I have two sours that are ready to be bottled. Both different stories. Need some advice.
WILD LAMBIC
This beer has been in a carboy for a year (June 2018). It's FG is 1.000. I'm going to bottle half of it this week (other half will go on fruit). I plan on bottling with champagne yeast and will house it in champagne and belgian bottles. Is there anything I need to be concerned about when using champagne yeast? Is the procedure generally the same?
SOUR KOLSCH
This beer wasn't intended to be a sour. Brewed in November 2018, and racked into a used barrel a week later to age. It sat there until February but went south to where it started to take on some vinegar characteristics. From what I've gathered, this is potentially due to oxygen exposure. The pH was 3.5 at that time, so I racked it out of the barrel and onto some wild cherries, with which it still resides (4 months total with cherries). I have no idea what bugs are inside it, but with it on the cherries, there isn't any visible signs of infection. I've been thinking about bottling it. Probably going to bottle condition it for another six months or more. Should I pitch yeast at bottling time? Or assume that whatever bugs in the beer will carbonate it with my added sugar? I may be low on heavy duty bottles so I'm hesitant to use standards.
WILD LAMBIC
This beer has been in a carboy for a year (June 2018). It's FG is 1.000. I'm going to bottle half of it this week (other half will go on fruit). I plan on bottling with champagne yeast and will house it in champagne and belgian bottles. Is there anything I need to be concerned about when using champagne yeast? Is the procedure generally the same?
SOUR KOLSCH
This beer wasn't intended to be a sour. Brewed in November 2018, and racked into a used barrel a week later to age. It sat there until February but went south to where it started to take on some vinegar characteristics. From what I've gathered, this is potentially due to oxygen exposure. The pH was 3.5 at that time, so I racked it out of the barrel and onto some wild cherries, with which it still resides (4 months total with cherries). I have no idea what bugs are inside it, but with it on the cherries, there isn't any visible signs of infection. I've been thinking about bottling it. Probably going to bottle condition it for another six months or more. Should I pitch yeast at bottling time? Or assume that whatever bugs in the beer will carbonate it with my added sugar? I may be low on heavy duty bottles so I'm hesitant to use standards.