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→Bottling
Depending on the sugar content (gravity) of the final blend/lambic, sucrose sugar may be added in small amounts to provide food for yeasts to feed upon in order to aid in the creation of carbon dioxide within the bottle. This is adjusted according to the level of desired carbonation.
During the bottling process, lambic is sent from the stainless steel bottling tank, typically fed by gravity. Bottling machines, technologies, and techniques vary widely from brewery to brewery. Bottles Unlike when other beer styles are bottled, lambic bottles are often not flushed with CO2 prior to prevent oxidationbottling. Lambic bottles are thick walled, reinforced, Champagne styled. Green or dark brown in color. The bottles are filled to the arch of the neck and topped with either a wine or 'mushroom' styled cork. In the case of a wine cork, a metal crown cap is applied to help maintain the carbonation and to prevent the cork from popping out during the production of CO2 within the bottle.
Bottles are left unlabeled until time for sale. Bottles are left for a minimum of three months, though most blenders prefer to age their bottles for minimum six months before sale, especially in the case of geuze. This will allow bottle conditioning to occur, and allow the beer to work through phases of viscosity that may occur (Pediococcus byproducts known as 'ropiness').