ArkotRamathorn
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- May 1, 2013
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I have been, for a long time, been wanting to do a Berliner Weisse. But have been bouncing around on how I wanted to do it. SWMBO in her infinite wisdom found a pretty interesting product called Instant Pot (I'll wait for the giggles to die down)...
Basically its a programable electric pressure cooker thats got about a million different uses. One of which is a yogurt making setting with a 6 quart pot (theres larger models but they get a little expensive). So it sort of dawned on me, it would be hard for me to do a sour mash as I am BIAB (well building a heated chamber isnt so bad but I can be rather stingy). Lacto cultures thrive in the 105-115ish area and the pressure cooker keeps it in that range, as well its a completely sealed enviroment (and can be set for as long as 99 hours to hold that temp).
I wanted to see if my plan was completely crazy or would work. Basically I was thinking I would make a small 1 gallon wort around 1.030-1.035, give it a very very quick and brief boil to sanitize it, let it cool to 110F range throw it in the instant pot and set it to yogurt for probably 3 or 4 days (I have read that 2 days is more normal, but the longer time I will explain). So my first question is, do the quick boil to sanitize then innoculate with a pure culture of lacto from wyeast/white labs? Or forget the quick boil and throw in a handful of crushed base malt to get that mix of various bacteria and bugs? The only thing about the crushed base malt that would make me nervous is I will be letting it sour for longer so other nasties may get time to take hold and make baby diaper water.
Now my second issue is since its only 6 quarts I would really only feel comforable with 4 quarts-ish in it, not a whole lot of beer after the fact. So extending the souring time till it becomes mouth puckering-doom-sour, then I will be mixing it with 1.5-2 gallons of 1.035ish wort, 15 minute boil with the bare minimum hops, then I have 2.5-3 gallons of (hopefully) sourish berliner weisse that I will then ferment with US05/1056/clean ale strain I happen to have on hand.
So my plan, completely crazy? Would work maybe? Would it not be sour enough after the blending? Maybe up the gravity a tiny bit on the non-sour portion so after blending it ends up around that 1.030-1.035 range so I still get a little alchohol after fermentation? The main attraction of this path is I could very nearly perfectly control the temperature of the souring on that 1 gallon and keep it there for a longer period of time, and if I do the quick boil on the sour portion I can sour with only lacto and reduce the risk of potential baby diaper.
Basically its a programable electric pressure cooker thats got about a million different uses. One of which is a yogurt making setting with a 6 quart pot (theres larger models but they get a little expensive). So it sort of dawned on me, it would be hard for me to do a sour mash as I am BIAB (well building a heated chamber isnt so bad but I can be rather stingy). Lacto cultures thrive in the 105-115ish area and the pressure cooker keeps it in that range, as well its a completely sealed enviroment (and can be set for as long as 99 hours to hold that temp).
I wanted to see if my plan was completely crazy or would work. Basically I was thinking I would make a small 1 gallon wort around 1.030-1.035, give it a very very quick and brief boil to sanitize it, let it cool to 110F range throw it in the instant pot and set it to yogurt for probably 3 or 4 days (I have read that 2 days is more normal, but the longer time I will explain). So my first question is, do the quick boil to sanitize then innoculate with a pure culture of lacto from wyeast/white labs? Or forget the quick boil and throw in a handful of crushed base malt to get that mix of various bacteria and bugs? The only thing about the crushed base malt that would make me nervous is I will be letting it sour for longer so other nasties may get time to take hold and make baby diaper water.
Now my second issue is since its only 6 quarts I would really only feel comforable with 4 quarts-ish in it, not a whole lot of beer after the fact. So extending the souring time till it becomes mouth puckering-doom-sour, then I will be mixing it with 1.5-2 gallons of 1.035ish wort, 15 minute boil with the bare minimum hops, then I have 2.5-3 gallons of (hopefully) sourish berliner weisse that I will then ferment with US05/1056/clean ale strain I happen to have on hand.
So my plan, completely crazy? Would work maybe? Would it not be sour enough after the blending? Maybe up the gravity a tiny bit on the non-sour portion so after blending it ends up around that 1.030-1.035 range so I still get a little alchohol after fermentation? The main attraction of this path is I could very nearly perfectly control the temperature of the souring on that 1 gallon and keep it there for a longer period of time, and if I do the quick boil on the sour portion I can sour with only lacto and reduce the risk of potential baby diaper.
