Does this starter look right?

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godofcheese

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So, I made a starter for my lacto last week. I plan on brewing a Berlinder Weiss this upcoming weekend. Figured about 2 weeks would be good to grow up a large batch to pitch. Has been held around 80 degrees so far. No real change other then there is a good bit of stuff falling out of suspension. Suddenly this morning there was a nice bit of growth. By lunch it had grown even more. Is this lacto growing, or a nice bit of contamination?

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Looks like other pellicles I've seen in pictures. I've not done a sour beer at this point, but that looks right. Honestly, I didn't really know you needed to do a starter for the lacto culture, but, what do I know! :D
 
LOL, not photoshopped. Just my iphone camera.

I am making a starter to make sure I pitch more lactobacillus then yeast. I don't know if it is nesaccary or not, but I make a starter for everything else, why not this?

My wife the microbiologist questioned my sanitization skills. Said I should have just taken my stuff up to her work and let her autoclave it. I hope she isn't right . . .
 
I've made a few BW's over the years and never bothered with a starter, seeing as the yeast is sitting on the beer for a while anyways. I emailed Wyeast about this before my first batch and they suggested to use the following:

ferment with Wyeast 1007 for about 2 weeks in primary and then rack to secondary adding either pediococcus or lactobacillus (used both already, with good results). No starter for the bacteria.

Good luck with yours and let it age in the bottle for about 4-5 months, maybe 6. I've found that the longer I let it go in the bottle, the less sour it is. After about 9 months, it is still sour, but nearly as much at around 6 months.
 
definitely lacto! it looks like every batch i've ever done that had lacto in it. i would take advantage of your wifes career and the equipment she has available to her!! that'd be a nice way to get her involved in your hobby taboot. unless you don't want her involved in your hobby, heheh.
 
definitely lacto! it looks like every batch i've ever done that had lacto in it. i would take advantage of your wifes career and the equipment she has available to her!! that'd be a nice way to get her involved in your hobby taboot. unless you don't want her involved in your hobby, heheh.

Yea!

I ask her a good bit of questions about different things, but I don't dare take any of my homebrew equipment up to her lab. I have seen the things growing there. And the smells . . . OMG the smells! She runs the student labs for a university and has all kinds of stuff in there that would do much worse then infect a beer. Heck, her old lab had a ton of ecoli and cyanide waste. Was good times.

She recently told me a stir plate is not what I want for starters, I need a shaker. Would get a higher concentration of cells as it is less violent.
 
It looks to me like your starter is infected... :D

Also, as an aside, thanks for posting these pictures and reminding me to be less stupid. I was trying to figure out what to put the starter for my next beer in since my gallon jug is full. I completely forgot about 2 liter bottles, which I have plenty of. Good luck with the beer!
 
I emailed Wyeast about this before my first batch and they suggested to use the following:

ferment with Wyeast 1007 for about 2 weeks in primary and then rack to secondary adding either pediococcus or lactobacillus (used both already, with good results). No starter for the bacteria.

I have a hard time with Wyeasts advice to you, 1st pedio in a BW?? not unless you want a butter bomb, and without brett to clean it up thats what you would get

also, lacto after 2weeks fermenting with ale yeast? whats left for the lacto to eat? I and other people havent got much or any sourness unless you pitch a huge quantity of lacto or let it go for a long time before pitching yeast

I know wyeast is in the business of brewing cultures, but you think their advice would match what homebrewers are seeing/doing, theres just too much evidence out there from others beers to think that this approach would work consistently
 
Looks very similar to what has accumulated on the top of my most recent attempt at a sour beer. albeit you have larger bubbles but I would assume that is from higher fermentability in that mine is in its tertiary phase.
 
I have a hard time with Wyeasts advice to you, 1st pedio in a BW?? not unless you want a butter bomb, and without brett to clean it up thats what you would get

also, lacto after 2weeks fermenting with ale yeast? whats left for the lacto to eat? I and other people havent got much or any sourness unless you pitch a huge quantity of lacto or let it go for a long time before pitching yeast

I know wyeast is in the business of brewing cultures, but you think their advice would match what homebrewers are seeing/doing, theres just too much evidence out there from others beers to think that this approach would work consistently

I've made a few BW over 10 years of brewing and have followed this same yeast pitching schedule with no bad tastes; no butter bomb, only a good, sour beer. the brewers yeast will not ferment all sugars; lacto will still break down some residual sugars that the brewers yeast cannot. To be honest, I have never made a BW with pitching bacteria first, then yeast afterwards.

Why would Wyeast sell bacteria if they are not in the business to help homebrewers? I think they know more about what homebrewers are doing that what you think.
 
Looks like the pellicles on all my brett beers during the early months of fermentation. Some of those have also had lacto, some have been all-brett, or a mix of bretts & bacteria.
 
Why would Wyeast sell bacteria if they are not in the business to help homebrewers? I think they know more about what homebrewers are doing that what you think.

I know they are in business to help homebrewers, but at the same time their advice to add pedio to a Bweiss is absurd, pedio will produce copious amounts of diacetyl aka butter flavor, that unless there is brett around to eat will be left in the beer

also, pitching lacto late in the game, especially their notoriously wimpy lacto strains where really any IBU's approaching 5 or small amounts of alcohol will knock them out is odd to me, if you look around at just about every homebrew board it will be suggested to either pitch a huge lacto starter at the same time as the sacch or let the lacto get a foothold prior to adding the sacch

Ive never even come across someone suggesting to add lacto 2wks into primary for a bweiss, and Ive brewed quite a few Bweiss's - now Im not trying to be a dick in all this, and sometimes it can be hard to not sound like one when posting, but Im just having a hard time with their advice to you, given all the evidence out there against it and my own personal experience
 
I'll take that advice, but haven't seen it happen with my beers, though. I haven't used White labs bacteria strains yet to compare. I'm not being a dick either and not taking your post that way either, but that is what i've seen; i'm always open to others and their ideas too. Also, i haven't made a starter with lacto/pedio to get a huge amount up; i'll have to try that. I've used pedio (and lacto) for a lambic and was happy with the results.
 
:D
I know they are in business to help homebrewers, but at the same time their advice to add pedio to a Bweiss is absurd, pedio will produce copious amounts of diacetyl aka butter flavor, that unless there is brett around to eat will be left in the beer

also, pitching lacto late in the game, especially their notoriously wimpy lacto strains where really any IBU's approaching 5 or small amounts of alcohol will knock them out is odd to me, if you look around at just about every homebrew board it will be suggested to either pitch a huge lacto starter at the same time as the sacch or let the lacto get a foothold prior to adding the sacch

Ive never even come across someone suggesting to add lacto 2wks into primary for a bweiss, and Ive brewed quite a few Bweiss's - now Im not trying to be a dick in all this, and sometimes it can be hard to not sound like one when posting, but Im just having a hard time with their advice to you, given all the evidence out there against it and my own personal experience

"trying to be a dick in all this, and sometimes it can be hard" :D
 
Well, just as an update. The lacto is kicking right along in there. Been in there about a month and a half. (you can see the hop sediment up in the neck of the fermenter) Lacto made a very nice little sheet of funk on there. I will let it sit another month or two before I taste it.

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