My first Berliner

[BayerischBier]

I love Berliner Weisse, especially when you drink it in Berlin ;-)
It's on the list of brews to be cloned !

Just wondering if I will contaminate all my equipement (at least carboys) with lacto or now....
How do you guys get your carboys 'bug' free? will regular PBW and OneStop work?

 

[DragonTail]

Starsan from Five Star will work for the carboy, adn from what I've heard from others, may work for everything else. Safest is to use/get separate, non-glass equipment (tubing,racking cane, bung, bottling wand), for the "bug" batches.

 

[scone]

post deleted

good lord, drunken ramblings

 

[Piotr]

Which yeast will be better for Berliner Weisse: I have Koelsch slurry, and dry american ale yeast (US05)

 

[ChrisKennedy]

Either one would be fine.

 

[Piotr]

Thank you, so I will pitch kolsh slurry.

One more (possibly stupid) question:

I'm going to pitch lacto first, and yeast 2 days later.
Should I aerate the wort before pitching lacto?

 

[ryane]

No, lacto can tolerate oxygen but doenst require it for metabolism

 

[centralpabrewer]

When I brewed mine, I just used Safale US-06 Wheat ale yeast, pitched two days after Lacto. I chilled my wort to around 90F, pitched the lacto and then wrapped a blanket around the carboy. Pitched the yeast two days later. Turned out great. And it just keeps getting better.

 

[jessup]

bandwagon'd

i brewed a BW with a 36 hr sourmash of torrified, flaked wheat and 3 lb lite DME & 15 min boil recipe with 1 lb honey and 1 oz Saaz. yeast was 4th gen Roselare Yeast since you want the lacto. i bottled @ 1.010 and carbed and this baby is very carbonated, champagne like. i fear bottle bombs in my near future this beer, while being super expedited from brew to bottle, is very very yummy. i'm very happy with this 3.5% alc flavorful lite beer!

 

[Chester]

I kegged my first Berliner today. lacto culture with a 48 hour head start, held at 95 with a heat pad and blanket then finished off with kolsh yeast. I think the sour is just right, but I have only had 2 berliners and they were both domestic versions...

 

[Piotr]

Well, my Berliner is ready fo bottling, the souring process was suprisingly long - 6 months!; but eventually it is sour enough to pass as Berliner Weisse.

I have a question about further processing - does the Lactobaccilus flocculate and leave some kind of "yeast cake" that I can reuse for souring another batch of beer (like Oud Bruin for instance) ?

 

[Piotr]

I have a question about further processing - does the Lactobaccilus flocculate and leave some kind of "yeast cake" that I can reuse for souring another batch of beer (like Oud Bruin for instance) ?

Nobody answered, so I had to do my own experiment. I collected some slurry from Berliner Weisse secondary vessel, and I added it to small portion of hopped wort (~25 IBU). The yeast started working and fermented the wort, but it was not sour at all, probably lacto can't stand this much IBUs. So I dind'n use it in my Oud Bruin, I pitched WLP Belgian Sour Mix I instead.

However, I made another batch of Berliner Weisse and I pitched this lacto-infected slurry. It works like charm, the pellicle formed right away, the fermentor smells like yoghurt, I hope this time I will get better (more sour) results.