Berliner Weisse

[Tony]

Tony, was your wort at 78 degrees when you put it into the glass? I'm thinking I'll put mine in now while hot but my greatest fear is fracturing the glass.

Yeah mate...... i had the mash at 78, and heated my sparge water to 78 or 80 deg before adding it.

dropped it strait in the carboy.

If fills slowly so the heat will soak in slow. If you spot heated it to a high temp quick the expansion may make it crack.

It should be ok..... but dont stand next to it in thongs

 

[Adam Howard]

It should be ok.....

Yeah, bit the bullet and chucked it straight in pretty hot. Threw in a handful of grain and chucked it in the fridge set to 30 degrees. Will pitch the smack pack tomorrow. ******* is taking a very long time to swell.

Super simple brew day. Been a fair while since I brewed in the urn. Bugger all cleaning up!

 

[Helles]

I would boil the entire mash
Read about it in BYO once dont remember anything but boil the entire mash

 

[Tony]

My pack was smacked for 36 hrs and didnt swell at all.

pitched it anyway on Monday morning (brewed Sunday arvo) and by Tuesday arvo it was starting to bubble.

Its now putting along nice

Edit: and i did boil most of the mash........ with a double decoction. But meh...... i want to see what happens. If it goes to shit its cost me a smack pack and 3kg of malt....... I'm not going to have to sell the house.

 

[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.

Mine is done, two months now in the bottle.. sourness is increasing. It has IMHO developing a " Champagne " taste to it. Im having a taste every month to see how it is coming along..
I will bring some bottles to the QLD Case Swap for people to sample.

Very interesting link in helping me with my recipe: http://youtu.be/_hClp9huB1M

Cheers
Peter

 

[tiprya]

Mine is done, two months now in the bottle.. sourness is increasing. It has IMHO developing a " Champagne " taste to it. Im having a taste every month to see how it is coming along..
I will bring some bottles to the QLD Case Swap for people to sample.

Very interesting link in helping me with my recipe: http://youtu.be/_hClp9huB1M

Did you use the approach outlined in that video? i.e. lacto for a week before pitching ale yeast for another week?

I'm going to brew this in a week or so, and hoping this will get good complex sourness quickly, so I can have it ready by christmas.

I'm going to take a whole set of pH readings with my new meter what a good beer to try it out on.

 

[tazman1967]

Did you use the approach outlined in that video? i.e. lacto for a week before pitching ale yeast for another week?

I'm going to brew this in a week or so, and hoping this will get good complex sourness quickly, so I can have it ready by christmas.

I'm going to take a whole set of pH readings with my new meter what a good beer to try it out on.

I sure did.. made a starter out of the Lacto first. Just like a beer starter but you need to keep it warm ( about 35 Deg) for about 3 days.. I then pitched the Lacto first, then the German Ale.
It needs time still for the sourness to develop.. Christmas may be a bit early.. but its up to your how sour you like your beer.
Best of luck.. its a really nice beer..
Cheers
Peter

 

[Tony]

I just got mine from under the dark staircase (sitting at about 22 deg) out to check how it was going.

It had got a 2nd wind with the ferment and foamed up and coated the foil cap on the carboy, and the sides of the carboy with yeast and lactic bacteria, which now stank.

I opened the door to the space under the stairs and found what my wife had complained about. It smelt like a dead rat was in there.

So i cleaned up the mess, put on a new sterile foil cap, and had a sniff. It smells good inside....... but i didn't want to persevere for months of conditioning if the beer tasted like doggy poop.

Steralised a bit of tube, and dunked it in, put my finger over the end and got enough out into a little jar for a mouthful.

Pale... almost white. Still cloudy but i don't expect it to be bright clear.
Aroma of lemon, fresh bread......... and ............ well........... acid. Pleasant clean sour funky smell.
Taste is tart, clean and acidic. puckering effect. Some doughy wheaty flours in the background. Massive flavor for a small beer! Left my teeth chalky.

It still has a slight fiz to it and i think that's the lactic bacteria finishing off the beer to complete dryness.

I an very happy with the tartness and acidity......... its a sour little bitch!

I think i just named it

Sour Little Bitch.

 

[QldKev]

A couple of weeks in the fermenter with wy3191 my Berliner Weisse looks really funcky. I've never made a Berliner Weisse before, and realize I've got 2 different bacterias in there. I haven't tasted it yet. Does this look correct for the style?



QldKev

 

[stux]

It just feels wrong going from mash to fermenter.

fingers crossed

It's actually the period way to make ale. Ale was unhopped and unboiled. Beer was hopped and thus boiled and lasted months, where as ale only lasted a few weeks.

The lager/ale classification came later

 

[adryargument]

Those Berliner Weisse beers look awesome, inspired me to go all out.

Will do a 60L mash at around ~1.048, run it into the kettle to start recirculating through the chiller to get it to pitching temps.
Then going into a 100L Yalumba red wine barrel and topping up with water for ~1.034 starting gravity for 1/2 months while adding raspberries during fermentation to add to the sourness / make up for evaporation.

Well thats the plan, will see how it ends up turning out :lol:

Planning to start mashing asap, Only thing holding me up is my Berliner Weisse WLP630 culture.

 

[Nick JD]

It's actually the period way to make ale. Ale was unhopped and unboiled. Beer was hopped and thus boiled and lasted months, where as ale only lasted a few weeks.

The lager/ale classification came later

Wouldn't the period way to make ale involve used tampons and irrational mood swings?

 

[adryargument]

Alright,

Going to get stuck into this shortly.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size (fermenter): 100.00 l
Bottling Volume: 98.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.031 SG
Estimated Color: 2.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 2.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00 %

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
6.00 kg Floor Malted Bohemian Pilsner (Weyermann Grain 1 48.0 %
6.00 kg Wheat Malt (Barrett Burston) (1.5 SRM) Grain 2 48.0 %
0.50 kg Acidulated (Weyermann) (1.8 SRM) Grain 3 4.0 %
80.00 g Saaz [4.00 %] - Mash 100.0 min Hop 4 2.0 IBUs
5.0 pkg Berliner Weisse Blend (White Labs #WLP63 Yeast 5 -
1.0 pkg Orval Dregs Yeast 6 -
2.00 kg Frozen Raspberries (Primary 0.0 mins) Flavor 7 -


Mash Schedule: ADA - Berliner Weisse - 63/60 - 72/10 - 78/15
Total Grain Weight: 12.50 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash Step Heat to 63.0 C 63.0 C 60 min
Mash Step Heat to 72.0 C over 10 min 72.0 C 10 min
Mash Step Heat to 78.0 C over 6 min 78.0 C 15 min

Notes:
Fermented in Red Wine barrel w/ blowoff tube.
Orval dregs + Frozen Raspberries going in at end of fermentation.

 

[adryargument]

What an interesting day.

Took a while... even without a boil.
1.5 hr mash
1 hr sparge
2 hr chill to 20'c
1 hr to fill barrel

Last 60+ hours has pretty much been dedicated to producing a 6+ liter starter.
The lacto should have outpaced the yeast by now and be ready to go. Aiming for a real sour bite.

Ended up with about 56L at 1.066, pumped into barrel, added yeast, filled to 100L.
Should end up around high 3's percentage wise.

Where does one store a 100L barrel?
I had no idea, so i pushed it into a corner and surrounded it in a tarp. It gets about 1 hour of patchy sunlight where it is so it should be fine and remain at a decent temp (20-24).

Starter:

Final resting place:

 

[adryargument]

At around day 6 after the fermentation completed i added 2KG of raspberry's and orval dregs to introduce some brett.

12 days in, first tastings:
Her aroma takes me back to gueuze's in belgium. Very light, clean, crisp with a light tart sourness with hints of raspberry.
I could drink it now and bloody enjoy it.

However in a few months she should be lovely with a lot more of a punch.

Samples below was taken from the top layers of berry's with a syringe, so they are quite cloudy.

 

[Thefatdoghead]

I got a pack of wy3191 my Berliner Weisse and am going to put one of these down in a few weeks. Just wondering should I make a starter same as normal with this pack?
Been through my book's but nothing on starters with this yeast bacteria combo. Just strolling internet for answers now.

 

[QldKev]

I got a pack of wy3191 my Berliner Weisse and am going to put one of these down in a few weeks. Just wondering should I make a starter same as normal with this pack?
Been through my book's but nothing on starters with this yeast bacteria combo. Just strolling internet for answers now.

I didn't, as the yeast will overtake the bacteria and result in a less sour beer.

QldKev

 

[tiprya]

Yeast blends shouldn't get starters, particularly ones with bacteria; the starter will affect the balance of the blend.

 

[Thefatdoghead]

Ahh righto i'll just pitch the pack then. Thanks

 

[Tony]

Well after 2 or 3 months, i racked mine to the keg.

Finished at 1.002 and tastes AMAZING !!!!!

Punches sky in victory

Clean, dry, tart, pale, and sour, almost chalky on the teeth acidity, but smooth and refreshing.

Should have it carbed up in a few days.... woo hoo