Berliner Weisse

[Tony]

After many years of waiting........ its back:

http://www.wyeastlab.com/vssprogram.cfm?website=2

I have ordered some and will be digging up some recipes i have stored in the vaults

Going to put it in now, so it can sit and rot for a few months and be ready for the warmer weather........ cant wait!


Happy to discuss any recipes or beers people have made or tried for the Berliner Weisse style.

cheers

 

[Florian]

I've done a few batches.

Typically you'd go something like this:

50% Pils
50% Wheat

a handfull of noble hops added to the mash.
Full step mash and double decoction if you're up for it, otherwise a long rest at 63ish.
Lauter, throw a handful freshly milled grain at the wort, let cool to 40 degrees, keep at 40 for 12 - 24 hours.
Let cool down to pitching temp, pitch smack pack of the blend. Ferment for 6 month or however long you want, transfer to secondary if you want to (I haven't).

The best this recipe scored was 40 points, the lowest 30. But then again, what do BJCP judges know about a beer most of them have never tried as a commercial example?

If you like rye, you can replace 10 percent of the wheat with rye to get a bit of spice in there, works well for me.

 

[tazman1967]

Ive got one planned... 50/50m Belgian Pilsner/ Unmalted wheat, low mash temp, Single decoction mash hopped with a Noble hop.
Now it gets interesting... NO boil, just all into a open bucket with a German Ale yeat and a stepped up Lacto starter..
Looking for a yeast/lacto ratio of 3:1. to get the sourness.
Should ferment out in 4 days, then transfer to a secondary for 3 days, then into the bottle with fresh yeast and lacto, and forget about it.
Ill try on with the VSS strain as a side by side comparison.

 

[Tony]

Ive got one planned... 50/50m Belgian Pilsner/ Unmalted wheat, low mash temp, Single decoction mash hopped with a Noble hop.
Now it gets interesting... NO boil, just all into a open bucket with a German Ale yeat and a stepped up Lacto starter..

Ooooo now your talking, i was thinking 50/50 Wey Premium Pils/unmalted wheat with a mash hop, but i love the idea of not boiling it.

I may do a large batch, run half of the wort off into a fermenter unboiled, and boil the other half......... something to considder.

I know the beer i tried years ago make by Les was soured by adding the unboiled liquid from soaking some malted barley.

Might have to get a couple glass carboys me thinks.

cheers

 

[tazman1967]

Have a read through Kristen Englands Thread on Northern Brewer:
Linkie : http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic....;hilit=berliner

Cheers
Peter

 

[Florian]

Just to clarify, I have never boiled any of my BW either, that's why there is no boil length mentioned in my post. Thought that comes without saying

EDIT: and Wey premium Pils is what I would typically use as well just to get the colour as light as possible. The stuff is almost white.

 

[Weizguy]

I used a dilute malt extract wort to make my lacto culture with a handful of unmilled malt barley, and stepped it up. Brendanos and I had a chat about making a lacto culture a while back, and he said he preferred to buy a commercial culture as he liked to know his lacto's "last name". I recall he did well with the Berliner style in the AABC.

I made another culture via sour mash, if you recall, and pitched the sour mash 3 days before the yeast.

I have tasted a small number of beers brewed with the Berliner-weisse PC blend and they all had significant phenolics, which are out of style. Please be aware of your sanitation with a no-boil wort.

For my first 2 BW's, I boiled my wort for 5-10 minutes, as I was not much of a risk-taker at the time. I suppose it was risky enough brewing a sour beer style that was very unusual at the time.

Unmalted wheat will make more of a Belgo-lambic/ turbid mash, rather than a weisse.

You can add a little lactic acid to increase/balance the sourness at bottling too.

Anyway, don't mention the war. Thanks Tony! <_<

 

[tazman1967]

Cool, a good heads up on the Malt Florian. I thought the Dingemans was pretty pale. Looks like ill be swapping to the Wey Premium Pills.
I should be putting mine down next week.

Peter

 

[felten]

One of my best beers so far was a no-boil Berliner weisse following Kristen's method linked above. It wasn't sour enough to be to style, but a great summer beer anyway.

 

[Tony]

Making this today.

Used 50/50 Weyermann premium pils / Pale wheat malt and 5% acidulated.
handfull of Mt Hood thrown in the mash.

mashed in at 35 deg for about 1 1/2 hours, stepped up to 51 with an infusion and pulled the first decoction.
Raised it to 63 to rest for 15 min than boil it for 10 min.
Add back to mash for 63 deg mash. Pull 2nd decoction after 45 min rest and boil for 10 min.
Add back for 78 deg mash out.
Run off and sparge direct to fermenter (glass carboy) with handfull of fresh cracked premium pils.
let cool and sit till tomorrow afternoon and add smack pack of 3191 Berliner Weisse.
Place in dark under stairs in house and forget it for 3 to 6 months

should be fun.

Question..... does this yeast foam like a rabid dog. Just wondering how far i can fill my carboy up ??? Ive never used one.

cheers

 

[brettprevans]

Making this today.

Used 50/50 Weyermann premium pils / Pale wheat malt and 5% acidulated.
handfull of Mt Hood thrown in the mash.

mashed in at 35 deg for about 1 1/2 hours, stepped up to 51 with an infusion and pulled the first decoction.
Raised it to 63 to rest for 15 min than boil it for 10 min.
Add back to mash for 63 deg mash. Pull 2nd decoction after 45 min rest and boil for 10 min.
Add back for 78 deg mash out.
Run off and sparge direct to fermenter (glass carboy) with handfull of fresh cracked premium pils.
let cool and sit till tomorrow afternoon and add smack pack of 3191 Berliner Weisse.
Place in dark under stairs in house and forget it for 3 to 6 months

should be fun.

Question..... does this yeast foam like a rabid dog. Just wondering how far i can fill my carboy up ??? Ive never used one.

cheers

In my experiance none of the funk yeast kraussens much. But then again Ive only ever used rosrlare for my berlinners.
I dont rrcon youll need 3-6 months if you pitch a goo amount of yeast. And of course depends on how sour you want it.

 

[Tony]

Thanks mate.

I will leave a bit of room but not too much.

I'm planning a good old foil cap for the carboy. They have worked for my starters for years!.

cheers

 

[QldKev]

Making this today.

Used 50/50 Weyermann premium pils / Pale wheat malt and 5% acidulated.
handfull of Mt Hood thrown in the mash.

mashed in at 35 deg for about 1 1/2 hours, stepped up to 51 with an infusion and pulled the first decoction.
Raised it to 63 to rest for 15 min than boil it for 10 min.
Add back to mash for 63 deg mash. Pull 2nd decoction after 45 min rest and boil for 10 min.
Add back for 78 deg mash out.
Run off and sparge direct to fermenter (glass carboy) with handfull of fresh cracked premium pils.
let cool and sit till tomorrow afternoon and add smack pack of 3191 Berliner Weisse.
Place in dark under stairs in house and forget it for 3 to 6 months

should be fun.

Question..... does this yeast foam like a rabid dog. Just wondering how far i can fill my carboy up ??? Ive never used one.

cheers

I've been thinking of making one for a while, I may give this recipe a go. But I'll sample it after a couple of weeks and then over a period of time. (possibly a week if it's good)

QldKev

 

[Tony]

I dont know if this will work yet mate

Im about to start racking it from the mash to the fermenter.

Oh that sends shivers down my spine just thinking about what could go wrong.

 

[Tony]

It just feels wrong going from mash to fermenter.

fingers crossed

 

[QldKev]

It just feels wrong going from mash to fermenter.

fingers crossed

I wonder if you'll end up with infected beer

 

[Tony]

most likely

 

[Adam Howard]

You may want to chuck an airlock on to prevent acetobacter taking hold during the ferment Tony.

 

[Tony]

but i dont have a spare kitten to put in it.

The foil will do

 

[Adam Howard]

Are you going to run with the foil for 3-6 months Tony?