Beer Forum

Do people traditionally pitch WL or Wyeast bacteria blends or bottle dregs (or both) to their sours? I've been hearing a lot of people being more pleased with dregs as they work faster and the flavors are bolder and possibly better. On the other hand, some of the bacteria are assuredly more prominent than others/than they should be.

I'm generally curious what the sour brewers do, but more specifically... I made a lambic recently and went to pitch a vial of WL Belgian Sour Mix I and when I opened it, the vial erupted like a carbonated soda that had been shaken for a week. There was only about a half tsp of liquid left to pitch. I'm wondering whether I should get another vial of WLP655 or pitch the dregs of something like Boon Oude Geuze or Lindemans Cuvee Rene (the most relevant and locally available bottles).

I would recommend using a commercial culture as a base and accenting with commercial dregs for some biological diversity.

+1 Chris! The purchased WY and WL culture blends are a good solid start and augmenting with sour dregs will boost complexity and sourness.

Hey I like the idea of adding dregs after adding the commercial cultures. I never thought of that.

Definitely add some bottle dregs if you can. I keep a blended slurry of all the bottle dregs I buy around and it has yet to disappoint.

Fresh Orval dregs are great

Google: Al B's Bugfarm

It's seasonal and out of season though. Just a heads up.

Yeah, I've read about it. No one has any they could harvest and ship me (I'll reimburse), do they? Will commercial dregs/Al's pitched to a flanders red ale and a lambic result in a similar flavor or will the bugs react different to the specific wort/existing bugs?