Beer Forum

OK... So I brewed my first try at a sour beer this weekend...a Berlinerweisse....Brewing went fine...

After I brewed I cooled down to about 90 degrees... and Pitched White Labs Lacto WLP677.... So My plan was to let the wort sit on the Lacto for 36hrs and then pitch White Labs WLP011 European. So last night at 24hrs I checked the wort... there was no signs of any activities... This morning at 6am (approx 37hrs since I pitched the WLP677) I went down to pitch my yeast (WPL011) and there was a krausen and signs of fermentation.... I was kind of shocked... wasn't sure what to do (I hadn't had my morning coffee yet)... So I went ahead and pitched the WLP011....

So what is going on... I was surprised to get fermentation out of WLP677..... Should I have just let it go... or was pitching the WLP011 the right thing to do.... What is going on??? General Thoughts?


Thanks,

Craig

Lactobacillus ferments just like regular yeast, but it produces (mainly) lactic acid, rather than ethanol. What you saw was normal.

Deciding when to pitch the lacto and the yeast will determine how much lactic acid vs. ethanol you get. By pitching the lacto first, you are choosing the sour over the flavors you get from traditional yeasts.

I will comment that I've never heard of someone pitching lacto first... it's usually the other way around. There are no rules in beer, so I suppose if you like face-meltingly sour beer, pitching the lacto first would be the way to go. In Brewing Classic Styles Jamil pitches both at the same time. I've also heard of people finishing a beer with lacto, although I think Berliner Weisse is traditionally pretty sour.

Awesome thanks... That makes me feel better...

I was little nervous that...well... hell... I don't know... But I didn't know that Lacto would act like yeast in fermentation...

OK... I can breathe and get excited about my first sour beer...

Next time you should make a starter at 90 degrees or so (1025 wort) and pitch that before adding the ale yeast. I would recommend letting it go for 48 hrs before adding the ale yeast to best emulate this style for its sharp sourness which seems very hard to get consistently. Please post later with your souring results.

Has anyone tried splitting this between two batches and fermenting one with lacto and one with ale yeast and blending back? I am trying to decide the best strategy for my first Berliner attempt. It sounds like the total fermentation time for this beer is still the typical 1-3 weeks? I was thinking the lacto might take more time to produce the sourness?

andersonimes wrote:
I will comment that I've never heard of someone pitching lacto first... it's usually the other way around. There are no rules in beer, so I suppose if you like face-meltingly sour beer, pitching the lacto first would be the way to go. In Brewing Classic Styles Jamil pitches both at the same time. I've also heard of people finishing a beer with lacto, although I think Berliner Weisse is traditionally pretty sour.

Believe it or not, it's pretty hard to get a beer sour enough using only lacto. It usually takes a long secondary or a large lacto pitch rate ( I like Kris England's 5 parts lacto to 1 part sach method) I think this beer will work out quite nice

OK... So after 6 days of Fermentation... It is starting to slow... the Krausen is dropped out... and we are getting to the end of fermentation it looks likes... I have a few questions... If people can help me out..

1. As the krausen has dropped out there are little clusters of what look to be Krausen (actually they look like little orange scabs floating in the top). I think that I know this is from the Lactobacillus bateria... I have read in other places that they leave these behind and not to worry... is that correct?

2. Since I have those bacteria clusters and I wanted to put some fruit to this beer... I am planning on (next weekend) raking the beer to a 2ndary with some frozen rapberries in the carboy... does anyone see any issue with that?


3. Since I put Lacto in this carboy... other than using PBW to clean...and maybe some starsan after I do the PWB... Does anyone have any recommendation on cleaning out the carboy after having made a sour beer with bacteria in it? SO that I won't have any issues on the next beer.



THANK FOR ANY HELP


Gweedoe!

mediumsk wrote:

andersonimes wrote:
I will comment that I've never heard of someone pitching lacto first... it's usually the other way around. There are no rules in beer, so I suppose if you like face-meltingly sour beer, pitching the lacto first would be the way to go. In Brewing Classic Styles Jamil pitches both at the same time. I've also heard of people finishing a beer with lacto, although I think Berliner Weisse is traditionally pretty sour.

Believe it or not, it's pretty hard to get a beer sour enough using only lacto. It usually takes a long secondary or a large lacto pitch rate ( I like Kris England's 5 parts lacto to 1 part sach method) I think this beer will work out quite nice

In my experience, a long secondary with commercial lacto won't help. If it isn't sour immediately, it probably will never be sour without other bugs to do the dirty work.