Adding lactic acid when bottling a Berliner

[AdamWiz]

Okay, I know there are countless threads about Berliner Weisses that aren't sour enough. I have read through all of them, and the standard answer is to give it more time. But my Berliner has been in secondary for 6 months and is not getting any more sour. The sample I pulled last night tasted exactly the same as the sample I pulled 2 months ago. Smells like it will be nice and tart, but there just isn't much sourness in the taste. Truth be told, it just tastes kind of watery. I am done waiting on this one, since it doesn't seem to be progressing, so I've decided to just add some lactic acid and bottle it ( I have a bunch of cappable 750ML Belgian style bottles from Jolly Pumpkin, so I'm not worried about the high carbonation). But I have no idea how much lactic acid to use to increase the sourness a bit. It is only a 3 gallon batch, so I don't want to overdo it. Any suggestions are appreciated.

*** also, since it has been sitting for 6+ months, should I add some yeast as well when I bottle? This will be my first time bottling something that has been in secondary for longer than a few weeks.

 

[Nateo]

I have a Berliner Weiss on my blog that turned out really, really well. It might be something for you to check out. I'll be doing a writeup on the tasting soon.

Lactic acid is pretty soft, so you could add probably a tablespoon or so, taste it, and go from there.

I'd probably add more yeast. Yeast hates really acidic environments, so even if you still have yeast in there, it may not be up to the task of carbonating.

 

[AdamWiz]

I ended up adding just under an ounce of lactic acid(about 3 teaspoons), that was enough to bump up the sourness a bit without overpowering the beer. I also rehydrated a half packet of US-05 and mixed it in to the bottling bucket. I bottled most of the batch in 750 ml champagne style bottles, but I also experimented and bottled up a few in no-neck "stubby" bottles (like Red Stripe) to see if they can handle high carbonation(I added 3.6 oz. corn sugar, aiming for about 4 volumes CO2). I have them wrapped up in a garbage bag in a box in case of explosion. We'll see how it turns out.