My Boring Berliner Weisse

I made a Berliner Weisse with 60% wheat 40% pilsner.

My process.
Mashed with hops at 146 for 2 hours. collected wort for a total of 4.5 gallons. Cooled to 120f then added 1/2lbs of grains.
Sealed in water cube and placed in water bath set at 116f . left for 4 days.
Results in a very tart wort. lovely. heated to pasturize.
Placed in fermenter with old saison cake of Belgian Saison III - WLP585
Fermented at around 70f

og 1.032
fg 1.008 after 3 days.
I feel it should come down some more.

I tasted a sample and it's kind of boring. I would describe as Budweiser of sours. I'm not expecting the depth and complexity of a true sour but something more.

How can I make this more interesting?
Is there something I should have done differently?
Tips for next batch?

Brett it and forget it.
Or, boot it with some fruit?

I brett'd my last BW at bottling. Dried it out a bit and helped accentuate the crisp, lactic tartness.

I'm going to leave out fruit additions for this batch since I already bought some syrups to try out at serving time.

I don't have any cultures of brett but i do have a bottle of Orval and a bottle of Saison Rue.

dcHokie said:

I brett'd my last BW at bottling. Dried it out a bit and helped accentuate the crisp, lactic tartness.

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How low was your FG when you brett'd it?
What kind of bottles did your use? I only have standard 12oz brown cappable bottles. Not enough empty Belgian bottles to do the whole batch
How was your carbonation and how long did it take?

I like to pitch brett and a clean ale yeast about 50/50 in primary.

I have bottled beer still with brett as high as 1.010, but that was with a beer with some less fermentable sugars. I'd feel pretty safe bottling a berliner with brett and no priming sugar in 'standard' 12 oz bottles at 1.006.

Brewing_on_the_Internet said:

How low was your FG when you brett'd it?
What kind of bottles did your use? I only have standard 12oz brown cappable bottles. Not enough empty Belgian bottles to do the whole batch
How was your carbonation and how long did it take?

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My FG wasn't super low when I bottled this batch, I believe it was down to 1.006. I was targeting 3.5 volumes with the assumption that the brett might take it down to 1.003-1.005 over a few months. It carbed slowly and after a few months it poured with a big frothy head that very quickly subsided to small effervescent bubbles. I just used a mix of larger format bottles and standard 12 oz brown bottles.

dcHokie said:

My FG wasn't super low when I bottled this batch, I believe it was down to 1.006. I was targeting 3.5 volumes with the assumption that the brett might take it down to 1.003-1.005 over a few months. It carbed slowly and after a few months it poured with a big frothy head that very quickly subsided to small effervescent bubbles. I just used a mix of larger format bottles and standard 12 oz brown bottles.

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Did you add enough priming sugar for 2 volumes? I might be a little nervous about that, but my beriner always finishes 1.000 - .998.

I think the Saison yeast will bring it below 1.006 since the wort is very fermentable unless the acidity is inhibiting it. I'm going to wait for a few more days and see where it end up.

TNGabe said:

Did you add enough priming sugar for 2 volumes? I might be a little nervous about that, but my beriner always finishes 1.000 - .998.

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This particular batch was 'standard' using the Wyeast 3191 PC blend and I let it sit for awhile (7-8 months maybe?) so I was fairly confident the gravity wasn't going anywhere that low. I don't recall how much priming sugar I used, but it wasn't much and I recall doing a fair amount of napkin math before bottling. I may have given you a bottle actually

dcHokie said:

This particular batch was 'standard' using the Wyeast 3191 PC blend and I let it sit for awhile (7-8 months maybe?) so I was fairly confident the gravity wasn't going anywhere that low. I don't recall how much priming sugar I used, but it wasn't much and I recall doing a fair amount of napkin math before bottling. I may have given you a bottle actually

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A 22 even! It's one of the couple I have left, I think just that and the spiced deviant.

I think the 4 day mash might have something to do with my berliner attenuation. Not suggesting you overcarbed.

I would suggest brett as well. added a few drops of brett from a few different sources in all of my BW bottles. Really added a good complexity that keeps evolving. Theres a big difference between bottles with one strain and bottles with mixed strains.

My favorite has been a strain from Lost Abbey. Think it may be brett brux but I dont know for sure what they use.

If you use heavy bottles, Id aim for 3 vol and let it go wherever the brett takes it.

nofootbreak said:

I would suggest brett as well. added a few drops of brett from a few different sources in all of my BW bottles. Really added a good complexity that keeps evolving. Theres a big difference between bottles with one strain and bottles with mixed strains.

My favorite has been a strain from Lost Abbey. Think it may be brett brux but I dont know for sure what they use.

If you use heavy bottles, Id aim for 3 vol and let it go wherever the brett takes it.

Click to expand...

Different strains in each bottles sounds like a fun way to go about it and add some variety.

I just tried a took another hydrometer reading and it's stuck at 1.008.
No change in 1 week. I need this to be drier. It's too sweet as it is. I placed dregs from a bottle of Orval in a starter and will dump inside the carboy in few days.

update:
Checked hydrometer reading yesterday - no change. still at 1.008. Still tastes too sweet. Added orval dregs from starter with 2 oz maltodextrin for good luck. Airlock activity started within a few hours