WildBrew Sour Pitch Lactobacillus - Lallemand

Kettle souring has become the dominant method for producing clean sour beers in craft breweries worldwide — fast, controllable and producing reliably excellent results. WildBrew Sour Pitch is the professional standard for kettle souring, now available to homebrewers and small breweries in dried format.

Perfect for these beer styles: Berliner Weisse, Gose, Sour IPA, Fruited Sour, Quick Sour, Brut Sour, Sour Stout, Yogurt Sour, any beer style requiring clean lactic acidity.

Unlike WildBrew Philly Sour which is a complete fermentation organism, Sour Pitch is a pure culture of Lactobacillus plantarum — a bacteria, not a yeast. It is used in the kettle souring process: after mashing and lautering, the wort is cooled to 30-40°C, pitched with Sour Pitch, held at temperature for 24-48 hours until target pH is achieved, then boiled as normal before pitching your chosen brewing yeast for fermentation.

The lactic acid produced is exceptionally clean — low acetic acid, no off-flavors, no barnyard character. Just pure, bright, refreshing lactic acidity at the intensity you control by adjusting souring time and temperature. This clean profile makes it ideal for hop-forward sour styles like Sour IPA where you want the acid to enhance rather than compete with hop aromatics.

Working quickly at warm temperatures, Sour Pitch typically achieves a target pH of 3.3-3.5 within 24-48 hours. Cover the vessel and minimize oxygen exposure during souring for optimal results. After boiling you can pitch any brewing yeast — Philly Sour, Nottingham, a Belgian strain — to create an enormous variety of sour beer styles. Maximum flexibility, maximum control, minimum fuss.