My Berliner Weisse

[Ray_Mills]

Well Guys
After 10 years of mash brewing I have come accross my biggest Challenge Yet. A Berliner Weisse and its only 2.5% alcohol and an IBU of 6.6% (cant believe i am going to make it).
Its a Sour Beer for those who do not know and I first tasted one a while back when Judging the Tri-Nations. It was won by a South African Brewer and from that day on I wanted to Brew this Style.
Lucy in the brewing info and details on how to make the beer is in the BYO mag, October 2004.
The biggest challenge was to make it sour, and thanks to Scotty I now have the Wyeast 4335 lactobacillus delbruckii to make it sour.
Look at my brewing notes in the recipe and you will see where it comes in. My brew day will be long and I will have to wait 3 months before my first bottle will be ready, but I know if I get it right it will be a very special beer.

Berliner Weisse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
General
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Category: Sour Ale
Subcategory: Berliner Weisse
Recipe Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 20 liters
Volume Boiled: 23.99 liters
Mash Efficiency: 65 %
Total Grain/Extract: 3.30 kg.
Total Hops: 25.0 g.
Calories (12 fl. oz.): 125.8

Ingredients
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.4 kg. Australian Pilsner
1.4 kg. German Wheat Malt Light
.5 kg. Acidulated Malt
25 g. Tettnanger (Pellets, 4 %AA) boiled 20 minutes. (FWH)
Yeast: White Labs WLP011 European Ale

Notes
----------------------------------------------

Hops FWH
10g Gypsum at Run Off
Wyeast 4335 Lactobacillus Delbruckii added to the starter on Brew Day
Bottled in Champagne Bottles
Mash in at 38C with 10 L of water, hold for 2 hours
Add near boiling water to take the mash up to 50C for 30 minutes
Add near boiling water to take the mash up to 64C for 1 hour
Add near boilong water to take the mash up to 77C for 15 minutes
Check gravity is around 1.030
Boil the Wort for 20 minutes
Let the wort rest for 15 minutes.
Collect 2 litres of wort for krausen for bottle conditioning
Re-Boil this to make sure its sterile and seal in a plastic container,When cool freeze till bottling day.
Rack wort to a sterilised 20 L drum and keep till Starter is ready for Fermentation day
Ferment at 18C for 4 days
Rack to secondary at 10C for 3 days.
Rack Again for bottling.

Bottling Day
Warm up the krausen and add to the second secondary
Mix and bottle as normal.
Lager the bottles at 16C for 2 weeks
Then lager at 10C for 3 months

Vital Statistics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original Gravity: 1.032
Terminal Gravity: 1.005
Color: 2.43 SRM
Bitterness: 6.6 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 3.5 %

Recipe can be printed out here
http://www.beertools.com/html/recipe.php?view=5717

--Results prepared by BeerTools.com
http://www.beertools.com/

 

[Weizguy]

G'day Ray & other Aussiehomebrewers,

BYO mag was my inspiration for my attempts at Berliner Weisse.

To create sufficient acidity, I'd say to leave the wort on the lacto for at least 24 hours at warm temp before cooling and pitching the primary ale yeast.

I had great success with a sour mash on my first try, but found that you must be careful if thawing the speise (krausen) for priming too long before bottling (just ask PoMo)... :lol:

Ray, this is a very satisfying style, and I'm sure a brewer of your status will cope admirably.

As for Summer, I'll be happy to brew your special multi-awarded Saison (maybe even a couple of times).

Beerz 2 U
Seth out

 

[Ray_Mills]

Hi
I have enjoyed Horst D. Dornbusch (what a name) style and recipe information every month in BYO and have made some of his beers and they are spot on. I have always enjoyed the challenge of brewing and to be honest its the only thing i do thats a challenge (well the dragon lady is one that i do know).
When you get to a stage where an Ale is no problem to make, A good lager the same only you need additional equipement for cold fermentation and lagering. You tend to head further into the dark side and after this beer I will be diving head first into Belgium Beers, and what a range there is to experment with. Anyway lets see how this goes as i have a long wait if i have stuffed things up.
Cheers
Ray