Philly Sour Yeast Starter

[John Spiegel]

Was planning on doing my first batch with Philly Sour soon. Reading through some of the other threads, I've seen people say 2 packs for a 5 gal batch is ideal, and that it doesn't do well repitched. I was wondering if anybody had success with a yeast starter. Buying two packs plus shipping is coming out to a lot for just the yeast.

 

[lumpher]

I made 1 recently with that yeast and based it on a recipe they suggested for it. 1 pack with no starter was plenty for me. After watching several videos about some testing it, I decided against a starter and just dumped it right in.

 

[marc1]

Was planning on doing my first batch with Philly Sour soon. Reading through some of the other threads, I've seen people say 2 packs for a 5 gal batch is ideal, and that it doesn't do well repitched. I was wondering if anybody had success with a yeast starter. Buying two packs plus shipping is coming out to a lot for just the yeast.

I wouldn't recommend it. I tried it and got a very bland ferment.

Although if can do cell counts and use that to pitch an amount in the recommended range, that might work.

 

[monkeymath]

Based on what I've read regarding starters and repitching of this yeast, I wouldn't risk an entire batch just so save three or four bucks.

 

[John Spiegel]

I made 1 recently with that yeast and based it on a recipe they suggested for it. 1 pack with no starter was plenty for me. After watching several videos about some testing it, I decided against a starter and just dumped it right in.

Did it sour alright still? I don't want anything super sour, more tart. I'm going to be adding some corn sugar to the end of boil as well as fruit puree during primary. Hoping that will help sour it up too. Thoughts?

 

[lumpher]

It was 1 dimensional. Not quite a sour, but as good as that yeast could make it. Fruit would most likely help it, but I don't think I'd add sugar. It was already pretty thin, even using wheat. Not a fan of this yeast.

 

[John Spiegel]

It was 1 dimensional. Not quite a sour, but as good as that yeast could make it. Fruit would most likely help it, but I don't think I'd add sugar. It was already pretty thin, even using wheat. Not a fan of this yeast.

I guess I'll use this as a test batch then and see how it goes. Hopefully I'll remember to post my results back here for anyone interested.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Was planning on doing my first batch with Philly Sour soon. Reading through some of the other threads, I've seen people say 2 packs for a 5 gal batch is ideal, and that it doesn't do well repitched. I was wondering if anybody had success with a yeast starter. Buying two packs plus shipping is coming out to a lot for just the yeast.

If you look through the suigeneris blogs I linked on the main Philly Sour thread, you'll see that the souring effect is very sensitive to pitching rate, which is probably why people have problems repitching it, they just end up pitching too much.

 

[John Spiegel]

As an update, I added some fruit to this beer in secondary, and it had some fruit flavor, but not as much as I was hoping. So I added a bit more after carbonating it in a keg. Now it's got the fruit flavor that I was hoping for, but has become a bit too sweet and lost of its tartness. Current plan is to take the keg out of the fridge and put a spunding valve on it to see if fermentation starts up a bit more. Obviously that would alleviate the sweetness issue, but would that help bring back the tartness?