pH 3.05 in 48 hours

[505-Brewer]

Just brewed up 12 gal of a black IPA wort, mashed at ~ 150F, boiled 75 min with no hops, cooled to 100F and pitched ~ 1 qt of lacto starter from grain into each carboy.

1 Carboy was held at 95F for 48 hours, pH dropped to 3.05!!
I've never had a grain sour work so fast (hence no hops this time).
I've cooled to 64F, added O2 and pitched a slightly undersize pitch of brett like sacc trois (its what I had). Refractometer and my buds tell me there is still a lot of sugar left - even if its not especially accurate.

Wondering if I should add base to bring up the pH some or move to wine yeast. There is a fair amount of diacetyl and a slight butyric note so I certainly want some brett or brett like in there. I'm going to let it go for a day or two. Can I expect Brett trois or a "real brett" to work at this low of a pH on a lot of sugar (estimated 1.055 gravity).

The other carboy is at pH 3.3 (after 24 hours) and Im going to pitch some brett or huge lambic dreg cultures into it. This one has tons of diacetyl. [The starter was fine tasting but upon cooling (I didn't pitch it all) its the most intense diacetyl I have ever smelled or tasted (yeah that was nasty)]

So much for a quick sour - theres a lot of "interesting" things going on flavor wise but no indoles fortunately. This will need some time to convert (if it ever does) - so guess I'm brewing again next week......with a different "lacto" source!

Thoughts?

 

[Agate]

644 will be able to handle the low pH, no problem there. I wouldn't count on it being able to esterify butyric acid, though. Might be a good idea to pitch some brett in with it and give it a few months.

And yes, you should switch to a different lacto source!

 

[505-Brewer]

644 will be able to handle the low pH, no problem there. I wouldn't count on it being able to esterify butyric acid, though. Might be a good idea to pitch some brett in with it and give it a few months.

And yes, you should switch to a different lacto source!

For sure. Previously Ive used pilsner and 2-row to get a nice clean lacto. This time I added raw rye to the mix which I think was s bad idea. I think theres some acid resistant yeast that survived the starter and the subsequent build up of it. It got sour fast but clearly wasn't ready to be cooled just yet. Im seeing activity from the one with brett trois added AND the one where I haven't pitched anything else (just added cs cultures and brett beersel cultures to it). Im going to see if the brett trois can clean up all the DA. If not I'll add some brett down the road.

 

[505-Brewer]

Both the residual starter and the airlocks on both beers have super intense good smelling fruity esters off gassing. I have hopes for this one despite some odd behavior initially.