Sour Mash Berliner Weisse Fermentation

I decided to get a little crazy and try my hand at a Berliner Weisse. I decided to do a sour mash, which went great. I soured the mash with a few ounces of grain for 24 hours and got a sour but not foul smelling wort. I did a 30 minute boil with a small hop addition, cooled oxygenated and pitched WLP001. This was a 2 gallon batch so I didn't do a starter. My OG was 1.031. 3 days later I have no Krausen or airlock activity. I have my carboy sitting at 72 degrees.

I'm going to take a hydrometer reading tonight, but was wondering how the lactic acid effects fermentation. Every other time I have used WLP001 I have had very active fermentation within 24 hours. My yeast was shipped from NB and I am wondering if the heat during shipping was too much for it.

Is it possible with a low gravity beer to have fermentation without krausen or airlock activity? There hasnt been any subsurface swirling either. Just a yeast bed settled on the bottom of the carboy.

Any idea what the pH is? Acidity does make it more difficult for the primary yeast to do their job, but I haven't heard about it completely stopping fermentation, especially in just 24 hours. Always a good idea to make a starter to ensure viability before brewing, even if you don't need more cells. I'd pitch more yeast if you have it.

The gravity had not dropped at all so I ended up pitching Safale 05. My LHBS suggested this because the dry yeast is more robust than the liquid. As far as pH goes, I just started measuring pH and paying attention to my water. The pH of my water is super high, so I am assuming that the addition of lactic acid will make it more ideal for the yeast. Anyway, the beer finished at 1.003 and tastes awesome. Really cheesy nose though. Just posted a thread about what might have caused this. This would be a great beer if the nose was more along the lines of the taste.

Dry yeast is more robust than liquid yeast? WTF. That is not correct at all.

ReverseApacheMaster said:

Dry yeast is more robust than liquid yeast? WTF. That is not correct at all.

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I think he means a dry yeast pack has a higher cell count than liquid yeast.

Maybe thats it. All I know is that the WLP001 didn't ferment at all and the Safale 05 dropped the gravity from to 1.003 in 5 days.