[kramerog]

I'm thinking of pitching pedio into a flanders red in my barrel because the flanders red isn't sour enough.  Should I make a starter for pedio, let's say wyeast 5733? 

The gravity is 1.007.  Is it likely the pedio would sour the beer more?

[brewinhard]

I'm thinking of pitching pedio into a flanders red in my barrel because the flanders red isn't sour enough.  Should I make a starter for pedio, let's say wyeast 5733? 

The gravity is 1.007.  Is it likely the pedio would sour the beer more?

A couple questions first:

1.  How old is the flanders red and what did you originally ferment it with?
2.  How big is the barrel?

[kramerog]

1.  6 different 5-gal batches were brewed.  2were fermented with wine yeast, 2with roselare, 2 were sour worted and then received Brett lambicus.  The batches are on average 4 months old.

2. The barrel is 26 gallons.  The beers were put in the barrel at the end of April 30, 3015.  There were signs of slow, but active fermentation based on activity in the fermentation lock in May.  In the last month the gravity has dropped from 1.008 to 1.007 with no activity in the lock. 

There has been little to no development in sourness since the beers were put in the barrel.

[ynotbrusum]

This may sound unacceptable, but perhaps adding a bit of lactic acid 88% might work well enough (add to a sample until accepted level is reached and then extrapolate from there?)

I just don't know if there are enough fermentables left at 1.007 to justify a pedio pitch at this point - the Roesalare should have it in there already - time is the other thing you could do - give it more?

[brewinhard]

The beers were put in the barrel at the end of April 30, 3015.

There has been little to no development in sourness since the beers were put in the barrel.

Man, that is one Futuristic Brew! 

As the beer ages in the barrel, micro-oxidation should occur over time allowing more acetic character to be created which could enhance the sourness in a positive way.  So, maybe time will benefit you?

You could go through with the pedio pitch, but by the time it starts to get going the gravity might be worked down even further by the other micro-organisms not leaving much in the way of residual sugars for the pedio to work on.  Just a thought.

 If it were me, I would probably just give it more time and see what happens.  I bet it will continue to sour more, just slowly.  You could also try adding some boiled maltodextrin to the barrel along with your pedio pitch which only bacteria and brett can consume which could lead to additional sourness down the road. 

[kramerog]

Thanks.  I'm going to try adding some maltodextrin and giving the barrel more time.

[reverseapachemaster]

I believe there is pedio in roeselare but keep in mind it is a slow moving bacteria. It generally pops up months into fermentation so the fact that you have not seen any additional acid production is not surprising.