Lambic Style / Kriek

[Jakey2005]

Is it necessary to pitch new yeast when transferring the beer into the secondary and onto the cherries? I just did this myself and transferred onto cherries but am now concerned after reading this thread that I need to pitch some new yeast in as well to get it going enough to "eat" up the sugar in the cherries. And if it is necessary should I use a neutral yeast at this point or the original Wyeast 3278 I used or something else?

 

[BA_from_GA]

Think I may be going this a shot shortly. Would be a fun project.

 

[chrislehr]

Great thread. Subscribed. If any of you make your own threads, please link them here too!

 

[Harvestsmiles]

@ Jakey. I am wondering the same. I've read that leaving it in the same vessel may be better than racking to a secondary so I planned to just add the fruit and dregs into the original carboy after about 6 months. But curious should I also add extra yeast as well...Any insight folks?

 

[Harvestsmiles]

Also interested about bottling suggestions. What kind of amounts of priming sugar is good for this style. And will more yeast be needed then?

 

[Jakey2005]

@ Jakey. I am wondering the same. I've read that leaving it in the same vessel may be better than racking to a secondary so I planned to just add the fruit and dregs into the original carboy after about 6 months. But curious should I also add extra yeast as well...Any insight folks?

Since i didn't hear anything from anyone i went ahead and racked from primary into secondary on top of the cherries. I did add more yeast and it took right off. That being said I can't say whether the new yeast was necessary or not but I figured it couldn't hurt.

 

[Harvestsmiles]

What type of yeast did you add into the secondary? Any Dregs?

 

[rusty416]

Definitely going to try this with some small changes.

 

[greyday]

Definitely going to try this with some small changes.

Me too! Once I get all my meads I to secondary, this is going to be my winter project, no question. Even if it doesn't turn out, this seems like FUN!

 

[Matteo57]

subscribed

 

[jeffjjpkiser1]

When I've made unblended lambics, I rack my base beer to a "sour only" bucket before pitching my sour blend. Since a sour is typically supposed to be more flat then effervescent I wouldn't add additional yeast because you don't need to carbonate

 

[mmahut]

We want to know!

 

[interoma]

Hi Guys! I was planning on brewing my first lambic and have a couple of questions!

-Does anyone have experience on using oak barrels?

- I know that lambics in belgium are fermented and aged in oak barrels. I actually have a new 5 gallon oak barrel at home and was thinking on using it. Do you think it would be fine or should I use a glass carboy?

 

[sweetcell]

Hi Guys! I was planning on brewing my first lambic and have a couple of questions!

-Does anyone have experience on using oak barrels?

- I know that lambics in belgium are fermented and aged in oak barrels. I actually have a new 5 gallon oak barrel at home and was thinking on using it. Do you think it would be fine or should I use a glass carboy?

do a search here for "barrel"... lots of info.

a 5 gal barrel has a really high surface-to-volume ratio, so you'll get too much oxygen transfer unless you seal it with something like wax or paraffin.

also, your barrel is new, meaning that it has too much oak flavor for extended aging. lambics are made in used barrels - the first batch of wine or liquor extracts all the wood flavor, leaving a relatively neutral barrel for the second-use lambics (and third use, and fourth, and...). so if you want to use your barrel for sours, you should run a few clean beers through it first. the first time you use that barrel, chances are you'll get a ton of wood flavor in week.