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There is a recipe in the latest edition of BYO for a cider with cherry puree fermented with a Belgian ale yeast, brettanomyces, and lactobacillus - the idea is to imitate the flavours of Kriek in a cider. My girlfriend is interested (and I am too!) so I'd like to give it a try.

Does anyone have experience using souring bacteria in beverages with little to no complex sugars?

The recipe essentially says to put some apple juice and cherry puree in a fermenter, ferment to completion with a Belgian ale yeast, and then add brettanomyces and lactobacillus. I'm kind of surprised by this advice. While the brettanomyces and lactobacillus will certainly contribute some flavour at this point I have a hard time believing that a strong acidity/brett flavour will be attained as almost all of the sugar will be gone. All of the literature I have read about sour/wild beers suggests that you want a fairly unfermentable wort in order for the bacteria and brettanomyces to contribute significant flavour, as any saccharomyces present will usually be first to the simple sugars. I suppose if I went as the recipe suggested and didn't get enough acidity/brett flavour after a few months I could add some maltodextrin to give the bacteria something to eat?

Instead, I am leaning towards pitching lactobacillus first to give it a head start (at a high temperature, ~30C) and then following it up with a brett/saison blend after a few days (and after cooling to room temperature). This should lay down the underlying acidity and hopefully pitching the brett at the same time as the brewer's yeast will allow the brett to get a foothold as well. I am still unsure whether any significant funky brett flavour can be attained without any complex sugar present.

Any thoughts?

Using a Belgian strain that will produce lots of phenols in primary will help bring out the brett character. There's also some thought about fruit and lacto together creating different flavours.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QgXptgw1ys

While this mostly does deal with mashing and unfermentables, there's a few points about phenols/fruits. Hope that helps

As it turns out the Mad Fermentationist has done this before:

Sour Cider

Tasting Notes

Telling quote from the tasting notes:

"I think this sour cider concept has some merit, but I would probably go with a milder strain of Brett like claussenii the next time I brew one. I might add some malto-dextrin as well to encourage the production of more acidity."

I haven't done it myself but my research and reading on the subject suggests the same as yours: lacto headstart followed by a sach+brett co-pitch would definitely be the fastest way to get where you want to go without aging it super long term.

I started this the other day. I elected to add the lactobacillus first, and I'll be adding a saison/brett blend once the sourness reaches an appropriate level (I don't want it too sour, just nice and tart). I also added a little bit of maltodextrin up front. I was excited to find frozen sour cherries (grown in Ontario) at a market here in Winnipeg so I'll be adding those after fermentation slows down.