acid malt help! sour beer berliner weiß!?!?!

[RickyLopez]

so i needed 1/8th LB of acid malt for a recipe... but the shop only sells it in 1lb bags... so i had to buy a pound...

i want to make a sour/berlinerweisse sort of beer to add some fruit in secondary. i think the tartness will help in the addition of raspberries/peach or whatever i end up rolling with...

can anyone give me some acid malt tips? what sort of yeast should i use? hops? grain bill??? im clueless....

thanks!!!!

 

[tagz]

2 ounces of acid malt will not result in noticeable sourness. there are some solid threads on sour mashing. i think that will get you what you are looking for.

 

[avidhomebrewer]

In order to make a BW, you'll need to pitch some bacteria to sour the wort. Acid malt is only sprayed with lactic acid and as tagz suggests, you won't get any souring with that malt like what is needed for a BW.

For a BW, I'd use either Wyeast 5335 or 5733. Look in the Lambic forum, I believe, for sour beers.

 

[mmonacel]

Actually about to make a BW myself. From what I read, 5% of the grist is about the threshold for adding a bit of sourness. Adjust to your liking. While you could do a sour mash, JZ suggests pitching in lacto along with a relatively clean strain to get that sour / tartness with more predicability. It'll likely take a few weeks to get to your desired sourness.

 

[RickyLopez]

Let me rephrase...

I have extra acid malt...what can I do with it?

 

[mmonacel]

Use it to bring down the pH of your mash. Check out the EZ Water Calc spreadsheet which will show it's effect on mash pH given whatever amount you enter in.

 

[wonderbread23]

Weyermann actually suggests that you 'can' use acidulated malt for a Berliner Weiss. It's not the traditional way of doing it, and it probably won't have the touch of funk you'll get doing a sour mash, but it'd work:

http://www.weyermann.de/ita/faq.asp?umenue=yes&idmenue=62&sprache=2

Berliner Weisse from Weyermann Acidulated Malt
Question: Hello, I have a couple of questions regarding usage of your acidulated malt.

I am planning on making a Berliner Weisse style beer at our brewpub. I am considering replacing the lactobacillus fermentation with acidulated malt...is this feasable? I am not too familiar with the product. I have read that usage should not exceed 10% of the malt bill. The Berliner Weisse typically has a pH of 3.2-3.4.

My question is, would using acidulated malt to achieve the flavor profile of a Berliner Weisse negatively affect the fermentation of the beer, and how much would I need to use in order to achieve that nice sour, acidic bite that is present in the beera?

I appreciate your time and any suggestions that you might have on the matter. Keep up the good work...I find all of your products to be superb!

Answer: Weyermann Acidulated Malt is perfect to adjust the pH level in mash or wort. There is a simple formula to calculate the dosage of Acidulated Malt: You have to use 1% of Acidulated malt to reduce the pH by 0.1. (Example: 3% Acidulated malt reduce the pH leve in mash by 0.3).

The exact effect depends of course on the special conditions in the mash or wort (buffering capacity …) and on the composition of the brew water.

Weyermann Acidulated Malt is produced by using lactic acid, which is generated by on grain natural occurring lactic bacteria. Therefore Acidulated Malt is also a wonderful possibility to produce beer styles with a typical “sourish” character like “Berliner Weisse”.

To reach the “sourish” character 8% of Acidulated malt are a perfect rate. In my recipe there are also recommendations for Fermentis Yeast strains for an authentic aroma and flavour profile.

Malt bill for "Berliner Weisse"

40% Weyermann Pilsner Malt
45% Weyermann Wheat Malt Pale
7 % Weyermann Carahell®
8 % Weyermann Acidulated Malt"

 

[Daybis]

I tried to make a Gose with acid malt. I use almost 20% in the grist (I added it after the rest of the grains had converted because it threw off th pH). Either my taste buds are broken or even at that leve of sourness, I couldn't taste the sour. I ended up adding a bit of lactic acid to the keg to get the sourness I was looking for. If you want to do a BW, I would recommend using bugs instead of the acid malt.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

I use acid malt to make my Gose... I've done the recipe with 22% and 25% acid malt. It gives it tartness (particularly once it warms up), but it's not the mouth-puckering sour of some beers.