Bottling a Sour

[ChadChaney]

I apologize in advance, I am sure there are threads detailing this, but I searched and didn't see what I was looking for.

I have a few sour beers, a Flanders and a few BW's spiked w Jolly Pumpkin dregs, that I want to bottle. These are my first sours, so I am looking for a somewhat detailed How-To on the best way to bottle them. Do I need to add sugar a few days in advance, pitch some fresh yeast, use wine yeast, etc. Any insight would be appreciated.

 

[suprchunk]

I apologize in advance, I am sure there are threads detailing this, but I searched and didn't see what I was looking for.

I have a few sour beers, a Flanders and a few BW's spiked w Jolly Pumpkin dregs, that I want to bottle. These are my first sours, so I am looking for a somewhat detailed How-To on the best way to bottle them. Do I need to add sugar a few days in advance, pitch some fresh yeast, use wine yeast, etc. Any insight would be appreciated.

YMMV, but I have bottled some kriek that I blended with 20L of lambic from Cantillon that I aged on cherries for about 9 months. All I did was add enough dextrose to attain about 3.5 volumes and it carbed up fine. It's like champagne. Those critters are quite resilient and will eat whatever they can.

 

[sweetcell]

depending how quickly you want them to carbonate, you don't need to add yeast.

personally i like to add a little champagne yeast to anything older than a few months for fast, even carbonation. brett will carbonate the bottles but it can take months.

first, make sure gravity hasn't changed over the last few months. next, pitch a fifth or a quarter of rehydrated champagne/wine yeast at bottling. use an online priming calculator (like http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/) to figure out how much sugar to add, be sure to boil it beforehand. add cooled sugar syrup to bottling bucket, rack beer on top in such a way as to create a swirling motion (this will mix the beer), add rehydrated yeast, and bottle. store 3 weeks at 70-72*F and you should be good to go. age as desired/able.