Speisse or Krausening

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Brazbrew

Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2012
Messages
16
Reaction score
0
Location
Curitiba
It's me again asking for help...

I made a 30 liter batch of Weisse, and I confess i'm not much of a fan, but i made it for friends who insisted. The recipe called for approx 4 liters of "Speisse" to be added at bottling.
The recipe called for 5-7 days in the primary then rack into the bottling bucket with inoculated Speisse.
Laziness got the best of me (combined with the lack of enthusiasm for the Weisse), and the wort is now three weeks in the fermenter, and the Speisse just as long in the fridge.
Is it still safe to use that unfermented wort for bottling?
I don't have liquid yeast for inoculating, can I just pitch dry yeast or should I make a starter? Does it have to be weisse yeast? Or lager yeast like the Geramn Brewers?
To complicate matters I missed the target OG, so I'm thinking I may need to add some sugar at bottling to get the right CO2 level. Seems like this beer's going to be a mess!
 
I would worry about pathogens. I would have saved the wort by adding it to sanitized jars when its boiling hot. Anything that would have gotten into the wort before the jar was closed would be killed by the heat.
 
Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. I didn't have a glass jar big enough, so I had to improvise.
I did of course wash and sanitize the jug.. Is there any way I can find out, perhaps tasting it will be proof enough. I could always boil it again.. not sure if that would so the trick.

Still on the fence as to whether or not I should prime with the left over wort or just prime with sugar.

Thanks
 
If you are using the reserved wort, boil to kill any bugs. Priming with sugar seems easier and less to worry about.
 
Brazbrew said:
Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. I didn't have a glass jar big enough, so I had to improvise.
I did of course wash and sanitize the jug.. Is there any way I can find out, perhaps tasting it will be proof enough. I could always boil it again.. not sure if that would so the trick.

Still on the fence as to whether or not I should prime with the left over wort or just prime with sugar.

Thanks

The coroner will be able to tell your loved ones what it was. But seriously, toxins formed by bacteria can survive a boil. I would consider getting some German wheat DME.
 
Thanks for the tips. I agree priming with sugar would save the headaches.. but I guess in a way I wanted to try to Speisse method.
I found a handy calculator online for calculating speisse qauntity factoring OG and volume.
I think I'm gonna split the batch and try it.. I'm willing to sacrifice 50% for experiment's sake.

Question: Is the fear of infection because it is in a plastic jug (more permeable) and not glass? or because it was cooled prior to storing( I cooled the boild befors syphoning off the Speisse)??
 
Back
Top