Using bottle dregs

It's a good idea because it increases biological diversity. Just add the dregs along with the smack pack. Would not waste time trying to make starters.

 

I'm glad you asked this. I'm planning on doing a sour and was interested on pitching some dregs.

 

Don't use the smack pack at all, just dregs from a real gueuze.

 

I'm making a wild ale here soon that is going to be fermented with only dregs. I've been collecting awesome sour dregs for about a month now and adding it to a small starter/storing receptacle (1 gallon growler)

I have the following:

The Bruery- Griffon Brux
The Bruery- Sour in the Rye
The Bruery- Filmishmish
The Bruery- The Wanderer
Anchorage- The Tide and it's Takers
Russian River- Beatification Batch 2
Russian River- Sanctification Batch 4
Almanac- Farm to Barrel #1
Almanac- Farm to Barrel #2 (X2)
Surly- Pentagram
Upland- Blackberry Lambic


I figure the dregs from another 7-10 bottles should do the trick...

 

I've done similar things in the past and would just advise that time is not your friend, especially if you have lots of headspace in the growler in question things can turn acetic tasting in the presence of the added oxygen and obvious brett you have. Far better to brew sooner than later and add any additional bottles down the road. Further, you have as many as you need already. Also, do all of these have no off flavors you don't want to see in your beer? Finally, taste your "starter" before pitching, if it doesn't taste good you're better off with the OP's smack pack approach plus a few completely fresh dregs (which again can be added over time). Lastly, why no Belgians?

 

Because it's American Craft Beer week.

 

But thanks for the heads up. I'll taste it before hand and make sure it doesn't taste shitty. Smells great though...

 

I think you have way too many different dregs already. You do realize that each of those beers has a different "ecosystem" of bacteria and yeast. With so many different dregs I would be concerned that any resulting beer would just turn into a muddled mess.

I would think a better approach is to pick one or two beers that you want your beer to taste like and use only those dregs (with multiple bottles of each if you are concerned about the volume).

I do agree that it doesn't make sense to make a starter with the dregs. The problem is that by the time a sour is bottled the bacteria is dominating the yeast. A starter will just amplify this difference and give you a super sour beer. It's better to get the bacteria from the dregs, but also pitch a smack pack to get viable yeast.

 

Im not a huge fan of dregs because I like my beers to be reproducible. You never know exactly what youre getting out of the bottle as factors like age, storage and bottle variation all play a role. If you do use dregs and end up liking the product, Id look into a way of capturing youre yeast/bugs. Maybe by inoculating some oak with your bugs so that you can pitch them into your next batch.

 

Couldn't a person take a more professional approach and harvest yest from the cake after fermentation and use it for reproducing the same beer?

 

not sure if he's updated it recently but oldsock has a list of bottle dregs that are good to use:
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/06/harvesting-sour-beer-bottle-dregs.html

 

No more so than blending several barrels with different flavor profiles.

 

I come back to it a couple times a year. Hard to keep up with so many new breweries making sours, but you can generally assume that if a brewery is on that list then all of their sour/funky beers will have live microbes.

 

Yes but if you are propogating from the yeast cake youre changing the ratio of bugs to yeast. I honestly dont know enough about it but yes there is definitely more scientific ways to do it.

 

Use some Jolly Pumpkin dregs, those bugs are downright voracious.

 

This x1,000,000

I had been putting together a lot of dregs over the course of 2 months or so in a small mason jar and by the time I wanted to use them, they smelled like vinegar and attracted tons of fruit flies. It smelled vile. I tossed it out and cleaned the hell out of that mason jar.

I have a year and a half old lambic that is still in the fermentor that used just dregs, havent tasted it since brewday though. I hope it turns out alright.

 

I spent 3 years brewing an Flanders Red that was amazingly good. Last October I added Orval, Rayon Vert and Jolly Pumpkin dregs to under-attenuated porter and it's just as good as my 3 year project beer.