What's wrong with my Berliner Weisse?

[smithmd4]

Moved from All-Grain Forum:

First all-grain BIAB about two weeks ago. 50/50 split of 2-row and Wheat malt. IBU's were around 10 according to software, but they were from a package that was opened about 6 weeks prior so I'm sure that wasn't accurate. Mash was at 152 and I ended up with a SG of 1.036 and no boil. I did not oxygenate and made starter of WLP002 to get a good yeast going.

Added White Labs lacto directly to the wort and gave it a head start. 24 hrs later I added starter which smelled like stale beer and we were off to the races. Active fermentation right away and the temp hung between 66-74 which is the best we can do at the moment.

I left it alone until just now and took a sample to measure gravity and taste how lacto was progressing. Gravity was down to 1.004, but it tasted/smelled like someone threw up a band-aid soaked in turpentine.

Is this something normal that will clean itself up or did we make our first dumper? If its a dumper, what the hell went wrong?

Thanks!

 

[Nateo]

Whoa, that sounds nasty. I've made a few Berliners and never had that happen. It sounds like you picked up some funky infection. I've had the best luck splitting the batch in half, adding Lacto to one half, doing the regular boil/hops/yeast in the other half, then mixing them together.

If the Lacto is working right, it should smell like sauerkraut, not band-aid puke.

 

[LoneWolfPR]

Bandaid-like aroma/flavor is usually equated with being a phenolic. From the BJCP study guide, about this:

This is an aroma and taste often compared to Band-aids (tm), medicine chest or disinfectant.
Chlorophenols are particularly offensive members of this family with bleach-like flavors in addition to
the ones listed above. High levels of phenols are generally produced by bacteria or wild yeast, both of
which indicate a sanitation problem. Phenols may also be extracted from grain husks by overcrushing,
oversparging or sparging with hot or alkaline water. Chlorinated water and sanitizer residue are
possible sources of chlorophenols. Phenolic flavors are generally never desirable, the exception being
the clove-like, vanilla-like or slightly smoky flavors and aromas in Bavarian wheat beers and some
Belgian ales.

 

[jtakacs]

what temp did you pitch lacto and how long did you keep it in before pitching yeast? also - what temp were you able to maintain with the lacto?

 

[smithmd4]

Being NYC, we don't have a ton of space. The best we can do at the moment is regulate the bedroom with windows which generally keeps 5 gallons between 66 and 74 according to thermometer strip.

I pitched the lacto at around 90 and let it cool in a carboy with airlock via ambient air for 24 hrs. When it was down to the mid 70's, I pitched yeast. There wasn't any airlock activity for the 24 hrs with just lacto, but the airlock took off within 8 hrs of pitching yeast. While the airlock was bubbling away it smelled sort of like sour milk which made sense to me since Lacto is what sours milk.

Since I didn't boil, I sanitized my wort chiller with StarSan before adding it. I did not raise the temp to a near boil as I was reading today in the other thread. We made an IPA same day before making this and everything hung out in StarSan until it was ready. We do use NYC tap water, unfiltered, but we haven't had any issues with the Chlorine yet either.

 

[crazyirishman34]

Let it go for a few months see what happens is my advise. I normally let my BW sit in the secondary for 6 months to get nice and sour. But I have never had one smell like that i normally get a sweet lemon and honey nose to it.

 

[noejas]

Chad Yakobson from Crooked Stave Artison Beer Project talked about doing a no boil on the Brewing Network Sunday Session last week and he recommends getting your wort down to a ph of 4.5 to inhibit the growth of unwanted organisms and then to bring the wort up to 185 degrees and hold it there for a little while then drop down to 120 and let it go. He didn't do this process control on his first no boil beer which ended up as his Blackberry Petite sour and it had a lot of butyric acid which caused an awful foul smell probably like what you experienced. But he pitched Brettanomyces and after quite some time the Brett converted the butyric acid into ethyl butyrate which apparently has a beautifilul amazing tropical fruit flavor and aroma. So if your beer doesn't turn out you can always try pitching Brett and see what happens