Grown up bottle dregs - what to pitch?

[WI_Wino]

I grew up some jolly pumpkin dregs and have a brown ale waiting to be soured. How much of the jar should I pitch into 5 gallons? And should I decant the clear liquid off first? Or swirl everything up and pitch like half the jar. I would like to retain some to grow up and use in my next sour.



My previous sours I have pitched from wyeast smack packs.

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[Calder]

JP bottles tend to be fresh. I'm sure you have sacc in there. Making a starter and growing the dregs, probably grew the sacc, and did very little for the bug population. I suspect you are keeping the jar in the frige. If that is the case, then the bugs are not growing. The bugs will grow with time if you keep it warm.

I would not decant, as some of the bugs may be in suspension.

Swirl it up, pitch half, then add more wort and keep the 'starter' in a warm place with an airlock on it. I keep my bug starters in 1.5 liter wine bottles, and use the small drilled stoppers that fit in bottles.

 

[WI_Wino]

I want to say the bottle was about a year old when I bought it. I grew the dregs up in two stages at room temp on my kitchen counter. It's been just under two months since i initially pitched the dregs. The pint mason jar is filled just about to the brim and has a nice pellicle on it. Smells very similar to the jp beer it came from.

 

[MileHighBrewer]

I've found 1-2 bottles worth of dregs, not grown up, just pitched along with sacch, has been sufficient to make a very sour beer. You could easily split that grown up starter to 2-3 beers uf pitched along with a sacch in primary, or after primary fermentation has completed. Or make a ten gallon batch!

 

[sweetcell]

i would dump out half of the liquid, swirl up the cake, pitch 75% of that into your brown ale, and add the remaining 25% to some fresh wort.

 

[WI_Wino]

Last night I swirled up the entire mason jar with JP dregs and pitched half of that. Then topped off with fresh wort. I also had some roeselare laying around that looked like it had a ton of dead yeast on the bottom. So I decanted the liquid and some of the whiter looking yeast/trub to a sanitized mason jar, then tossed half of that into another batch. Also topped that jar off. Both batches were the same beer (Jamil's Oud Bruin but fermented with a lager yeast at room temp). It'll be interesting to see how these compare in a year.