Saison d'Hiver Infernal - Sour

I'm thinking of brewing the Saison d'Hiver Infernal this year for my father's day brew (to be aged and opened in the winter). I just recently had Boulevard Brewing Co.'s Saison Brett - a saison with added funkiness, that I loved.

Now, I realize that the d'Hiver is an extreme brew (I do a high gravity every year for winter, usually an imperial stout or barleywine), and that it is quite a bit darker than a "run-of-the-mill" saison. However, I was hoping for feedback on the possibility of throwing some lacto or brett bacteria on on it (and which one?).

Has anyone made the d'Hiver Infernal and have any general tips for this brew? What about a similar beer with some sour kick? With a beer this large, when would be a good time to add the bacteria? Is the bacteria even a good idea - I've only had lighter-bodied sour beers before and can't really imagine a big-brew with funkiness?

Thanks!

oh, for those that don't know, this recipe is in Zymurgy May/June 2008. Here's the one I will likely do (it is a mix of the all-grain and extract version - i.e. partial mash):

12 lbs Belgian Pilsner Malt
9 lbs Pilsner Liquid Extract
1.5 lbs Munich Malt
1.5 lbs Special B
1.0 lb Vienna Male
1.0 lb Wheat Malt
0.5 lb Carafa Malt
1 lb Dark Candi Sugar (at 5 mins)

2.5 oz Styrian Golding Hops Pellets (60 mins)
1.0 oz Saaz Hops Pellets (20 mins) - I will probably bump this up to 2 oz and use whole leaf

1 vanilla bean (scraped and split, o mins)
1 cinnamon stick (0 min) - will substitute with 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon and add more to taste later if needed

Belgian Saison Yeast (create a starter from my Saison Ete trub)

I brewed a ~9% ABV orange/rosemary/raisin dark saison last fall with a couple friends, we added the dregs from a couple sour beers to part of it and that part came out terrific (balanced with a beautiful earthy funk).

I would add Brett (from either a pack/tube or bottle dregs) along with the main yeast in primary. No need to go out of your way for bacteria because the hops and alcohol will prevent them from doing much.

Some oak would also be nice, we added .5 oz of port soaked French oak to our 3 gallons.

Yea, that all sounds great! Thanks for the tip. I have been talking myself into maybe making this brew into a double dubbel (read: quad with dubbel color, not black) instead of doing the infernal. It's really the only brew I'm going to have for the winter with my schedule like it is for the next few months.... Perhaps I will do a ten gallon batch, put half on cherries and bacteria and the other half as-is...

Going with a Three Philosophers based recipe, 12 gallon batch (racking half onto cherries in the secondary with brett lambic bacteria):

Grain:
15 lbs Pilsner Extract (don't have a big enough mash tun for all the grains)
9 lbs Belgian Pale Malt
6.25 lbs Munich Malt
2.5 lbs Wheat Malt
1.5 lbs Special B
1.5 lbs Caramunich
12 oz CaraVienne
2.75 lbs Dememera Sugar (at 5 mins)

Hops:
6 oz N. Brewed (60 mins)
4 oz Saaz (20 mins)

Yeast: Harvesting yeast from 3 Philosophers bottles and making a larger starter for both 6 gallon carboys.

Mash: 10-15 mins at 122, 15-20 mins at 131, 30 mins at 142, 30 mins at 150-152

Click to expand...

Any input on this recipe would be greatly appreciated!