Berlinerweisse - sick in the bottle

I recently did my first no-boil Berliner. Everything went well, and samples tasted fantastic. I bottled as usual, waited 2 weeks, and finally had one.
It tastes just as good as i remember, however, it's sick. All goopey, and weird looking. I have no problem drinking it this way, but how long should i expect to wait before it dissolves? It's kind of freaking my wife out.

As long as it takes...

i'm sure it's dependent on a host of factors. i'm curious if there is a difference in it's dissipation in the bottle versus fermenter/barrel. i'm keeping it at room temp (about 65ish) until it's done being sick. i've heard 3-4 months could be expected. but i'd hate to wait that long as i'd miss prime berliner drinking season.

killsurfcity said:

I recently did my first no-boil Berliner. Everything went well, and samples tasted fantastic. I bottled as usual, waited 2 weeks, and finally had one.
It tastes just as good as i remember, however, it's sick. All goopey, and weird looking. I have no problem drinking it this way, but how long should i expect to wait before it dissolves? It's kind of freaking my wife out.

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goopey as ropey? I don't know of anything else that actually impacts the texture of beer except pedio. If that's the case it could be 6 months plus.

Yeah, it sounds like you have some pedio in there. Hopefully there is some brett in there as well to clean up the diacetyl the pedio will throw.

We only had it happen once, and it was very odd.

Yeah there was pedio in the yeast blend I used, as well as a couple Brett strains.
Why does this happen exactly? I take it pedio doesn't always do this. Waiting 6mo sucks. This was supposed to be my summer beer! Oh well.

Ours went away is ~3 months, so it may be faster. I believe it is strain and condition dependent, where were your microbes from?

Here is the info from the slides Vinnie did for the 2007 NHC.

Help, my beer is sick?
-Pediococcus produces a slimy elastic thread like consistency if the conditions are just right. Belgian brewers call this being “sick”, the technical term is “ropy”.
-This slimy substance is harmless. It is composed of carbohydrates, acids, and proteins, and plays an important role in Lambic and Russian River funkified beers.
-A beer will become “well”after 3 or 4 months.
-A beer that has been “sick”exhibits a deeper acidity and mouthfeel.
-A Beer can be sick twice.

Actually it's very common for pedio to do that.

ReverseApacheMaster said:

Actually it's very common for pedio to do that.

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30+ batches and I've had it happen only once (Lost Abbey Red Poppy dregs). Where are you getting your Pedio from?

Oldsock said:

30+ batches and I've had it happen only once (Lost Abbey Red Poppy dregs). Where are you getting your Pedio from?

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Not myself personally but from my research it seems many breweries have that experience with pedio, which leads me to believe it is fairly common.

My assumption is that the strains we get from Wyeast and WL are probably selected for not having whatever predisposes them to make those long chains. In the alternative, perhaps it is just more likely to occur in a larger fermenter than what we use as homebrewers.

Neither of my pedio-harboring batches have turned ropy but then again both are only a few months old. We'll see how they fair in the very hot Texas summer.

ReverseApacheMaster said:

Not myself personally but from my research it seems many breweries have that experience with pedio, which leads me to believe it is fairly common.

My assumption is that the strains we get from Wyeast and WL are probably selected for not having whatever predisposes them to make those long chains. In the alternative, perhaps it is just more likely to occur in a larger fermenter than what we use as homebrewers.

Neither of my pedio-harboring batches have turned ropy but then again both are only a few months old. We'll see how they fair in the very hot Texas summer.

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I've only heard Russian River, Lost Abbery, and Cantillon. Anybody else? I read/heard somewhere that many Lambic breweries think it is something to avoid (maybe one of the Vinnie speaches?).

Thanks for the info. as for where the bugs came from... i'd say the dregs of 30+ bottles, plus bugfarm 4. just some of the breweries that lent some bugs to this batch: jolly pumpkin, cantillon, hanssens, drie fonteinen, lost abbey, new glarus.
i made a starter from some leftovers in my fridge, and used it to inoculate the unboiled wort. not knowing how much sacc was present, i was going to give it 2 - 4 days before adding safale 05 to finish it off. by the time i got to it, i don't think there as anything left to ferment.
the beer came out great though. pretty much what you'd expect from a BW. crisp, tart, and mildly funky in the finish.

Oldsock said:

I've only heard Russian River, Lost Abbery, and Cantillon. Anybody else? I read/heard somewhere that many Lambic breweries think it is something to avoid (maybe one of the Vinnie speaches?).

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Yeah, I think that was from the Sunday Session where they talked about that...other Belgian brewers acted like it was something terribly wrong and their superior methods avoided it, or they just lied and said it didn't happen to them

Bensiff said:

Yeah, I think that was from the Sunday Session where they talked about that...other Belgian brewers acted like it was something terribly wrong and their superior methods avoided it, or they just lied and said it didn't happen to them

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Yes, Vinnie said that Jean thought that 'sickness' was something good, while Armand and Frank Boon said it was something wrong. I'd really like to try a sick beer just to experience the texture.

killsurfcity said:

Thanks for the info. as for where the bugs came from... i'd say the dregs of 30+ bottles, plus bugfarm 4. just some of the breweries that lent some bugs to this batch: jolly pumpkin, cantillon, hanssens, drie fonteinen, lost abbey, new glarus.

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Sounds like my knid of Berliner, plenty of Brett to clean stuff up.

cyraxx said:

Yes, Vinnie said that Jean thought that 'sickness' was something good, while Armand and Frank Boon said it was something wrong. I'd really like to try a sick beer just to experience the texture.

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I just did a beer with buckwheat, the pre-boil wort had a very similar texture and appearance to the sick beer. It will be interesting to see how it changes as it sours.