One gallon berliner idea

[billsteiner26]

So I've been interested in doing a berliner recently, but don't really want to tie up a fermenter with 5 gallons of something I might not like, and have never tried before. Here's my idea: Make a very small lacto starter in a ball canning jar with a handful of grain and dme, see how it smells, if sour but not disgusting, go to brew day. BIAB mash at 145 with a pound of pilsner and about a half pound of malted wheat plus a hop pellet or two of hallertau, bring to boil for a few minutes then bring down to 100. transfer to one gallon carlo rossi wine jug, pitch starter, pop on an airlock, see what happens.

This all sound way too easy considering everything I have read on berliner weisse. Am I over simplifying or should this turn out ok?

 

[youreanimpulse]

Mash temp should be 145?

 

[billsteiner26]

Mash temp should be 145?

Yeah you're right, edited.

 

[barleywhore69]

You're going to want to pasteurize a lacto starter after a couple days and then add it in to the normally fermented gallon of beer to taste. I made 5 gallons of Berliner once with a homemade lacto grain/water starter, but I just let it keep souring the whole thing and bottled it when the airlock stopped. It was undrinkably tart, even with flavored simple syrups added to it in the glass. I should have fermented it with yeast, added lacto when fermentation stopped, tasted it every 12 hours until it was as tart as I want it, then returned it to the boil kettle and pasteurized it, cooled it, then bottled it with of course priming sugar and also some added yeast that can handle the acidity.

 

[Calder]

You're going to want to pasteurize a lacto starter after a couple days and then add it in to the normally fermented gallon of beer to taste. I made 5 gallons of Berliner once with a homemade lacto grain/water starter, but I just let it keep souring the whole thing and bottled it when the airlock stopped. It was undrinkably tart, even with flavored simple syrups added to it in the glass. I should have fermented it with yeast, added lacto when fermentation stopped, tasted it every 12 hours until it was as tart as I want it, then returned it to the boil kettle and pasteurized it, cooled it, then bottled it with of course priming sugar and also some added yeast that can handle the acidity.

Sour the wort first, then ferment it. Alcohol will inhibit the lacto and you will not get it sour.

Sour the whole batch to get it as sour as you want - taste it. Then either boil and add yeast, or just add yeast (that's what I do). Doing it this way, you can have a decently sour BW in less than a month. Ferment first, and you could be waiting 6 months, or more for it, if it ever sours.