Creating and maintaining a sour beer starter

[BlackfyreBrewing]

I like funky sour beers, so I care not if i cross contaminate equipment or anything like that and was wondering if anyone else is trying anything similar to what I'm doing.

I brewed a beer using Wyeast Lambic Blend which have a sacc strain along with lactobacillus, Brett, pedio, and a sherry strain, bottled it after a few weeks. Obviously it doesn't have full sour character but it is a bit funky and slightly tart. I was too scared to use the old yeast cake, but I brewed a fresh batch of beer the same night I bottled, and on top of pitching a fresh sacc strain, I also added what was left in the bottom of my bottling bucket from the beer with the lambic blend yeast pack. This beer is currently done fermenting and the sample i tasted definitely has the funky tartness going on, I'm putting it into a secondary to chill and develop.

My big wonder is...can i use the dregs from primary fermenter and dump them into the primary for my next beer to get it to sour up as well? Can I just keep doing this everytime? Even if I dont use the yeast cake? Can just the remains of my bottling bucket be enough everytime? Or is it best to use the whole cake? It seems like it would have fresher cultures than when people dump commercial sour beers into their batches to innoculate them. Will this make the beers get sour quicker with time?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Hi, welcome to HBT!

I care not if i cross contaminate equipment

Cross contamination can be avoided with proper cleaning methods.

I brewed a beer using Wyeast Lambic Blend which have a sacc strain along with lactobacillus, Brett, pedio, and a sherry strain, bottled it after a few weeks.

Generally with these types of cultures you need to let it work for a few months before bottling. Brettanomyces ferments rather slowly, so it's unlikely to be finished in a couple weeks (using a traditional pitching method like this).

Did you use priming sugar for carbonation? As the Brett continues to ferment, carbonation will increase over time. Your beer may over-carbonate and lead to it gushing when opened or potential explosions.

My big wonder is...can i use the dregs from primary fermenter and dump them into the primary for my next beer to get it to sour up as well? Can I just keep doing this everytime? Even if I dont use the yeast cake? Can just the remains of my bottling bucket be enough everytime? Or is it best to use the whole cake?

Either way is fine. I wouldn't recommend using a full cake, but 1/3 or less would be good.

It seems like it would have fresher cultures than when people dump commercial sour beers into their batches to innoculate them. Will this make the beers get sour quicker with time?

Commercial sour beer dregs provide different strains of Brett and more aggressive bacteria, leading to a more complex yeast flavor profile and more aggressive souring.

Happy to answer any questions. Cheers!

Edit: typos

 

[brownni5]

The above is spot on. Biodiversity is a good thing!

If you're new to sours, I would recommend picking up a copy of American Sour Beers by Mike Tonsmeier. It's got some things that even he would say he got wrong in the book (4-5 years old now), but still a great resource. I got it 2.5 years ago but picked it up earlier today for reference.

 

[BlackfyreBrewing]

Appreciate you all! Yeah I'm very new to the whole thing. Looking forward to doing some reading!