BW - Adding Lacto with or after the yeast - Any success stories?

[Calder]

I did a little research before making my first BW, and have had great success by souring the wort at ~100 F for a week and then adding yeast. Generally I'm packaged at 3 weeks and drinking after 5.

I have never added Lacto with or after the yeast has been pitched, I've seen people reporting different results. What experience have others had with doing this? What Lacto did you pitch, when did you pitch it, and how long did it take to sour?

Another key parameter might be how many hops were used. I don't use any.

If we get enough people reporting their experience, maybe we can each decide what is the best method for each of us based on the experience of the group.

 

[metic]

Yeah I've done this every time I made a Berliner Weisse. Kristin England recommends pitching 5:1 ratio of lacto to yeast in Brewing with Wheat. I have no way of measuring that, so I just build a big starter of lacto with a bottle of apple juice, leave it for a week or two and pitch it along with the yeast. Its worked every time so far, plenty sour for me pretty quickly, and its increased in the bottle. The original pitch was from an expired pack of Wyeast Berlinerweisse blend. I split the pack in two, treated half like a yeast starter and half like a lacto starter. Now I just feed the lacto apple juice occasionally, and its been fine every time so far. Fed it again yesterday and no signs of activity, so maybe it got too acidic and killed itself---but it usually takes a day or two to kick up, so we'll see.

Oh, and I don't boil, so I usually just throw a small amount of low alpha hops in the mash.