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The specific gravity of the final blend must be high enough to ensure that bottle refermentation occurs.
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. The bottling machine may be primitive or very modernBottling machines, technologies, depending on the and techniques vary widely from brewery to brewery. Bottles are often not flushed with CO2 to prevent oxidation. 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. Storage conditions vary from brewery to brewery but there are two schools of thought on bottle aging. Some breweries store their bottles on their sides in a pyramid fashion; making one layer against a depression in a brick wall, reversing the orientation of the next layer, and repeating the pattern all the way to the ceiling.Other breweries will store their bottles vertical in cases until time for sale. In both cases, bottles Bottles are left for a minimum of three or so months. Most , 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, along with any strange and allow the beer to work through phases in of viscosity to clear up. that may occur (Pediococcus byproducts known as 'ropiness').