What this is
A sour saison at 4.9% that gets there without a kettle sour, a Lactobacillus pitch or a barrel. WildBrew Philly Sour does the acidification during primary fermentation, which makes this a one-vessel, one-pitch beer that happens to come out tart.
Citra at 100 g and 30 g of coriander on top of that. Around 1.049 down to 1.007.
Sourness without the faff
Philly Sour is a Lachancea strain rather than a conventional ale yeast, and it produces lactic acid itself while fermenting. That removes the whole apparatus a sour beer usually demands: no pre-acidification, no holding wort warm overnight, no risk of a kettle sour going sideways.
The dose matters. 1.5 packets rather than one is deliberate and it is the lever for how sour the beer gets — pitch rate drives acid production with this strain in a way it does not with normal yeast.
Fermented at 22°C. Warm, which suits both the strain and the saison character.
Why Citra
Citra against lactic acid is the point of the recipe. The two reinforce each other — the acidity reads as citrus brightness rather than as sourness, and the hop’s grapefruit and lime character lands somewhere between beer and lemonade.
100 g in every brew, weighted late: a token 5 g at 60 minutes for structure, 20 g through the middle of the boil, then 25 g whirlpool and 50 g as a five-day dry hop. Bitterness is low by design, since bitterness and acidity together get harsh fast.
The lineage
Three brews between August 2022 and January 2025, and the recipe has tightened rather than changed direction.
I used 0.2 kg of flaked wheat and paired Philly Sour with M29 French Saison, which is the belt-and-braces approach — a saison strain for the esters, Philly Sour for the acid. It finished at 1.003 and 4.9%.
II dropped the M29 and gave Philly Sour the whole job, and replaced the flaked wheat with 1.0 kg of wheat malt.
III is the canonical version, with the pilsner up to 4.5 kg for a little more body and coriander up to 30 g.
Citra at 100 g and Medium Crystal at 0.2 kg have not moved across any of the three.
Brewing it
Mash low, at 64°C. Philly Sour attenuates hard and the beer is meant to be dry — a high mash fights both the strain and the style.
Add the coriander crushed, late. It is a large dose by saison standards and it will dominate if it goes in early.
Do not pitch Philly Sour alongside a conventional yeast unless you want what the first brew got — the ale strain will outcompete it and you will end up with less acid than you planned.