Bottle condition or force carb fruit lambics

[Feurhund]

I have a decision to make. I have 6 kegs with different fruited lambics and I bought several cases of nice 500ml champagne bottles that accept bottle caps.

I wanted to lay down a case of each one for posterity, but that would mean calculating and priming each bottle. I would like to hit 4 volumes, but then the question arises of residual sugar. They were on the fruit for 2.5 months and range in Gravity from 1.003-1.006 depending on the keg and fruit.

The easiest thing to do would be to cold crash, force carb and bottle from the Kegs.

My questions are:

Is there a benefit flavor wise to bottle carbing?

Can I bottle from the keg with long tubing and the rubber stopper, racking tube (faux beer gun setup) and still achieve around 4 volumes in the bottle (maybe get everything including bottles really cold?) or do I risk bottling an under carbed beer.

Any experience would help. I'm inclined to go the keg carb route, just to ensure proper levels and I'm going to serve most of it on draft anyway. Thank you for the feedback.

Best,

Mike

 

[solbes]

Can I bottle from the keg with long tubing and the rubber stopper, racking tube (faux beer gun setup) and still achieve around 4 volumes in the bottle (maybe get everything including bottles really cold?) or do I risk bottling an under carbed beer.

I essentially tried to do the same thing with the same setup with a champagne style sparkling wine. I too was going for 4 volumes....And I found out why baseball players wear goggles when they clinch the playoffs. Wine in your eyes hurts!! I sprayed wine all over the ceiling, so either I wasn't doing it right or there is a limit for the technique. BTW, I have bottled forced carbed beers with the same setup just fine (usually 2.5 volumes or so).

So my reco would be to bottle condition with a little fresh yeast. The extra yeast will give your Brett something to chew on anyway long term. And if you don't want to contaminate your bottling bucket, you can even carefully drop measured amounts of dry sugar into each bottle. Then sprinkle a little yeast. And then fill and cap as usual. Worked very well for me.

 

[Feurhund]

Thank you for the feedback. Follow up questions:

Is it safe to assume when calculating priming sugar that the residual CO2 should be set to ambient temp because of the fruit re-fermentation.

Also, would the activity from the recent fruit ferment leave enough yeast to ensure carbonation? Or should wine yeast be added? Thanks

 

[solbes]

Yes to your first question.

Depends, regarding your second question. Did you add the fruit within the first 3-4 months of starting the lambic? If yes, then I'd say you still have viable yeast and none more is needed. If it sat for longer than that, then I'd say your yeast is pretty much Brett food and some additional dry yeast is a good idea to get quick, consistent carbonation. Eventually the lacto and brett would chew through the priming sugar as well, but it might take awhile.

 

[Feurhund]

Thanks. The blend that I fruited was all 2.5years old so new yeast is in order.

I think I will measure out sugar and sprinkle yeast for each 500ml bottle. I don't like the idea of stirring in a bottling bucket and introducing O2 when I can push from the keg.

 

[sweetcell]

easier than dry sugar: make a solution and use dropper. 100 gr of sugar, add enough water to make 500 ml ==> 5 ml = 1 gr sugar.

i had a one-year-old sour blond put it on cherries for 2.5 months. i didn't add any additional yeast at bottling. the brett that fermented the cherries was quite happy to carbonate the kriek. bottles were fully carbed in less than a month.

 

[Feurhund]

I like the solution - solution. I could even add a little Lavlin wine yeast to the solution as some insurance, but I agree, if it can chew through ten pounds of fruit, I think it can handle a few grams of pure sugar without help.

Now I just have to trust the carbonation calculator to be precise enough to avoid gushers. Maybe I will aim on the low side, just in case there is a little sugar left from the fruit.