Alferman Imperial Berliner Weisse

[grahamfw]

I finally got around to doing this. Here's what I did and what I noticed so far.

I made the lacto starter with probably about a cup worth of grain and maybe two cups of water. I did not mill my grain. Put in my normal starter flask with 120 degree water and submerged in a hot water bath that was as hot as I could make it with a standard aquarium heater (high 90's I think). Let that ride out for a week and strained and split it between two 6 gallon carboys.

For the mash, I did pils malt instead of US 2-row. As a result, I did not do a boil (mainly for time, and also because getting to the boil for a short period would promote a lot of DMS). Here's my grain bill:

2.25 lb rye malt (had on hand - LOVE rye)
15 lb pils
5 lb red wheat
a large amount of rice hulls

I took off about a gallon of wort and boiled that on the stovetop with an ounce of sterling hops for 45 mins. That seems to be (anecdotally) the minimum boil time for DMS evacuation.

I sparged normally and got the wort down to about 140 in the kettle. Moved to a hot water bath (again, with an aquarium heater turned all the way up) and added the liquid from my lacto starter. I did NOT aerate, as it seems lacto favors anaerobic conditions.

The next day, the blowoff bucket was going INSANE. One of the most vigorous fermentations I've seen. I never quite got a pellicle, but I did get a huge krausen. I added rehydrated US-05 after two days and we'll see where we land.

 

[forcabrew]

whats everyones FG coming in at?

 

[america]

whats everyones FG coming in at?

my first batch ended up around 1.003 but that was fermented almost all the way out with lacto before adding any brewers yeast. the second batch i made was sitting around 1.010 about a month ago when i added some Casecade brewery Sang Noir dregs to the carboy. hoping that will get it down to pretty close to 1.000 in the next month or so. whats your sitting at? how long did you ferment with lacto before pitching anything else?

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[forcabrew]

OG was right on. Did the 48hr lacto then I hit it with sac haven't taken a reading yet. Ill take one once sac is done doing its thing.


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[millhouse9]

I'm wondering if crushing the grains is a vital part of the process. I've read that some people do not crush the grains...anyone have any insight? Sorry if this has already been mentioned...I did not read all 16 pages of this thread...made it through about 7.

 

[bretts545]

I pitched dregs and Brett trois after the sacch to mine so I'm thinking I need to let it go a few months so the Brett can do its thing.

 

[Morkin]

Wow. Its been a while since I've posted on Homebrewtalk. Its amazing to me that since posting this back in 2009, its still a popular recipe and I still get requests for answers. I actually will be brewing this recipe this week, so if anyone had any questions, please post here and I will answer them.

 

[Winterpeg]

this may be my next brew, and if it works out may try a sour saison. is the lactic starter 2-row usually? I'm semi concerned about doing a no boil as I've never done it before, I've seen a few people say they raised the temp to 185? to pasturise the wort but not sure if this is a waste, or would actually kill off any other bacteria etc that may contaminate it. seems like no on elase had this issue so I may skip that step. would be a shame to let it ferment 3 months just to dump it due to off flavours.

 

[dim29]

I brewed this 7 days ago. I made the homemade starter. I pitched to the wort and it formed a pellicle the next day and bubbled like crazy. After 48 hours i pitched a rehydrated us05.The lacto ate everything within 2 days and i reached my final gravity. I took a sample and it had a nice clean tart lemony flavour. After 2 days the pelicle subsided but after i pitched us05 it appeared again. Is this a good sign?

 

[dim29]

This is how it looks today.

View attachment 1433509475890.jpg

 

[dim29]

This beer is amazing.

 

[brisboy]

Thanks heaps for sharing this method. I'm going to pitch my starter grain this evening in preparation for a brew on the weekend.

Edit: Actually I was thinking about making a graff next I now remember. Perhaps a sour apple graff would work. Or perhaps I should just do two brews this weekend.

 

[Morkin]

This beer is amazing.

Thank you. I just brewed a batch of this about 4 months ago and bottled it a week ago. I've made it about 10 times and it always amazes me how easy and mostly predictable the taste is when done. Post some pictures of your beer if you can!

 

[Morkin]

This is how it looks today.

How'd the beer turn out?

 

[dim29]

How'd the beer turn out?

Well the beer turned out like a sour lemonade with brett traces. it stopped at fg 0,997!instead of 1,006. It's very drinkable especially now in summer. It doesn't have a lot of carbonation since i bottled in green belgian bottles with dextrose. It's like champagne when you see it.

 

[dim29]

Well the beer turned out like a sour lemonade with brett traces. it stopped at fg 0,997!instead of 1,006. It's very drinkable especially now in summer. It doesn't have a lot of carbonation since i bottled in green belgian bottles with dextrose. It's like champagne when you see it.

 

[dim29]

This is how it turned out. It has the look of a champagne. It's carbonated but without foam.

View attachment 1439046727647.jpg