Anybody use this strain yet? Ive got a pack on its way in the mail and am planning on doing some Berliners with it. Plan on pitching the lacto for a couple days till a firm tartness is present then ferment with Brett trois. Is it okay to just make malt extract starters with this strain to build up cell count ? Cheers. Pat.
Extract will work. A lot of pros use apple juice for a starter, but I don't know the science, if any, behind that. If there is some sugar or starch present in your starter the lacto will be happy - except that many of them can't handle hop alpha acids; use unhoped extract or something else.
I have not actually used the strain from WYeast, but I suspect that this is probably the same L. Brevis that is in Cascade's sours... that said, I have used that strain. I did a Berliner by pitching the Cascade L. Brevis first then Kolsch a week later. The Lacto gave a low tartness, dropped the gravity, and produced CO2 as well as some alcohol, (I pitched a 1L starter). I co-pitched it with 6 Brett strains as well as 3726 and 3724 in a Saison that never really got super tart after 3 months in the keg at 100*F+ temps. I have it pitched into a 15 gallon wine barrel with Brett and not getting much tartness, though we are only a couple months in on that. Cascade's Lacto is typically used as a secondary only strain and gets super sour with aging. I did a yogurt only fermented Berliner that contained L. Brevis that had the same CO2, alcohol, lightly tart issue as the Cascade version I did, but it had tons of DMS too. After 8 months I needed the Better Bottle it was in. Tasted it and it was still a total DMS bomb, but really sour too. Seems that this strain is aggressive, but needs time as a secondary agent. L. Brevis will still beat up a hopped wort. YMMV.
The apple juice starter is mostly because Lacto thrives on simple sugars. It will ferment more complex sugars found in malt, but when trying to grow the cell counts you can give it the simpler sugars of apple juice. Vinnie actually recommends cutting starters with apple juice when growing Lacto/Pedio.
You know I haven't invested in the 59 cent bung for my 2l flasks for my starters. I just cover with foil. Is this method gonna be lack luster in the propagation of this lacto strain due to increased oxygen uptake?
not to thread jack but does anybody know if there is a major/any difference between the wyeast lacto brevis and the white labs brevis?
yeah i just used it this weekend to brew a Gose, i usually go with wyeast (no reason other than brand preference) but my homebrew shop only had a pack that said "Lactobacillus". i didnt know what strain it was so i went with white labs since i was looking for brevis specifically.
Interesting. Did you pitch it alone to sour first or did you pitch it along brewers yeast and or Brett?
I have found Wyeast products to be generally more robust and appropriate to styles than WL over the last 20 years or so.... not that WL won't work, and they have some strains that WY can't mirror. I remember listening to a Brewing Network podcast featuring Vinnie Cilurzo in which he mentioned that while he gets most of his yeast from WL, he prefers the WY brett and bacteria. However this was before WY changed ownership so things may have changed. My obvious bias is toward Wyeast, but it's kind of a Ford/Chevy thing.
I pitched it alone to sour first, didnt do a starter but at day 3 it was sour enough for the style, so boiled and went on as a normal brew day.
brevis has got to be better than either WY or WL previous lacto strains... a warm starter seems a prerequisite (malt and/or juice)
yeah i listened to that podcast as well but you are right it is like a ford/chevy thing. The first homebrew i ever brewed i pitched wyeast so i just stuck with that, had it been white labs i might have stuck with that.
