Feeding A Lambic Post Two Months...

[Kidagora]

So I took a stab at a lambic ~2 months ago and decided to check the bucket for pellicle, gravity, and taste.

I noticed my OG of 1.044 is down to an FG of 1.000. There is a sourness developing and I'm happy with the overall flavor. Used some dregs of a few bottles in addition to Wyeast 3711, 5335, and 3278. Have a very nice wheat flavor with a light floral, citrus hint at present. Sourness is muted but present.

My question is:

Do I need to add more sugar to improve and enhance the sour/lacto flavor as this beer continues to age? With an FG of 1.000 I imagine most of the sugars are gone and there is little for the bacteria to chew on. Should I boil an additional liter of wort and add or throw in some sugar? Or will the bacteria continue to their activity and sour over the next 1-1.5 years?

 

[BGBC]

Patience. Just let the bugs do their thing. You could add more dregs, but sounds like you've got a good mix in there already. You've still got active sacch in there at this point and any added sugar won't just go to the bugs. Trust your original recipe and let it ride.

You might want to consider racking to a carboy with as little headspace as possible for extended aging though.

 

[Matteo57]

You can throw in some oak also for the brett to chew on a bit. But yah, 2 months is much too short for the bugs to do their things. Sit back and relax

 

[ffaoe]

Do not add any addition sugars. Let it age for at least another 6 months. At that point it will still be young, but should have started to develop a nice funk and sourness. At that point you can decide to bottle condition or rack onto fruit.

With it fermenting in a bucket, it will slowly be exposed to oxygen and will sour quicker than in a glass carboy. Take another sample in 4 or 5 months.

 

[kingwood-kid]

A gravity of zero doesn't mean that there's no sugar left, just that the density has dropped as sugar (denser than water) has been converted to ethanol (less dense than water). Youe still got about 35% of the original sugars left, some of which can be metabolized by Pedio and Brett. If you're really concerned, you can add some maltodextrin to ease your mind, but you shouldn't need it.

 

[Kidagora]

This ended up being a short batch due to conversion problems and finished with a volume of 4 gallons after boil. Yesterday at the behest of many local sour sages, I transferred to a glass carboy and purged the headspace with CO2 for ~1 minute. It's now tucked away in the basement and I'll revisit in another 6 months.

I was just curious as to whether at a gravity of 1.000 meant there was little for the bugs to work on and that has been answered.

There is a funk that is more pronounced than the sour. Definitely a leathery and sweaty mid palate taste that I'm surprised is showing. The sour though is barely detectable at room temp.

Thanks for the info!