when we measure the residual sugars with a hydrometer it's not reading what we think its reading. The readings are close enough however for us, plus it is a good way to determine whether it is fermenting or not.

I actually have a sour dubbel going too, but it was an accident. Oh well, right? I am thinking of stuffing some sour cherries in there that I'm going to pick on Friday. At least freeze the cherries and then stick them in there later.

As for the yeast question. I'd add some champagne yeast or I'd add some fresh brett since both are fit to live in a low pH-ethanol environment like a finished sour beer.