Philly Sour brew - not sour enough

[NZShep]

Hi Guys,

I have made a passionfruit sour that has been fermenting for 11 days. It seems to have reached its terminal PH @ 4.4.

Am I able to re pitch some more philly sour yeast? The fruit has been in for 5 days now, Maybe I added the fruit too early?
Any solutions?
Thank you very much for any help you can provide.

 

[marc1]

Lots of information on Philly Sour here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...-sour-feedback-or-experience-to-share.682096/
It makes the lactic acid first, then ferments the sugars. I don't think repitching would do anything, you've used up all your sugars already.

What was your recipe and process? How are you measuring pH?

 

[Northern_Brewer]

In particular check out the sui generis links in my post #263 on that thread - Philly Sour is very sensitive to pitch rate, and the souring needs good oxygenation among other things.

 

[RM-MN]

The sour taste is due to the lactic acid. You can buy some and add it to the beer to get more sour flavor. For example, Lactic Acid for Brewing Beer - 5oz

On a different note, a couple of my non-sour beers had a sour taste to them. No infection that I could tell but then I remembered that I had add acid blend to the mash to bring the mash pH down. I didn't measure closely and I think I simply added too much.

 

[Beenym88]

I used Philly sour once then went back to kettle souring I thought it wasn’t sour or funky enough

 

[Consigliere]

I can’t claim personal experience here but believe simple sugar availability at the start of fermentation can increase sourness from this yeast. So adding some dextrose or table sugar at end of boil may help in future.

would echo the other comment that if you want to try more sour on this one add some lactic. Perhaps pour a glass and add a small amount to test the total you want in the batch first though. Easy to add more, can’t take it away once added

 

[Jayjay1976]

I've only used it once but mine turned out really sour. The recipe also included a couple of cans of tart pie cherries, which might have been the problem, sweet cherries next time.

 

[Rob2010SS]

You're only option at this point is to use lactic acid and drop the pH to what you want. However, be warned, I've done this before and it's not a pleasant flavor. It's definitely not the same flavor you get from lactobacillus or philly sour in this case.

I've just completed my first brew with Philly Sour and I thought it performed really well. They recommend 1-1.5g of yeast per liter of beer for optimal lactic acid production. We were at .7g / l and it dropped from 4.5 to 3.48. We did pre-acidify to once it was in the fermenter.

Also, ferment warm. We fermented at 72F, as that is the bottom of a recommendation that the makers of this yeast put into a video. It helps encourage some of that lactic acid production if I remember correctly.

We also oxygenated for 2 min with pure O2.

Someone recommended simple sugar as well. That was also one of the recommendations in the video from the makers of this yeast.

Not sure how big of a batch it is, but you could re-brew another batch and get it to a pH level more to your liking and blend the two batches together. That might be able to get you into the 3's on pH.