Sours, Fruit, and Priming Sugar Bottling

[Physics202]

So, I have a plan to brew a saison and inoculate it with Bret. I'm planning to let it age 6 months before bottling, and half of the batch I wanted to add raspberries. From what I've read, It's best to refrain from adding fruit until the primary fermentation yeast dies. Also I've read it's best to add the fruit closer to when you plan to bottle and at a certain time relative to your total aging time. So here's my question:

How do I bottle this and have the beer carbonated?

If I add champagne yeast when bottling, I'm assuming it's going to go to town on the sugar from the raspberries and create a ton of carbonation or bottle bombs. I've thought about adding the raspberries while the primary fermentation yeast is still viable, but have heard that gives a less than desired flavor profile.

Just curious what other people do.

 

[microbusbrewery]

Brett beers aren't really sours as brett alone doesn't produce much acidity. Wild, yes, but not sours.

I'd recommend buying and reading American Sour Beers, http://www.amazon.com/dp/1938469119...vptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_8pczarzjwr_e

This book will get you started down the right path and answer most of your questions.

My two cents, add fruit after primary. Adding after primary ensures the delicate fruit character isn't scrubbed out. You'll get a secondary fermentation as the yeast eat the sugars from the fruit. I usually let that go for at least a month; the most recent went about two months, some have been longer. Once that subsides and gravity is stable you can bottle.

I only re-yeast with sours that have bulk-aged for a year or more and where the pH is really low. If you're doing a brett beer that's only a few months old, there really isn't a need to re-yeast, at least not IME.

As for priming - for an aged sour, I will re-yeast and I'll dose with priming sugar at about 10%-15% higher than normal. The reason for this is when it's a year old it's practically still with very little CO2 in solution. For something younger, like a young brett-only fermentation (no bacteria), I'd probably shoot for 10-15% less priming sugar than normal. The reason for this is brett can continue to work away in the bottle, so this will help prevent bottle bombs.