Lactobacillus

[Batz]

With the interest in sour brews of late I was wondering where brewers get their lactobacillus from. Wyeast 5335 is great but fairly expensive, do brewers make a starter and split it up like yeasts?
I have tried 'Ethical Nutrients IBS Support 30 Capsules' with no luck at all

http://www.chemistwarehouse.com.au/buy/49531/Ethical-Nutrients-IBS-Support-30-Capsules?utm_source=dgm&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=Skimbit

I made a starter and kept them at the right temperate for a few days and found they did not sour at all?

I've heard you can use a yogurt culture as well?

Interested in you guys who have done this and brewed with it with good results, rather than I read somewhere...

Cheers
Batz

 

[waggastew]

I just kegged a Berliner that I planned to use a wyeast culture on.....until I saw the price! Ended up using grain for a kettle sour.

Buy, grow and split seems a good option. Another may be to bottle some soured wort that tastes otherwise clean and store it cold.

Yoghurt option seems a bit risky with no real advantages over using grain?

 

[adryargument]

I used the berliner weiss yeast.
Manufacturer says that creating a starter will create a different % of microbes than orignally intended in that strain, and its to be pitched directly.
One of the sourest beers i have tasted was a 5+ liter starter of berliner weiss blend thrown into a 100L barrel.

I guess the Lacto overpowered the yeast in the starter, and caused an unbalanced ferment.

It was hell tasty.

 

[Batz]

I used the berliner weiss yeast.
Manufacturer says that creating a starter will create a different % of microbes than orignally intended in that strain, and its to be pitched directly.
One of the sourest beers i have tasted was a 5+ liter starter of berliner weiss blend thrown into a 100L barrel.

I guess the Lacto overpowered the yeast in the starter, and caused an unbalanced ferment.

It was hell tasty.

What, or who's yeast was that?

Edit:

OK this https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast/wlp630-berliner-weisse-blend

Can take several months, I'm talking a turbo Berliner Weisse by infecting with Lacto then fermenting.

 

[Batz]

OK so I'm a typical home brew tight arse, when buying yeast I make a starter and break it into 10 vials. Can this be done with lacto? Obviously not on the stir plate, has anyone done this with success or am I going to find out myself?

 

[adryargument]

White labs i believe.

Dont see why it cant be done on a stirplate, should provide better growth too.
People generally dont do this because fears of cross-contamination but if your semi decent in your cleaning procedures then it should be fine.

I have a 100L barrel thats 8 months old and taste low-med sour with a very clean crisp profile. This was made using 3 year old wyeast rosalare and lambic 3 blend that were accidentally frozen a few times. Considering the yeast calcs give the chance of survival 0% on a 23l batch..... i severely underpitched and the result is great. Bugs are a different sort of beast. Hench the cross contamination fear. But they should survive ww3.

My 5+L starter had lots of white fluffy bits. And i believe i may have stepped it up from 2L on a stirplate.

 

[Batz]

White labs i believe.

Dont see why it cant be done on a stirplate, should provide better growth too.
People generally dont do this because fears of cross-contamination but if your semi decent in your cleaning procesdures then it should be fine.

I have a 100L barrel thats 8 months old and taste low-med sour with a very clean crisp profile. This was made using 3 year old wyeast rosalare and lambic 3 blend that were accidentally frozen a few times. Considering the yeast calcs give the chance of survival 0% on a 23l batch..... i severely underpitched and the result is great. Bugs are a different sort of beast.

A stir plate is used to introduce oxygen into the wort growing yeast. You don't want oxygen in your Lacto. This is the reason I said no stir plate.

 

[paulyman]

Just starting my journey into sour beers, I found this piece of info from The Mad Fermentationist, yet to try it out.

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2011/03/maintaining-brett-and-lacto-cultures.html

 

[Batz]

Just starting my journey into sour beers, I found this piece of info from The Mad Fermentationist, yet to try it out.

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2011/03/maintaining-brett-and-lacto-cultures.html

Yes seen that of course.
I have also seen how brewers keep 5lt carboys of their favorite cultures. I think that's me!

 

[Jack of all biers]

OK so I'm a typical home brew tight arse, when buying yeast I make a starter and break it into 10 vials. Can this be done with lacto? Obviously not on the stir plate, has anyone done this with success or am I going to find out myself?

A really cheap way to obtain a Lactobacillus culture, which is also fresh every time, as described below by the tried and tested Graham Wheeler. It may not be scientific, but the old and tested methods usually work and Wheeler never seems to get it wrong.

Lactobacillus inoculation - p.178 Brew Classic European Beers at Home, Wheeler/Protz 2001, CAMRA ISBN 1-85249-1 17-5

"make up a micro-mash using crushed pale malt at 65-66C in a domestic vacuum-flask and stand for one-and-a-half hours. Cool, or allow to cool naturally, to 50C, mix in a quantity of uncrushed malt, fit the cap and stand for 24-48 hours. Alternatively, make up a malt extract solution of about OG 1040-50, boil for fifteen minutes, cool to 60C and add to the vacuum-flask, when the solution has cooled to 50C, add a quantity of uncrushed malt, fit the cap and stand for 24-48 hours. In both cases the culture is used by straining the fluid from the grains and adding to the fermenter. L. delbrueckii has a glucose requirement, and the bacteria is unlikely to compete well in the presence of active brewers yeast. In the case of Berliner wheat beers it is usual to add the bacteria culture a few hours before the yeast to give the bacteria a head start. In some instances the yeast and bacteria are added together."

The problem with the information provided by Wheeler is that of obtaining consistency in the sourness of the brews. I'd say his last sentence about adding them together in some instances is due to his experiences at the various breweries that make the commercial Berliner Weisse and the lack of detailed information they provided him. The only receipe he has for a Berliner Weisse in the same book (p.161, Kindl Weisse) talks of adding the L. delbruckii "a few hours before adding the (yeast)". So even then he doesn't give a greatly reliable time frame for the brewer to obtain consistency. In saying that, I would give his method a go if you are reluctant to fork out cash for the commercial cultures available.

 

[aaronpetersen]

OK so I'm a typical home brew tight arse, when buying yeast I make a starter and break it into 10 vials. Can this be done with lacto? Obviously not on the stir plate, has anyone done this with success or am I going to find out myself?

I freeze all my yeast in vials in glycerol and have done the same with the WY5223 Lacto brevis strain that was released a while ago. I recently built up a starter with no problems at all. I did use a stir plate for my starter on slow speed to help keep the bacteria in suspension. Some really good info on different Lacto strains and starters here: http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Lactobacillus

 

[Batz]

Thanks for all the answers guys, interesting reading.

OK so what I really want to know, W5335 lactobacillus. Has anyone built up a starter and split it into vials for later use? I'm talking W5335 here which is lactobacillus only no Saccharomyces or Brettanomyces added.

Batz

 

[antiphile]

Sorry Batz, but I can't answer your specific questions and haven't used any of the lacto variants. However, in the past, Nick from Barleyman has had L. brevis (WLP672) and L. delbrueckii (WLP677). If it's not a huge time issue, I'm sure he'd order it in in his next WLP batch.

Cheers

 

[Pjp49rg]

Batz, currently have a Berliner kettle souring as we speak with 5335. Planning on taking some of the wort pre-boil and storing for later use much the same as with yeast slurry. Have dropped ph from 4.43 to 4.13 in 24hrs with a 1 liter starter added to the wort, so the starter works and cannot see why storing some of the wort would not... Wheats do 100ml at a time so I'd guess that might be enough. Also TBN had a show on the sour hour recently where one of the Brewers was using the same culture repeatedly with good effect. Might have been jester king out of Texas I think.

 

[motman]

I have had a couple of very tasty beers soured with lacto from inner health plus tablets by an innovative Brewer at our brew club. I think they even state the count of bugs for ease of pitching.

 

[Beersuit]

I recently went to a kettle sour class with croft and newstead brewing where they were adding 1 yes just 1 wy 5335 pack to 1000l. The results were spot on soured to a ph of 3.3 to 3.8 depending on the beers and when they stopped it.
You should have no drama splitting a back bats and not having to worry about a starter to get bang for your buck.

 

[Dan2]

Batz - A small amount of grain is the easiest way to inoculate. Cheap too!
I'm fermenting my 4th Berliner now. 1st was soured with WY5335, and each one since with 100g uncrushed malt (in hop tea bags for easy removal).
PM if you want a detailed recipe (also happy to post here).

 

[Motabika]

I just picked up some Gigayeast Gb110, this is known to be a fast souring lacto strain. Apparently can sour a 1.045 wort in 3-4 weeks at 22c, if co pitched with sacch

 

[GalBrew]

As AaronP stated above you should really check out the Milk the Funk Wiki. The amount of knowledge on that site regarding all types of sour and funky beers is second to none. I would trying again with L.Plantarum, the general consensus seems to be that it is a super fast souring lacto. Just follow the methods they describe for starter production and souring. Perhaps your probiotic capsules had not been stored optimally and you got a big decline in viability?

 

[Batz]

As AaronP stated above you should really check out the Milk the Funk Wiki. The amount of knowledge on that site regarding all types of sour and funky beers is second to none. I would trying again with L.Plantarum, the general consensus seems to be that it is a super fast souring lacto. Just follow the methods they describe for starter production and souring. Perhaps your probiotic capsules had not been stored optimally and you got a big decline in viability?

Cheers
Yes I have been following Milk the Funk for quite sometime. Very happy with my latest berliner weisse using 5335 but keen to try Dan2's method as well.