Berliner Weisse Mystery Revealed

[ChrisKennedy]

I have gotten commercial lacto down to 3.15. I don't think it stops working at low pHes, I think it stops growing at the lower pH.

[brewinhard]

I have gotten commercial lacto down to 3.15. I don't think it stops working at low pHes, I think it stops growing at the lower pH.

+1 Chris! i think reproduction halts at low pH's, but the remaining lacto will continue to sour your beer. As you have posted earlier, I too am observing my berliner's in the keg slowly becoming quite more sour over time. Batch 1 is at 4 mos and is very tart, and fairly acidic. The one I have on apricots is VERY sour and acidic. Love it, but will let it age till spring.

[derfburg]

I would like to do one of these. Can someone give me a simple recipe, method to doing this? No boil, boil etc. I have tried to do some reading and there are just so many ways to do it.

[Hewy]

Jess from wyeast did a talk on berliner weiss at anhc (aussie nhc).

He has done lots of experimenting wrt berliners and I believe his suggestion was to do a primary fermentation with 1007, use a lacto strain next followed by a brett strain.

I think the standard berliner was around 3.2ph...

Unfortunately this is all based on heresy and I suggest you email Jess at wyeast and see if he can shed some more light.

Cheers

[whatsontap]

You need mylo to post on this one... His BW was pretty damn tasty! I could be wrong but I am pretty sure he did the 120F mash for about a day or so, then boiled for like 15m to kill the nasties so the yeast could do their thing.

[whoateallthepies]

Jess from wyeast did a talk on berliner weiss at anhc (aussie nhc).

He has done lots of experimenting wrt berliners and I believe his suggestion was to do a primary fermentation with 1007, use a lacto strain next followed by a brett strain.

I think the standard berliner was around 3.2ph...

Unfortunately this is all based on heresy and I suggest you email Jess at wyeast and see if he can shed some more light.

Cheers

Almost Hewy. Must have been feeling rough after club night eh?

Jess said the best sourness occurred when using 5335 Lacto strain first. Then after a period of time (7 days?) and the pH had dropped adding 1007 German Ale. Then once fermentation had completed he suggested finishing with a Brett strain at bottling.

Having 2 x 20L cubes waiting for me that have already soured with my sour mash, I will ferment both cubes as normal with 1007 German Ale, then bottle one batch at that point, and add Brett at bottling with the other batch.

[Hewy]

Almost Hewy. Must have been feeling rough after club night eh?

was feeling rough before it even began...

[biertourist]

I've been thinking of doing a Berliner Weisse, too but some of the more practical elements are stumping me.

I've heard the recommendation to mash in a corney under CO2 pressure to prevent O2 that would discourage lactobacillus growth and encourage enterobacteria, and also the recommendation to maintain temps of around 98.6....

How do you heat a corney for 36 hours and still keep it sealed so that it maintains CO2 pressure? (I have an aquarium-style immersion heater but if it put it in a corney it's not going to maintain any CO2 pressure....)



Adam