Experimenting with extra wort (pitching dregs)

[TravelingLight]

I want to make sur their a isn't anything glaringly wrong about this experiment/process.

I plan on doing a "true" sour eventually and at least a kettle sour later this year. However, I was thinking about experimenting a little with my next beer.

I'm doing a saison in a few weeks. I was thinking of pulling off about a gallon or a little more of wort to a separate 1 or 2 gallon jug/carboy and pitching some bottle dregs from a viable commercial sour (using Tonsmiere`s list). And just let it ride for, well, I dunno. Some questions...

1) Will this make a sour beer?
2) Do I need to pitch some sacc as well?
3) Side bar...if this is an exercise in futility, maybe just pull some wort and use it to start building my own sour culture by continuously pitching commercial dregs and just adding fresh wort every couple months or so? I actually like this idea better. This way I'd be creating my own sour blend and able to continuously feed it and add to it. Can this be done for months and months or does it need to be used within a few months?

Thanks.

 

[crane]

Join the 1 gallon experimenting club over on this thread.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=189748

You can pitch just the bottle dregs without pitching any additional sac.

I've heard people claim that pitching too many different dregs can result in poor results due to too many flavors competing with each other, but I have no experience with that myself. One reason not to go this route would be if you get a good mix going and something you add down the road introduces some flavor or contamination that you don't want. This all or nothing approach has a decent chance of becoming a big fat nothing, IMHO. Trying different dregs in an isolated fashion can help separate the good from the bad.

 

[Aristotelian]

My understanding is that if the wort is high in IBUs it will inhibit the lacto. It will be there, but either won't sour or will do so very slowly. I am doing something similar and I am not getting any sourness after 1 month (using Jolly Pumpkin dregs).

You typically do want to either pitch sacc first or copitch.

 

[crane]

My understanding is that if the wort is high in IBUs it will inhibit the lacto. It will be there, but either won't sour or will do so very slowly. I am doing something similar and I am not getting any sourness after 1 month (using Jolly Pumpkin dregs).

You typically do want to either pitch sacc first or copitch.

Yeah I have pulled the wort early enough in the boil so I don't pick up any ibus. For example last batch was a 90 min boil, so I pulled the 1 gallon after 30 min then did my 60 min bittering addition.

 

[TravelingLight]

My understanding is that if the wort is high in IBUs it will inhibit the lacto. It will be there, but either won't sour or will do so very slowly. I am doing something similar and I am not getting any sourness after 1 month (using Jolly Pumpkin dregs).

You typically do want to either pitch sacc first or copitch.

Right, that's why I was planning on pulling some before I add any hops. But my final wort may be pretty low anyway. It's a saison and I may just be doing 5 minute and whirlpool additions anyway.