Primary in a 5 gal?

Just curious if anyone sees a big issue with the following plan. I think it should work, but I'd love comments with those with more experience.

-Brew 5 gallons lambic
-Transfer to 5 gallon glass carboy
-Add yeast/bugs and mix
-Transfer .75 gallons to a 1 gallon jug, add stopper and airlock to both fermenters
-After a week or whenever it looks like things have calmed down/gravity is dropping more slowly, rack contents of jug back to carboy.

The reason for this is that I don't have a 6 gallon carboy, I usually primary in 6.5 gallon buckets and secondary in 5 gallon carboys, but lambic is better off not moved off the trub from what I can tell. I am looking to switch to better bottles anyway, so I'd like to use my glass 5 gallon for this since it'll be put away for at least a year. Is there any reason I shouldn't do this? Thanks!

Your way would work; however, this is what I would do:

I would brew it like a regular batch, in my fermenting bucket, and pitch some low attenuating yeast (S-04?) and when that batch is done, or almost done, I would then rack into the carboy and put in the bugs.

That way you don't have to worry about any blowoff.


--Option 2--

You might be able to make a 4 gallon batch the way and you can pitch the bugs/yeast culture right off and wait for the fermentation to settle down and then just brew up a 1 gallon batch down the road, maybe 2 or 3 months later.

That's exactly how I've heard it to be done as well. I would recommend listening to Jamil's podcast regarding Lambics. He will ferment with a clean fermenting yeast such as S-04 or WLP001. Once it is pretty much done fermenting (75% to terminal gravity) you can then rack it to your secondary and mix the bugs in from there. You'll then need to leave it in that secondary for a 1+ years to allow the bugs to do their thing.

Also, make sure that you have additional equipment available for just your lambics. It is very hard to get those bugs out of your siphon and buckets, so you'll really want to have an additional set of supplies strictly for your lambics or you'll take a chance of infecting your other batches with those "bugs" as well.

Thanks for the advise... I'm planning to brew another batch this summer and start with something clean, ferment a little cool to keep attenuation low, then pitch the Roeselare and compare the results at the end. I heard conflicting info on pitching before adding the bugs, so I want to give it a try myself.

Thanks again.