Berliner Weisse

5 gallon recipe

3lbs weyermann pils
2lbs weyermann light wheat
1oz old willamette for 15 min

half gallon (pils dme) lacto starter
s05 yeast

I am intending on "sour mashing" some grain in a half gallon of low grav wort for a few days to develop the lacto. Then I will pitch the "sour mash" directly in to the fermentor with the clean wort and let it "stew" for a few days, to let the lacto blend in with the rest of the wort. Then after a few days I will pitch the clean s05 yeast in and allow it to ferment as usual (around 68).

After fermentation is done, should I let the beer rest on the lacto for an extended amount of time (6+ months)? Or is it ok to just straight bottle and let the lacto develop further in the bottle? Also, are there any implications with my process? Thanks

 

Similar to what I was going to do so I'm curious what everyone comes up with. Want to brew this soon.

 

ok well, I've got the sour mash going, so I'm going to let that go for a considerable amount of days.

 

I have a Berliner Weisse fermenting as I write this...but I went about the process of souring a little bit differently.

After mashing, I took half the wort (1-1/2 gallons) and placed it in a sanitized bucket, cooled to 120 degrees F, added a 1/2 pound of crushed 2-row pale malt, placed the bucket in a warm area, and let sit for 2-3 days. The wort was pretty sour by that point...so I filtered out the grain, boiled it for an hour, added a little bit of hops for bittering, cooled and mixed with the already fermenting wort.

I'm very interested to see how it turns out. I am also curious if the above process is similar to what others are using or if the process discussed by the OP is the norm?

 

I've done the way you did it before (except i did the entire batch), and it turned out nice, but it doesnt get any more sour with age. I was looking to get a jump start on the sourness and still let it get more so as time progresses.

 

I was talking about this with a friend over his nice and tart Berliner, and he used apple juice for the lacto starter, and incubated it at ~98ºF. I guess he was saying thats the way they do it at the Bruery in Orange county. I plan on doing this with my next attempt of a Berliner.

 

"and let it "stew" for a few days" I would be careful here. The lacto can make the wort so acidic that the us-05 can't/won't ferment. I usually pitch my lacto culture 1 day ahead of the yeast, and no more.

 

good to know, does 1 day really do anything noticeable though? Doesnt seem long enough.

 

Any head start when you're trying to sour a beer in short order is better than nothing...but in reality, maybe it doesn't make a huge difference. A berliner is a standard tap at my house, and they are always plenty sour...why mess with success.

But seriously, you need to be careful with the acidity level.

 

Does the pilsner need an extended boil? or will the 15 minute boil be sufficient?

 

15 is OK

 

I've done a 1-day head start for the lacto. I think it needs more. It was raging in 24 hours, so I got jumpy and pitched the sacc. It's only mildly tart. More aroma than flavor. Next time, 2 days. At least.

 

cool, thanks. Do you go to any of the local brew clubs around here, passedpawn?

 

Dunedin Brewer's Guild is a good one. I've been to a BEERS meeting also. Don't go to any of them anymore.

 

As a follow up, I brewed this, missed my target gravity by a bit. I pitched the lacto starter then forgot to pitch the s05 (oops). There was a lot of activity in the fermenter after I pitched the lacto starter and it had formed a pellicle already. So I pitched the s05 3 days after, and the yeast didnt do anything (no activity in there at all) and I tested the gravity and it had dropped 12 points (1.022 to 1.010) from the lacto fermentation I guess. It already has a sharp taste to it from the sample I took, so I guess I'm going to let it sit for a month or so and see if the gravity drops any more. If it doesn't change anymore, I'll probably pitch some brett in to it.

 

Can you check the pH? It might be too low and inhibiting the yeast from working. Brett like acidic conditions, so pitching brett should ferment it out fine.

 

I did, it was at 4.6, maybe lower. the strips only read down to 4.6. But still, there was a lacto fermentation, so why wouldn't the lacto continue to eat the rest of the sugars? The pellicle for the lacto has already reformed since last night.