Berliner Weisse 3 Day Sour Mash

[jbaker9]

Happy new year fellow AHB'ers,

I am currently sour mashing a Berliner Weisse @ 40C. The intention was to boil it today for 48hrs total sour mash.

Like many well laid plans this has been disrupted by having guests here. This may push my brewing plans back 24hrs. If I leave my sour mash an additional 24 hrs is it likely to end up far too sour for the style?

Regards
James

 

[Batz]

Happy new year fellow AHB'ers,

I am currently sour mashing a Berliner Weisse @ 40C. The intention was to boil it today for 48hrs total sour mash.

Like many well laid plans this has been disrupted by having guests here. This may push my brewing plans back 24hrs. If I leave my sour mash an additional 24 hrs is it likely to end up far too sour for the style?

Regards
James

I believe it'll be ok James, I let mine go 72 hours because the PH was not low enough. Pitched the yeast and it is now finished, crash chilling as of this morning. My first attempt at this and really quite excited to try it.

Batz

Edit: Sorry after reading again I see you are doing a sour mash, I just infected the wort with lactobacillus. Then followed same procedure as you.

 

[waggastew]

From what I have read/heard Lacto is self limiting and will stop souring once a particular pH is hit. I am not sure what that pH is but should be fine.

Only other problem will be more chance for other funkys to grow. If you kept it warm and O2 out you should be fine

 

[Batz]

From what I have read/heard Lacto is self limiting and will stop souring once a particular pH is hit. I am not sure what that pH is but should be fine.

Only other problem will be more chance for other funkys to grow. If you kept it warm and O2 out you should be fine

True but you still don't want it to sour or the yeast won't handle it.

 

[Jack of all biers]

A quick search on Berliner Weisse found this. Page 9 discusses sour mash (a little, but the thread also discusses yeast reactions to high acidity). perhaps follow the below advice from the thread and taste your mash to see how sour it is.

[SIZE=medium]http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/66316-berliner-weisse/page-9[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]I do a turbo sour by pitching a wyeast or white labs lacto culture in the mash and keeping it around 40c for 24-48 hours with a good esky mash tun or some other method. Works really well, and you can tailor the sourness to your liking by tasting the mash. Quick boil to kill the lacto then just ferment with something neutral to finish the beer. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]I like this method as it still lets other wild bugs have a quick go at your mash for a bit of depth, you don't need to wait long to drink it, and you can pinpoint your sourness levels to a T.[/SIZE]

 

[jbaker9]

Thanks for the feedback, will be boiling the wort this afternoon. Seems to be smelling like it should - slightly funky Yoghurt.

Cheers
James

 

[adryargument]

I once made a huge 24hr 5-7L starter using the berliner weiss yeast.
Before pitching it into a 100L barrel.

That starter alone made it one of the sourest sours i have ever tried.

 

[AJ80]

A quick search on Berliner Weisse found this. Page 9 discusses sour mash (a little, but the thread also discusses yeast reactions to high acidity). perhaps follow the below advice from the thread and taste your mash to see how sour it is.

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/66316-berliner-weisse/page-9

I do a turbo sour by pitching a wyeast or white labs lacto culture in the mash and keeping it around 40c for 24-48 hours with a good esky mash tun or some other method. Works really well, and you can tailor the sourness to your liking by tasting the mash. Quick boil to kill the lacto then just ferment with something neutral to finish the beer.
I like this method as it still lets other wild bugs have a quick go at your mash for a bit of depth, you don't need to wait long to drink it, and you can pinpoint your sourness levels to a T.

Pretty much what I do, except I take all of my runnings and sour in the kettle with the aid of some uncracked Pilsner malt in a hop sock. Gives a good result I find.

 

[jbaker9]

In the end it was a 4 day sour mash. Before boil it was a not totally unpleasant warm Yoghurt odour.

Post boil it was quite sour in a good way. I think it should turn out ok.

Got much better mash efficiency than normal... FG 1038 (design 1030),watered down with 4 L boiled / cooled water.

Looking forward to this one...

Thanks for the reassurance.

James