FatsSchindee
Well-Known Member
I'm brewing my first lambic tomorrow, and am planning on pitching both WLP001 and 655 (Belgian Sour Mix 1 - the number is off top of my head, could be wrong) at the same time for primary fermentation, along with dregs from a bottle of Monks Cafe Flemish Red.
The 001 is harvested from January (3rd gen), and has been in the fridge since then. I also bought the vial of 655 in Jan (I originally was going to brew this then; plans changed!), and it was probably a month or two old already then, so 3-4 months old now (I'm not at home to double check vial date).
I've heard you don't want to do starters with mixed cultures, as a general rule, because the microbes grow at different rates. But given the age of both these, should I at least just toss them into some starter wort tonight (not the same volume I'd do for a normal growth starter, but just enough to "wake them up"), and let it go overnight on a stir plate (~12ish hrs)?
Or should I just pitch as is (using enough of the 001 slurry for the 5 gal batch to compensate for the reduced viability - per a yeast calc)?
I've heard since its a long ferment with the microbes an under pitch wouldn't be as big of a deal as with a clean beer, and that over time the littler amounts will grow up anyway in the wort, with maybe more sour and funk than otherwise?
Thanks for any ideas/info... Cheers!
The 001 is harvested from January (3rd gen), and has been in the fridge since then. I also bought the vial of 655 in Jan (I originally was going to brew this then; plans changed!), and it was probably a month or two old already then, so 3-4 months old now (I'm not at home to double check vial date).
I've heard you don't want to do starters with mixed cultures, as a general rule, because the microbes grow at different rates. But given the age of both these, should I at least just toss them into some starter wort tonight (not the same volume I'd do for a normal growth starter, but just enough to "wake them up"), and let it go overnight on a stir plate (~12ish hrs)?
Or should I just pitch as is (using enough of the 001 slurry for the 5 gal batch to compensate for the reduced viability - per a yeast calc)?
I've heard since its a long ferment with the microbes an under pitch wouldn't be as big of a deal as with a clean beer, and that over time the littler amounts will grow up anyway in the wort, with maybe more sour and funk than otherwise?
Thanks for any ideas/info... Cheers!