Request for suggestions on my first wild attempt

I'm going to be brewing a simple Belgian pale ale soon and thought I'd siphon a gallon of post-fermentation beer to a small carboy then throw some wild yeast on it. I'm new to wild ales but I love the Russian River stuff, like Temptation, Beatification, and Consecration. I like the puckering sourness.

My pale ale is going to be a simple pilsner grain bill, candi sugar, light Sterling hopping, and some abbey yeast. Should be in the 5-6% ABV range.

I see several types of wild yeasts and am having trouble making a commitment.

1) Can I get what I want from bretts alone, or should I add the lacto and pedios? Should I consider a rosailaire?

2) What kinds of adjuncts might be necessary to provide enough fermentables? I'd like to add some fruits.

3) I haven't seen mixed views on starters for the wild yeasts ... some say yes, some say no.

4) My understanding is the wild yeasts should be pitched after the regular yeast has attenuated. However, I see people talking about using bretts as the initial yeast. What are the tradeoffs here?

I'm sure I'll have more questions. Thanks!

pitch the dregs of your favorite russian river beer and give it a year or two

1. That puckering sourness comes from the bacteria, so brett alone won't give you that. The Roeselare is the Rodenbach blend, so if you like those beers go for it...it's only available certain times of the year.

2. None are necessary, but any starchy ones will give the bugs a bit more to chew into. Fruits can be nice but be prepared for all of the sugar to be fermented out.

3. For one gallon there is no reason for you to do any kind of starter.

4. Doesn't matter that much, you can do it either way but they are such slow workers that they won't have a huge impact on the primary ferment.

boxcar said:

pitch the dregs of your favorite russian river beer and give it a year or two

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Does this approach really work? My understanding is that the different critters take over during different phases and need to be exposed at different times. The makeup of dregs may not be the right ratios to replicate the brew.

It works pretty well, I never do a lambic etc without adding bottle dregs

also, I wouldnt expect mouth-puckering sourness from the beer your proposing, with that much sugar etc it should finish with a pretty low FG, so unless you supplement it with something for brett/lacto/pedio/etc to eat not much is gonna happen