Berliner Weiss

First off I only do 1 gallon batches due to lack of room for any bigger. That being said has anyone ever tried using a crock pot to keep Berliner at 100+ temp for several days?

CrashNebula said:

First off I only do 1 gallon batches due to lack of room for any bigger. That being said has anyone ever tried using a crock pot to keep Berliner at 100+ temp for several days?

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Haven't tried that, but I placed my kettle (4 gal. at the time) in a cooler filled with very hot water. Changed out twice a day for 4 days. This was in December and was basically my only option. Turned out pleasantly sour.

Haven't tried it since my crock pot isn't large enough, but if you've got a temp controller and you put the probe in the wort I think it should work really well.

i considered it, but i got distracted and never checked to see what the temp was on low/med/high. lacto dies around 120F, so you dont wanna go above that. most food (meat) needs to hit at least 125-130 to cook over 8 hour span, so i'd guess that's the minimum temp you're gonna get out of a crock pot.

if you use 1 gallon jugs as fermenters like i do, you can put the jug into hot water bath in the crock pot. cleaner than putting your beer into the actual crock pot. and with the lid off you might get some evaporative cooling to keep it under 120. only way to know for sure is to fill it with water, set it on low and check the temp tomorrow. you might have better luck with a heating pad wrapped around your fermenter.

how are you souring? im trying to grow 3 starters and having what appears to be zero luck. just a 1.030 batch of 50/50 2row and wheat, no hops. i would have thought it'd have taken off but i literally see no activity after 24 hours. i tried all the methods- natural lacto from grains, a little dollup of live yogurt, and a white labs vial. not getting any activity out of any of them.......

SanPancho said:

im trying to grow 3 starters and having what appears to be zero luck. just a 1.030 batch of 50/50 2row and wheat, no hops. i would have thought it'd have taken off but i literally see no activity after 24 hours. i tried all the methods- natural lacto from grains, a little dollup of live yogurt, and a white labs vial. not getting any activity out of any of them.......

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It can take a week. There is a lag phase before the lacto starts building up it's population and souring. The lag phase can take days. Once it starts to sour, it goes quick; you can go from nothing to very sour in a day.

I used a crockpot for a sour starter. Used a handful of grains, maybe 1/2 cup. Wound up with 2 quarts of fresh lacto. The starter tasted delicious. I think it took about 3 days. I'd let it run to ~110 on a low heat, then cut it off and it would take 8-10 hours before it got down to 90.

Thanks for the idea!View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430927511.035507.jpg