Hello
I have ordered the ingredients for two sour's
The yeast i picked was the wyeast roselare blend. I have used the wyeast lambic strain for previous batches ( oh by the way, any tips for exterminating lacto bacteria from my equipment are wellcome)
But for the one sour recipe's I want to try to use bottle dregs as well. I have been fortunate to get hold of a good selection of european beers, Orval, Boon, Mikeller, Lindemann, Girardin and Fantome. And I want to use the dregs from the Girardin and Boon for this recipe. But I've never understood the use of bottle dregs.
Do you guys just pour the fresh dregs in the fermentor, or do you grow them with sanitized water and DME ?
I know that growing them with water and DME would change the ratio of bacteria and yeast strains. But I guess it changes anyways when the dregs enter the semi-fermented wort. Using fresh bottle dregs means drinking lambic by the gallons on the day of using the fresh bottle dregs. I have nothing against drinking gallons of lambic. Bu it sounds a bit heavy. So what I do is whenever I have a sitting, I leave some beer in the bottle and recap it with a sanitized cap or foil before I put it in the fridge. The next evening I boil some DME with water ( reaching 1.030) and a tiny bit of yeast nutrient, and pour it in the bottle when it has reached room temperatur. I keep it at room temperature and shake it every now and then. After a few days, the yeast and bacteria starts fermenting, and I add some more wort to the bottle. I have used this process to make a yeast starter from a Mikkeller I'ts Alive and an Orval. The yeast became viable enough to ferment a 2gal. Batch.
So, to make things short : when the recipe calls for bottle dregs, shoul I pour in the fresh bottle dregs, or should I grow them with DME and water ?
And what are your methods and opinions on bottle-dregs ?