saving yeast and fruit cake (heh) from a lambic

My method of brewing sour beers has simply been to ferment with a clean sacchro strain, then conditioning with commercial Brett and bugs as well as some bottle dregs here and there.

With that being said, I wouldn't pitch the straight slurry that you collected right after bottling. I don't know what the repercussions would be of using the slurry with all it's old fruit particles and dead yeast cells, but it's not something I would want to chance. Although I have yet to do so myself, I've read where people have soured beers simply using the oak that they've used in previous batches. Enough yeast and bacteria are able to hibernate in the wood that when added to the beer, they can successfully propagate and do their thing. Makes sense, since this is how it's been done for centuries, except they add the beer to the wood instead of vice versa.

Unless someone knows definite reasons for not using the straight slurry, and you want to experiment, I would simply add a small amount to the wort along with your sacchro strains. It doesn't take much to get good results, so why risk it?

 

Dave and Becky Pile apparently ferment with nothing but slurry/ aging beer from the prior year. I don't think dead yeast/ autolysis is a big deal with lambic like beer destined for extended aging on the yeast cake. I am curious on other's input on how much slurry to use.