How to save dregs?

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marqoid

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I have a few bottles of various beers from cantillon that I want to save the dregs from, but I'm not going to be brewing a sour soon. What is the best way to save the dregs?

Is it necessary to begin a starter or;
Could I pour out the beer and recap the bottle with a clean crown?
Should I pour the last bit over some oak chips in a ziplock?
Should I just wait to open the beer until I am ready to brew?
 
get a mason jar. clean it. sanitize it. shake the beer. pour the beer into the jar. close jar. put jar in fridge.
 
shake the beer.
no, no, no. you're right in all areas except the shaking.

leave the beer undisturbed until the yeast/sediment falls outta suspension (cold crash). decant the beer, ie: pour beer off of sediment, then swirl the last few oz's of liquid and pour into mason jar. i would also make a small starter for the mason jar. a weak starter ~ 1.020 to get it going a little bit will help along with warm temp's. do a search, there's plenty of threads on the same subject;)
 
shaking the beer breaks up the sediment at the bottom of the bottle. helps get it into your mason jar.
 
I am more interested in saving the bugs than the yeast and would prefer not to begin collecting mason jars. Would it be appropriate to pour the last bit of beer over some oak chips in a ziplock?
I had read that vinny at russian river had shared some infected oak chips like this.
 
it would be best to get a flask or a 1gal jug and just start dumping them in there with a bit of wort, old dregs can take a long time to get going

when do you plan on brewing up a sour? Maybe I could just give you some of my house lambic culture, it has just dregs from just about every sour beer Ive ever laid my hands on, and was recently augmented with the bugfarm from Al on BBB
 
ryane, thanks for the offer.
But I went ahead and brewed my first sour batch, it is a standard lambic base, 60%wheat/40%pils. My brewshop only had brett c, I was anxious so I went ahead and used this along with the dregs from one bottle of cantillon. I am hoping that the dregs will contribute enough other bugs to push attenuation into the upper 90s.
I was very surprised, without a starter, I have vigorous fermentation going ~18 hours after pitching.

Now I will begin collecting dregs in a starter for the future.
 
I would get some JP calabaza blanca to add, cantillon is usually a bit older by the time we get it and doesnt offer up much, the last time I cultured it up it tasted like old tires and mealy wheat when it fermented the starter, cuvee rene is another easy one to find and add
 
Would it be advantageous to put the starter of dregs on a stir plate, or is oxygen a bad thing for these bugs?

I'm also thinking of doing an All-Brett beer, would you aerate and/or stir plate that starter?
 
pedio: O2 is bad
lacto: O2 doesnt matter
brett: O2 can be good when its solo, can cause acetic acid or ethyl acetate late in the game

for an all brett beer, build up a very large starter and use O2
 
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