First lambic

[jeffjjpkiser1]

Hi Guys,

I'm right in the middle (before second fermentation) of a langur and had a few questions.

I've read as much as I can regarding a pure lambic beer (one beer/no mixing) and are wondering 1) should I do a 2nd fermentation on the base beer before pitching sour ale yeast? 2) assuming no, do I still need to bottle condition with corn sugar once the sour ale fermentation is done? If yes, is that essentially a gueuze, if not, is that now a sour ale and doesn't need to be carbonated?

A little lost,

Jeff K.

 

[jeffjjpkiser1]

Sorry that was first lambic

 

[ryane]

So Im not 100% what exactly your referring to as far as everything goes so I'll try to explain as best I can


1 - 2nd ferm? not sure what your getting at? do you mean doing a secondary? If so, dont worry about it, the cake feeds the bugs over the long haul is how its traditionally done. Depending on the SG of your beer currently, there may be little for the bugs to eat = no souring. I would suggest that you check the SG and if its too low, you can add some maltodextrin or something similar to feed the bacteria/brett

2 - Gueuze is a blended beer, it has aged beer and young beer. To get the carbonation level right the blender uses the young beer to provide unfermentables, this is very tricky on the homebrew level but it can be done

Occasionally you can find an unblended, uncarbonated lambic, cantillon bruocsella comes to mind (great beer), but this is fairly uncommon (definitely worth it in my opinion though) If you want to carbonate the beer you will need to add priming sugar (table sugar is cheaper than corn sugar). I would probably call that a gueuze, a homebrewed one at least, others may split hairs with you. IMHO blending is one of the most critical steps to producing a world class sour beer at home or commercially, and isnt done very extensively by homebrewers

 

[jeffjjpkiser1]

Thank you. I'm so used to doing 2nd fermentation on my beer I wasn't sure if I needed to do that before pitching sour ale yeast for 4 month long haul

 

[Guess42]

Are you saying you pitched a regular ale yeast let that ferment out and then are adding a sour mix? Also, there's a good chance 4 months won't be nearly long enough. More like a year or longer.

 

[jeffjjpkiser1]

Are you saying you pitched a regular ale yeast let that ferment out and then are adding a sour mix? Also, there's a good chance 4 months won't be nearly long enough. More like a year or longer.

No, the base beer is almost finished adding the lambic yeast sometime next week. From what I read about straight lambic it's 4-6 maximum, is that wring? What have you done in the past?

 

[Calder]

No, the base beer is almost finished adding the lambic yeast sometime next week. From what I read about straight lambic it's 4-6 maximum, is that wring? What have you done in the past?

Yep, that's wrong. Some of the bugs have not even started at that point. 1 year minimum.

 

[jeffjjpkiser1]

Final outcome. I fermented it for 7 months (6 months with lemon peel) adding stepped Fuji apple the last month. Decided to skim leftovers off the top until clear and priming. This beer was fantastic and I drank through it in a hurry.