Lactobacillus questions

I used lacto for the first time last week in a Berliner Weiss- I pitched the lacto first and waited a few days to pitch ale yeast.

OG was 1036 and it was at 1004 when I pitched the ale yeast. I had a holy crap moment realizing there was NOTHING for the ale yeast to consume (on top of the possibility that the PH is too low for the yeast...). I guess I made the lacto pretty stinkin happy as I kept the carboy at around 90* for those first days.

Then I had another oh holy crap moment- lacto doesn't produce alcohol does it? So I'm thinking I'll make some extra wort and toss that in there and hopefully not end up with BW soda. Will that work?

i think you should have reversed your pitching. i'm pretty sure you have a large non-alcoholic lactic culture going. i would use it to pitch into other beers, but i'm not sure how stable a fermented out brew made of lacto is going to be. i'd presume it has no alcohol.

intuitively it seems as if something else had to get in there - i didn't think lacto would go that dry...

bmsteele said:

So I'm thinking I'll make some extra wort and toss that in there and hopefully not end up with BW soda. Will that work?

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bmsteele, any update on this batch? How did it taste?

cravej said:

bmsteele, any update on this batch? How did it taste?

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I just decided to go with it without trying to blend/make any changes and it turned out great. Half of my batch went into secondary with raspberries and I bottled the other "plain" half. It's very refreshing- nice crisp and tart taste. I think I prefer the plain over the fruit, though both are good.

I still have about 1/3 left that I put out of sight. I'm really interested to see how it changes over a few years time with the wild yeast/lacto combo.