Gravity Reading 1.002, Time to Rack or Bottle?

[srob18]

I've got my first Berliner going and it's been in the primary almost 3 months. I added some Raspberrys to it and it still has a nice Bubbly Pellicle on it. I took a gravity reading today and noticed it is at 1.002. I think it's pretty damn close to being done. The beer tastes great, just like a raspberry sour beer (although I still think it's not too sour).

So my main question, is there any point to transferring to a secondary or should I just bottle and wait to see if some conditioning might make it more sour or at least give a little more sour character to the beer.

Any input would help, I wouldn't be opposed to transfering to a secondary and throwing in more bugs to try to sour it more, but I'm not sure with my gravity being 1.002 if it could go down much more.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Oldsock]

I've got my first Berliner going and it's been in the primary almost 3 months. I added some Raspberrys to it and it still has a nice Bubbly Pellicle on it. I took a gravity reading today and noticed it is at 1.002. I think it's pretty damn close to being done. The beer tastes great, just like a raspberry sour beer (although I still think it's not too sour).

So my main question, is there any point to transferring to a secondary or should I just bottle and wait to see if some conditioning might make it more sour or at least give a little more sour character to the beer.

Any input would help, I wouldn't be opposed to transfering to a secondary and throwing in more bugs to try to sour it more, but I'm not sure with my gravity being 1.002 if it could go down much more.

Thanks for the help!

I can't think of a reason to rack, bottle and get to enjoying it!

If it hasn't soured yet, it likely won't. What microbes did you pitch? Adding more microbes now won't do much because there isn't enough sugar to convert into lactic acid.

Next time choose a more aggressive Lactobacillus (like L. brevis) and/or build it up before pitching.

 

[srob18]

I can't think of a reason to rack, bottle and get to enjoying it!

If it hasn't soured yet, it likely won't. What microbes did you pitch? Adding more microbes now won't do much because there isn't enough sugar to convert into lactic acid.

Next time choose a more aggressive Lactobacillus (like L. brevis) and/or build it up before pitching.

I used wild lacto(I Think? What ever it was it made a rad Pellicle) off of 2row I pitched directly with my US-05 for fermentation. It seems to be souring as it ages which has me hesitant to bottle, but I don't want to risk autolysis or wait any longer then I have to if I can bottle.

I think next time I might try the same method with L Brevis and The 2row

 

[Oldsock]

I used wild lacto(I Think? What ever it was it made a rad Pellicle) off of 2row I pitched directly with my US-05 for fermentation. It seems to be souring as it ages which has me hesitant to bottle, but I don't want to risk autolysis or wait any longer then I have to if I can bottle.

I think next time I might try the same method with L Brevis and The 2row

Lacto usually doesn't produce much of a pellicle.

There is nothing about bottling that stops Lactobacillus souring.

 

[BGBC]

I used wild lacto(I Think? What ever it was it made a rad Pellicle) off of 2row I pitched directly with my US-05 for fermentation. It seems to be souring as it ages which has me hesitant to bottle, but I don't want to risk autolysis or wait any longer then I have to if I can bottle.

I think next time I might try the same method with L Brevis and The 2row

I used a similar method for my gose. It was not very sour at bottling (after 2 months or so), but became much more sour in the bottle over time.

I picked up some L. Brevis recently and will use that the next batch to compare.

I saved some of the grain Lacto culture from the starter in case I want to combine the two or go back to using it later.

 

[srob18]

I used a similar method for my gose. It was not very sour at bottling (after 2 months or so), but became much more sour in the bottle over time.

Nice! That gives me hope that it might sour up with time as i bottle! I feel like it has definitely soured over these 2 months but it isn't the lip puckering sourness that i've heard is usually associated with the style.

Just curious, How long did you leave it in the bottles before you tried them and found a good sour level?

 

[BGBC]

Tried too many along the way, but soured up after 2-3 months if I remember correctly

 

[srob18]

Just a quick heads up to this thread. The beer turned out great. I'd say it's easily drinkable now, plenty sour, but I will let it age to hope it matures into a great one.

Thanks for the help guys! Glad I bottled when I did. Now I hope I can just resist and let them age......

 

[kona_dude]

I find that the more different things in bottles the easier it is to resist any particular one! My Berliner was one of my 1st sours that I did and I still have a few bottles left. Having 6 different things to choose from certainly is nice!