I have a batch of Oud Bruin in the second fermenter for a few weeks now. I thought of racking it over to a keg. The question is should I, a: fill the keg and leave it as is, b: keg it and add some priming sugar, c: keg it and add CO2 to push out the O2 or just leave it in the fermenter with the airlock in place? The plan is to mix in next year a new batch of Oud Bruin.
Wait, why did you rack it into a secondary? Did you add your bugs in the secondary?
I would not purge this of O2, the lacto needs it to convert sugars to lactic acid, but since you’ve already racked it off the primary cake, all that will really happen is that whatever is left in there will round out.
Short answer: I would leave it in its current vessel for aging. Longer answer: you might need to add some more organisms/sugars if you want it to develop complexity over the year of aging.
Thanks Pietro,
As this was my first try at this style beer I followed the NB recipe (secondary fermentation after +/- 2 weeks). I didn’t realize the bugs had to follow too, which kind off defeats the purpose of racking.
What do you think of adding some dark candy syrup, since sugar derived from beets is the most commonly used sugar in Belgium. Also how about re-pitching…too late in the game or too much?
Hmmm. At this point, I would pull a sample, take a gravity reading, and taste it, then report back. I mean it may make an ok beer as-is, but it depends on what you are going for. Speaking of which, what are you going for?
You can always pitch more bugs, and lately I am subscribing to the thought of making sure you are giving the bugs something to eat. I might consider adding a smack pack of roseleare and a mixture of steeped-drained-then-boiled-then-cooled oats (for dextrins) and some simpler sugars, like fruit or table sugar.
DO NOT buy that dark candi syrup it is a waste of money. Table sugar will give you the same result.
I wish I could remember where I saw this but some guy by the name of Jaj Apt (sorry if I spelled his name wrong) did a bunch of research concerning the proper amount of air to allow in contact with the souring beer during aging. I think the gist was that Oud Bruin is best with no oxyigen where as Flanders Red requires just a little bit. No air is going to retard the production of acetic acid which is a good thing for an Oud Bruin but not so good with a Flanders Red. Also, the amount of sourness in the beer can be controlled by varying the amount of fermentation you allow the bugs to do. If you want less, just pitch an ale yeast followed by the bugs a bit latter, if you want more, just the reverse of that. Oud Bruin should be less sour than a Flanders Red and have less acetic acid although both are using the Rosalarie blend. It get rather compliated and it takes forever to make the stuff which I guess also adds to the fun. 
