Bottling Berliner Weisse...

[Volitan]

I have a Berliner Weisse that was brewed and placed into a primary fermenter on January 24, 2011. The beer was transferred to a secondary fermenter on February 27, 2011 and has been sitting there since. OG - 1.032, FG - 1.005.

The yeast used for fermentation was the White Labs WLP630 Berliner Weisse Blend that is "A blend of a traditional German Weizen yeast and Lactobacillus."

I am now ready to bottle the beer, but I am unsure if the prolonged secondary will allow my beer to carbonate with priming sugar added. Do I need to repitch yeast? My understanding is that lacto will not produce CO2 to carbonate the beer, and I am unsure if there is adequate yeast left to perform the job.

Any help/insight/previous experience would be useful!

 

[ElDuderino]

I'm in the same boat. My understanding, from reading Wild Beers, is that lacto will eat the sugar and make lactic acid and co2. I'm not sure if I am willing to bet the farm on this and I am thinking of pitching some yeast skimmed from a fermenting wort or a small amount of reactivated slurry. May be a fun experiment to do a couple bottles without added yeast just to see how they do.

It's hard to just wing it when so much time has been invested.

 

[pohldogg]

I just posted on the topic of lacto and co2 in another thread, but since this comes up pretty often it's got me wanting to get a more definitive answer. I'm of the thought that lacto d doesn't produce co2, and found this paper from Cornell's food science department that says the same. I'd be very interested to get experience or data to the contrary.

OP - 4 months isn't too long for the yeast especially with low abv, but adding more at bottling wouldn't hurt. I'm always a little nervous about this because it would be a shame to have not enough, or old, yeast ruin a batch of beer.

Here's the link to the paper
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...ujJVVaxbV4n2WKAeQ&sig2=i1mo5XQBNyXtyoC65IgVlQ