The mystery sour is not very sour. I took a pH reading and it is sitting firmly around 4.4 pH which is a great beer pH, but not what I had in mind. I’m looking for 3.7 pH at least. That may not seem like much but the pH scale is logarithmic so every whole value change is an order of magnitude, so the drop from 4.4 to 3.7 is significant.
Why is the lacto not proliferating? It could be the hops. It could be that it was an old batch that was in the giveaway fridge. My thoughts? Not enough fermentables. I’m going to do a little math and then pitch a fresh new lacto with some chewy fermentables.