Bottling Sour Beer

[mikesayed]

I'm brewing my first sour beer for my brother's wedding in November 2014. The brew has been fermenting since October 2013 so I feel it's ready to bottle. I'm just not sure if there is enough active yeast to carbonate. Any advice on testing it?

 

[Oldsock]

Sadly “feel” isn’t adequate to determine if a sour beer is ready to bottle! Take a gravity reading to check if it is stable over a month. A drop of just .003 is enough to fully carbonate a beer, so be careful.

If it is, the beer is young enough, and you have enough time that bottling it with priming sugar and no additional yeast should be fine. However, if you’d like a little extra insurance, rehydrate 2 grams of champagne yeast and pitching that in as well. I’ve gotten in the habit of always dosing yeast, worth it for help that one-in-ten that would take six months to carbonate otherwise.

 

[passedpawn]

I've made a bunch of sour beers, all fermented 6 months to a year. I always add additional yeast. I use S-04, which packs nice and tight on the bottom of the bottle when it floccs.

I've never had a gusher in those beers. So, in my experience, 6 months at room temp (75) was enough to ensure full fermentation. I've fermented with straight lacto, lacto & sacc, and Roeselare (blend of lacto, sacc, and pedio I think). After several years, I'm still drinking those beers, nary a problem.

I can't argue with the idea of taking successive gravity readings to make sure it's stable. I did that. But be careful, repeatedly adding O2 into the fermentor can result in changing the character of the sour beer. My first Flanders Red was checked a lot, and it ended up with more acetic acid / vinegar character than I wanted.

 

[finsfan]

@passedpawn , how much s-04 are you adding at bottling?

@oldsock , do you still think that 2 grams of champagne yeast (ec1118) is a solid amount to prime with?

I have a 13 month Kriek I need to bottle soon and trying to get as much information on this as possible. I'm leaning towards 2 grams of Ec1118 but wanted to check around with that figure. Thanks for any help!

 

[passedpawn]

@passedpawn , how much s-04 are you adding at bottling?

@oldsock , do you still think that 2 grams of champagne yeast (ec1118) is a solid amount to prime with?

I have a 13 month Kriek I need to bottle soon and trying to get as much information on this as possible. I'm leaning towards 2 grams of Ec1118 but wanted to check around with that figure. Thanks for any help!

Couldn't find it in my notes, but I think 1/2 sachet per 5g.

The last two sours I did I kegged and bottled from there.

 

[finsfan]

Couldn't find it in my notes, but I think 1/2 sachet per 5g.

The last two sours I did I kegged and bottled from there.

Down the road I think I plan to get a keggin setup solely for the purpose of bottling sours. Would completely eliminate the guessing game of carbonation level. Crooked Stave does not bottle condition at all for that reason.