Lacto Problems

[Fritobandito]

I have had zero success with getting any of my beers sour using lacto. I have used both White Labs and Wyeast lacto with and without starters. I have a heat belt and can easily keep the temperature around 100 degrees. I have been attempting to make a berliner weisse for quite some time and it just isn't working. I have one 11 month old batch and one 6 month old batch, and neither has any sourness at all. I made a lacto starter 5 days ago from a white labs lacto vial and there is nothing going on. I look at people who make lacto starters and there is a pellicle on top and even in the bucket. I was attempting to pitch the lacto into the wort and let that go until I get the sourness I want, and then boil, but there is no sourness. It just seems like it doesn't do anything at all. I'm pretty much stumped.

 

[rexbanner]

Lacto hates hops, did you hop the wort? Many lacto strains can't tolerate anything over 20 IBUs.

I just bottled a fast sour brown that I used lacto on, and it's plenty tart. I left hops out of half the wort, pitched lacto, and kept it for a week at 90 degrees. A small krausen formed and there was some airlock activity, but nothing major.

 

[Fritobandito]

I have done batches with mash hopping and boiling and adding hops. Both were around 5 ibu. I even made a batch without using any hops at all, and nothing happened.