Amber Ale with Brett and Lactobacillus?

I'm thinking of trying to make my very first sour ale, and first one out to test is an Amber. I want to ferment it using Brettanomyces, and maybe lactobacillus or adding lactic acid later. But I need some advice, since I've never used these strains before. I want to also add some dried fruits (apricot or peach) for extra fruitiness, which I think will go nicely with the sour taste.

This is for a contest, and I will only have about 6 weeks to ferment it and then bottle it. I know this will be difficult, regarding brett needs 6 months to fully develop it's flavors.

So how should I best approach this? Ferment it with a regular yeast, and then after a couple of weeks add the brett and lactobacillus, or use them from the beginning of fermentation?

Thanks in advance

haakon said:

. . . . So how should I best approach this? Ferment it with a regular yeast, and then after a couple of weeks add the brett and lactobacillus, or use them from the beginning of fermentation? . . . . . .

Thanks in advance

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Either initial yeast schedule sounds fine, however the "best way to approach this" is to brew the beer now for the same competition NEXT year, otherwise you are wasting your time and effort as well as any judges that taste it. It WILL NOT be anywhere close to done in 6 weeks, furthermore the bottles will start exploding sometime after bottling due to the high pressure from the continued fermentation in the bottles, this will have to have at least a year to be done fermenting, probably more if you add fruit.

My experience if you're interested: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/13-gallons-unintentionally-wild-brown-can-i-use-133003/

It ain't gonna happen in 6 weeks. You could get the lactic sour taste in that time if you made it Berliner style, but even that is pushing it to be fully carbed in 6 weeks. Brett flavors will certainly not develop in that time frame, and adding fruit; forget it.

Start making one for next year. Go get a pack of Lambic or other sour blend, and pitch that and forget it for 8 months. Then put on fruit and leave for 4 months. Bottle with some fresh yeast. ....... then 6 weeks later it will be perfect.

It might seem like a Mamouth task, but in reality Sours are pretty easy, really hard to do wrong, and work well with extracts; the big issue is time. I think it takes at least a year to do a decent sour, and they just get more complex with more time.

An Amber Ale is probably too highly hopped for Lacto. Anything above 10 IBUs and it won't do anything.

If you really wanted to push it, you could probably brew a saison. Pitch some WLP565 and some Brett both at the start of fermentation. But like the others said 6 weeks is pretty short time for a sour beer.

what's the actual contest? you could certainly do a 100% brett in that time if sour isn't required

Yeah, I didn't go with the brett. I fermented it with a belgian wheat yeast and added lots of honey, it came out really nice. And I made 4th place in my first ever contest, so I'm pretty happy!

Ahhhh,you had the idea too.
I am going this method with a wit/berliner cross.
I will pitch the lacto starter and the pitch a big starter of Brett B Trois to finish off with.