Souring a Scottish ale - newbie question

All,
I am new to making sour beers. I brewed my first sour yesterday(extract 3lbs wheat dme, 3 lbs pilsner dme with Wyeast lambic blend). Going to be a long wait. I also transfered a scottish ale to secondary(keg). It is around 1.022 and was wondering what would happen if I pitched some Wyeast Lambic blend or something similar on it to sour it. I think I should add 8oz of maltodextrin also. My other thought was to wait 3-4 weeks and wash the yeast from the beer I brewed yesterday and pitch that on top of the scottish ale. I need to wash it to remove the trub though.

So my questions are:
1: Will a sour scottish ale taste ok? I love pretty much every sour ale/lambic/gueze/faro, etc. I drank.

2: Will washing Wyeast Lambic blend carry enough bugs over or will I lose a lot washing the yeast. Is there another method for washing yeast with bugs in it?

Thanks!!

Scottish ales are a great base for sours. We did a sour bourbon barrel wee heavy that is terrific. The malty not too hoppy wort isn’t far off what the wort for an oud bruin would be. The maltodextrin is a good idea, I’ve had trouble getting enough sourness out of beers that undergo a clean primary fermentation.

I don’t think there is any reason to wash the yeast/bug cake before pitching it into another beer. Trub isn’t a big concern when you are brewing a sour beer (Lambics are traditionally left in primary for several years, not that I’m advocating that for your batch unless you want some serious funk). I only wash yeast if I am going to be repitching it multiple times.

In addition to the blend, I’d add some bottle dregs from any especially tasty sour beers you happen to drink over the next few months. They’ll add more complexity/sourness.

Good luck.

Great info. Thanks! Think I might go get new yeast and pitch that on scottish ale and save the yeast cake for my next sour batch.

BTW, your blog on sour ales is great. I read through it a few times. I was worreid about using better bottles, but I see you use them. so I think I know what I am asking for for xmas.

milldoggy said:

Great info. Thanks! Think I might go get new yeast and pitch that on scottish ale and save the yeast cake for my next sour batch.

BTW, your blog on sour ales is great. I read through it a few times. I was worreid about using better bottles, but I see you use them. so I think I know what I am asking for for xmas.

Click to expand...

Thanks, hope the beers turn out well.

The Better Bottles are great, just make sure you are super dilligent cleaning/sanitizing them if you plan on putting clean beers in there after sours. After primary I've gone mostly to kegs for my clean beers, just to reduce the risk of infecting them.

My just dedicate my BB to sours. Was also thinking about using kegs. I have like 20 ball lock, so I could set a few a side for aging.

So it has been 16 monthes. Wanted to report back the the scotish ale that I pitched roselare into is amazing. I have had in on tap for two months. It is not overly sour, a nice blend. Great fruit nose, cherry like. the other five gallons I pitched pedio, and brett, have not tried it yet.