Do I need to secondary Berlinerweisse?

[Patirck]

I brewed a berlinerwiese about 6 weeks ago and it is still sitting in primary. I used the While Labs wlp 630 yeast. I have pretty much stopped doing secondaries after reading some of the posts here and have had much success. I have it in a "borrowed" 5 gallon plastic water jug. It is one of the new kind that is a HPDE 2. I have a towel over it to protect it from light. I was planning on aging this for about 5 months so it gets nice and sour (the aging is the secret to the sour from what I have been told). Is 5 months too long on the original yeast cake? Since there is Lacto somethingoranother as well as regular yeast does that make me want to do a secondary?

 

[whyrat]

I still recommend transferring if you're going to wait that long. Skipping the secondary is more for beers that spend less than 6-8 weeks before bottle.

It certainly won't hurt anything. Unless you're going for a lot of yeast note in the "sour" taste age it off the cake.

 

[Patirck]

Do you think there will be much trub after it secondaries? I was thinking of just putting it in a keg and letting it sit there with an airlock on it for the next four months or so (at room temperature). Will I have to draw off too much stuff from the bottom?

 

[jtakacs]

i think with six weeks in primary, most everything will have dropped out... should be able to age in the keg no problem i would think... glass or two of couldy beer would be fine with me.

i have dual BWs going now which have been fermenting for about 4 weeeks... they'll get to about 5 or 6 and then bottled and conditioned...

how'd you like that yeast? i used that in one of the batches i have...

 

[Patirck]

As far as the yeast goes - I have not tasted it yet so I can't really say.

I was planning on aging this a long time - does it really need it? I was also going to naturally carbonate in the keg so it gets nice and fizzy. Do you think it will still "condition" or "secondary" if I just keg it with priming sugar and leave it in a corner for another few months?

 

[jtakacs]

if you're kegging it, aren't you force carbing it (no priming needed)?

i just tasted both of mine - both attenuated from great to outstanding (77% and 83%) - the 630 one has a high sulfur content but is a little tart... i assume the sulfur will go away, always has the couple of times i've had it (one turned into a great wit)

the other one that got sacc and lacto is boooooooring. there ain't anything going on... that being said, both are the clearest and lightest beers i've ever made... i bet the the color isn't over 3 SRM... maybe just above 2... not sure how it got so clear given its 31% wheat.

i've decided i'm going to bottle up the boring one first and let it bottle condition after five weeks in primary. the second one will get bottled as soon as the sulfur is gone.

 

[Patirck]

I usually force carb but I am thinking I can just put the beer in the keg with the proper amount of priming sugar and let it condition/carbonate/age/sour for a few months then it would be ready to chill and put on tap.

I am going to try priming the beer I keg for a few batches - my force carbing seems to leave the beer either over or under carbed.

I see you do a lot of sours. I really like sours but this berlinerwiese is my first attempt. I remember reading this thread: http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showtopic=29637
have you tried this method? If not what do you do to get them sour?

 

[jtakacs]

i havent tried souring the wort other than lacto additions, but my favorite (and sourest) come from souring the mash and pitching my house yeast (a blend of belgian saccs, pacman, pedio, lacto and brett-c)...

for my next two brews i'm doing a flanders and an oud bruin and i'll sour both batches by keeping a portion of the mash at 120 for three days after pitching acidulated malt into them (.125 lb per 1.0 lb of grain). it gets very sour.