Brewing my first sour soon. I haven't received my Lacto and Pedio yet so I haven't seen if there are any instructions, but I have a question. Do I pitch these in with the brewing yeast (do they need sugar to produce acid) or can I add them during secondary fermentation? And if I am adding fruit, should that be added primary as well? Thanks and Cheers.
Mash hot. Pitch everything at once with a couple of sour bottle dregs. Primarily ferment for 2-4 weeks, then to secondary with more bottle dregs for ~ a year. You can do fruit after 8-12 months, leaving it on that for 2-4 months. I did do a Supplication clone once that I added dried cherries to secondary before aging ~ a year.
Ok, thanks. Would you recommend waiting to add the fruit even if I'm using blackberries and plan on puree/straining them?
Fresh fruit, I'd wait until the beer was about done, then add for a few months (see: Cascade brewing). I love blackberries in beer . . . they are easy to freeze then toss in secondary. The freezing/thawing process pulverizes them. I'm just about to add ~ 1 lbs/gallon of blackberries to a big sour quad.
You don't want to use pedio without brett. Pedio makes a lot of diacetyl, but the brett will clean the diacetyl up in time.
