Berliner Weisse Fail

Mixed fermentation looks like some weird magic, to me.

 

Ron the above recipe is courtesy of Wyeast. They brewed up this beer for the NHC and provided free samples (plus a postcard with the recipe listed). I enjoyed drinking this beer; it had sourness and it was a real tasty beer.

I hope that cavedave reports back his review of his homebrewed beer.

Cheers!

 

Jack, how sour was it? Like drinking Lemonade or much more so?

 

Ward, the best that I could say is that it had moderate sourness. Now, before you ask I have no way of ‘defining’ moderate.

I recognize that you used a ‘metric’ of Lemonade. I do not regularly make Lemonade but I have made it in the past. The ‘issue’ in making Lemonade is that you have sour/tart from the lemon juice but then you also add some sugar to ‘counteract’ the lemon juice. So, I have had some sour/tart lemonade and I have had some sweeter lemonade. No real definition there.

If you could come up with an unambiguous metric for defining sour/tart I will consider that and then provide an opinion on how the Wyeast brewed Berliner Weisse (they called it Portlander Weisse) compares to that metric.

On a related matter, I had 3-4 samples of the Portlander Weisse over 2 days. I thought it was a very tasty beer.

Cheers!

Jack

 

No delivery yday, so gotta be today. Guess that pushes brewday to Wed.

Will for sure report back, but I also have no metric for describing sourness, except if it is sour enough for me . I like em sour like Maiden Fields, by Sante Adairius, hope this one comes even close to that.

 

Just add some straight lactic acid. That's what I did with a failed batch, turned out simple but nice.

 

Sour mash is the way to go. Grain to glass in four weeks. Make your own lacto starter by adding a handful of crushed grain to .5L of 1.020 wort, held at 100F for three days. Mash and sparge as normal, quick boil to degas a bit and sanitize, chill to 100F, pitch the lacto and cover with saran wrap to keep O2 out. If you can purge with CO2, even better.

The nasty fecal/vomit aromas come from aerobic bacteria, so the key is to minimize oxygen. Keep the mess at 100F for 2-3 days, then boil and hop as normal and add your favorite yeast. Brett really likes acid and makes some great fruity beers. Pitch a shitload of regular yeasts, because they are not nearly as happy in that environment.

I really liked a 60/40 pilsner/wheat that I did with US-05 and dry hopped with citra and centennial, but that's obviously not anything close to traditional.

 

Mandarins work nice in a Cream Ale.

 

Almost forgot the origanal post was for a Berlinerweisse...anyway...have not used fruit in a BW yet. I think it would work with some added tartness. I'm still trying to get a regular Berliner with the optimum tartness.

 

Used quince. Turned out nice. Very mellow given how it tastes fresh.

 

Ugh no Berliner for me turns out the 5335 I bought was dead as a doornail. Thought I would be smart and let my LHBS order it and save the cost of overnight shipping with freezy pak. Live and learn.

 

“ …the 5335 I bought was dead as a doornail.” I am sorry to hear that.

So, you had the LHBS get this yeast for you and it was ‘dead’ from them?

A couple of summers ago I asked Aaron at my LHBS (Keystone) how they obtained their yeast (Wyeast, White Labs) in the summertime. He informed me that they would obtain BIG shipments periodically (every 1-2 weeks) and that the yeast was packaged in Styrofoam ‘boxes’ which had many ice packs in them. This was their method of ensuring that the yeast arrived in good shape. I personally do not order liquid yeast online in the summertime; I don’t trust that the little ice packs they provide will keep the yeast cold enough throughout the entire shipment.

Cheers!

 

Yes, this is how my shop gets it as well, figured letting them do it would be the same as me doing it, and would save me from paying extra for overnight and ice pak.

Guess I will try again, this time it won't have to go through as extreme heat.

 

I've read what feels like 1000 threads on making Berliner Weisse and I think your recipe is exactly what I was going to try based on those threads. I was going to shoot for 110-120F for the 1L starter, though. Maybe add some apple juice as well. I was wondering how long you boiled the starter and main beer, because oxygen is the enemy but people claim long boils reduce the tartness of the beer. Is 5 minutes good enough?

 

I just barely brought the starter to a boil prior to chilling it to 100 F. The main beer went through a full 60 minute boil to hit gravity and volume spec and got something on the order of sweetened lemonade in tartness. Very noticeable. I think I add about 1/4 oz of hallertau at 60 to just barely bitter it. I think a 5 minute boil would be fine if all you want to do is kill the lacto before pitching your yeast.