Contaminating a "contaminated" beer

This is another weird topic that came up in my HomeBrew club the other day. We were talkin about sours and my take was that you want to have as much sanitary protocol as with a non sour. Others had said that yes you want cleanliness ie. starsan the Carboy etc but that it was not as stringent as per say a non sour. The reasoning was that a lot of te bacteria and yeast that are in the environment such as Lacto or pedio are being introduced anyway so it was not as imperative with a sour. What's everyone else's take ?

I'd be as stringent as you normally are. Unless you are doing a true lambic that is spontaneously fermented, you want to ensure that the bugs you pitch are the bugs that do the work. Others could comment on spontaneously fermentation, but I believe the general consensus is proper sanitation and purposeful innoculation.

Yes and no. IMO, sanitation is important in sours, but not in the traditional sense. Instead of fighting all foreign yeast/bacteria as you are in non-sours, you are fighting 1 bacteria; acetobacter. Acetobacter is really the only thing that can wreck a sour beer.

So yes, proper sanitation practice still applies.