Well going to adventure down the sour/fruit road. going to follow a clone of funkwerks raspberry provincial and going to kettle sour. Any suggestions of lactobacillus strains. Thinking wyeast 5335. Not to get into process details but i will kettle sour to taste/3.2 to 3.4 PH and will be pushing the upper end of the temp 95F suggestion for that strain. Could it handle a higher temp 110F?
I don’t think anything is gained by going too warm. My last batch was held at 85F for 4 days as a starter, but it was the Omega Lact blend (Brevis and planetarium blend).
thanks i will post another thread soon to maybe insure my process is ok. i am soooo green with this style. feels like i am learning to brew all over again:)
Omega blend will sour to your pH range in less than 24 hours. (Took mine to pH 3.1 in about 18 hours.) This was at 80 degrees.
I’ve had good luck with 5335 at that temp, but it might take awhile to get there. For me it’s starter for a week and souring wort for a week. The Omega blend on the other hand is incredibly fast and almost foolproof.
IIRC, 5335 only ferments glucose. I have had difficulty getting the pH way down with it, IIRC, even with souring for a week. On the plus side it is poses less of an infection issue than other lactos.
Edit: I prefer to make a 0.5 gal starter with 100 g of malt than using 5335 for 2-3 days. The starter when pitched in 5 gallons drops the pH below 4.5 so you don’t have to worry about bad bacteria.
Wyeast 5335 does not produce any alcohol either. It produces CO2 and lactic acid as by products. It is very IBU and oxygen sensitive and IMObservations, takes a long time to properly sour a wort/beer. High temps are needed 95-100F for at least one week for a simple starter.
I most recently used the WY L. Brevis private collection strain from last year and that too took a while to sour. I have heard good things about the Omega lacto blend and would try that if I were you. Seems to sour quickly and at lower temps.
If you’re going with a WY or WL lacto strain then 5335 is probably your best option. If you can get access to the Omega lacto blend then that is the most aggressive option on the market. Some of the smaller labs in the market are producing some decent products. I’ve seen several people have very good success with probiotic pills made by Swanson and marketed as L. Plantarum pills.
You’re making a big mistake with WY 5335. Evidence would indicate it’s not even capable of souring to 3.2-3.4 pH, at least in a reasonable time frame.E.g.:
- Omega Labs looked at WY 5335 with some other sources and could only get pH down to 3.61.
- In a comparo at HommelHomeBrew, they could only get the pH down to 3.54.
http://www.hommelhomebrew.com/?cat=38
- In a comparo at Milkthefunk, WY 5335 could only hit pH of 3.5.
It’s sad because there are plenty great ways to sour quickly. My current fave is Goodbelly probiotic juice.
I’m going to have to meter a sample of my latest sour beer and see for myself. Its just 5335 and 5526. I know it’s not a race horse but they’ve been turning out plenty sour for me