No Fermentation after fruit addition?

[tgmartin000]

So I just racked an 18 month old lambic to secondary. Half went onto sour cherries and the other half onto fresh peaches .

I was expecting Fermentation to start again, but have yet to see any action. I used bug farm, and have been adding dregs the past 18 months. Is it possible the bugs are dead?

I plan to pitch more dregs. I was also planning on giving it 4 months on the fruit, so I figure it will eventually ferment. This is my first lambic. ..anything to be concerned of here? I can say it is sour as a mofo.

 

[JosephN]

I have zero experience with this but I'm interested to see what people say. I'm glad to hear it's sour and you are working on moving forward.

Oh one thought is that since lambics seem to have such a long fermentation it might start back up after some more time has passed.

 

[Agate]

How long ago did you put it on fruit? The Brett will eat it, but it could take several days to show activity.

 

[tgmartin000]

That's what I'm hoping, but need some moral support. But yea, it's incredibly sour.

 

[JosephN]

May I ask what recipe you used? All grain, extract? I'm interested in the different types of ingredients used because I've had some really thin ones and more malty thick ones, some super sour and some mildly sour.

 

[Agate]

The brett is in there, alive, and hungry. It just might be really slow after 18 months. Dregs are always a good idea, but give it time. Keep in mind, after such a long time in secondary, much of the residual dissolved CO2 will have dissipated, and brett is slow anyways. You need to build up CO2 in the beer again until it is saturated, and only then will it start showing signs of bubbling. So it's probably at work, and just hasn't reached a point where the CO2 is coming out of solution and showing visible bubbles.

 

[porterpounder]

Being in there for so long and at, what appears to be, quite a low pH, any sacc strains in there may no longer be viable. So when brett and whatever bacteria can function get their acts together it will do its thing. Cantillon leaves fruit in 3 months before blending and bottling, so chances are 4 months will be plenty of time to stabilize. You've waited this long...

 

[sweetcell]

after adding fruit, my sours take 7-10 days before showing any signs of activity. so give it 2 weeks before panicking.

i average 2.5 months on fruit before bottling.

 

[tgmartin000]

May I ask what recipe you used? All grain, extract? I'm interested in the different types of ingredients used because I've had some really thin ones and more malty thick ones, some super sour and some mildly sour.

All grain:

6 lb American Pils
3.25 lb unmalted wheat

mash schedule: 113, added boiling cereal mash to get the main mash up to 144, added more boiling water to 154, held for an hour.

I'd say this is super, super sour with a medium mouthfeel. but it's not carbed, so we'll see.

 

[tgmartin000]

The brett is in there, alive, and hungry. It just might be really slow after 18 months. Dregs are always a good idea, but give it time. Keep in mind, after such a long time in secondary, much of the residual dissolved CO2 will have dissipated, and brett is slow anyways. You need to build up CO2 in the beer again until it is saturated, and only then will it start showing signs of bubbling. So it's probably at work, and just hasn't reached a point where the CO2 is coming out of solution and showing visible bubbles.

I didn't think of that, but it makes sense. The pellicles are re-forming, thankfully. I'm super worried about acetic acid. I flushed my fermentors with CO2.......hope that does the trick.

 

[tgmartin000]

after adding fruit, my sours take 7-10 days before showing any signs of activity. so give it 2 weeks before panicking.

i average 2.5 months on fruit before bottling.

Awesome, thanks so much! I'm just used to adding fruit to normal ales, where the re-fermentation starts within 12 hours or so.

 

[fermentology]

Definitely give it more time. When I add fruit to sours that have experienced extended aging it takes a week or so for fermentation signs. Sometimes the only noticeable change is the fruit raises to the top and a pellicle forms.

 

[tgmartin000]

As usual, had I waited another day, my question would be answered. The half on peach puree blew out the airlock last night. So that sucks. The cherry half had bubbles in the airlock today as well.

 

[sweetcell]

The half on peach puree blew out the airlock last night. So that sucks.

Why did it suck? Did you lose a lot of beer? Make a big mess?

 

[tgmartin000]

Why did it suck? Did you lose a lot of beer? Make a big mess?

Just because it spewed some peachy krausen on my basement floor, and I'm paranoid about it infecting my clean beers. I immediately bleached the floor and sanitized all my exposed equipment. ....