[lindak]

I keg most go my brews, but I have a sour at month four-- and I want to bottle most of it.  If I want to bottle some that I plan to consume within a couple of months, can I bottle and cap, as usual?   If I want to cellar some and use Belgium bottles, is there a good and low cost corking option?   Thanks--

[Marshall]

I have also been a kegger for many years now and thought I had left bottles behind.  But I found myself in the same place as you are now.  For special beers that you would like to age, bottles become the real option again.
I use a Colonna Capper/Corker.  It is about a $80 investment but becomes your go to capper and corker.   It has an adjustable depth so it works well for Belgian bottles.

Make sure you use the cage on the Belgian bottles after corking.  If not the corks will likely punch out if the pressure builds up during the bottle conditioning.

Since you are cellaring, make some nice labels with a laser printer and stick them on with skim milk.   You'll find over time you forget or lose the specifics of the batch, what it is, when it was brewed, and ABV.

[bayareabrewer]

I keg most go my brews, but I have a sour at month four-- and I want to bottle most of it.  If I want to bottle some that I plan to consume within a couple of months, can I bottle and cap, as usual?   If I want to cellar some and use Belgium bottles, is there a good and low cost corking option?   Thanks--

can you give details on the sour? 4 months in is very young for a sour beer to be bottled. some of the other organisms at play take more time to do their thing and you could be asking for trouble packaging this early. 

[lindak]

Thanks for the replies. 

I had some guests at Thanksgiving provide the more beer kit that is an homage to Consecration--  they also  brought some bottles from Russian River.

Anyway, we brewed on the Friday after turkey and there it sits.  It's been with bugs for around 4 months now.   I stare at the carbon every so often... check the airlock... make sure it's temp is good... etc.  worry?

I wasn't considering to even do a sampling until month 6, but I'm a planner and l'm trying to figure out what I may need to budget for bottling gear. 

This I the first sour I've done, so all ideas are gratefully accepted. 

[reverseapachemaster]

Four months is too early for that beer. It still has some attenuation to go before it's at a stable gravity. I wouldn't start thinking about bottling until the eighth month but keeping in mind that it may not be ready until closer to twelve to fifteen months.

I also have the colonna corker, which is the cheapest corker that works for the mushroom top-style Belgian bottles. It has attachments for 26 and 29mm caps so it does everything. If you don't want to spend $80 for an occasional bottling then a cheaper route would be to get a red wing capper and the 29mm cap bell. You can cap champagne-style bottles with it. You could also get a hand corker for wine bottles and insert a straight cork before capping similar to lambic and some saisons. That route gets you to $40 or so (assuming you don't have a red wing capper already) and maybe it makes sense to spend a little more to be able to easily cork and cap everything.