Berliner time.. Bring me your best.

The main cause for the gravity drop would likely be the use of that White Labs Lacto strain (Lactobacillus Delbrueckii). That strain WILL produce alcohol. From OldSock's (themadfermentationist) blog, "Luckily White Labs’ 677 strain is capable of producing an enzyme which allows it to ferment maltose, maltotriose, and raffinose, ensuring a dry finished beer without aid. In addition to lactic acid, WLP677 also produces both alcohol and carbon-dioxide, so the result should be similar to a beer fermented with yeast."

As FATC1TY said, that nasty smell is likely due to aerobic fermentation though.

The Wyeast strain (Lactobacillus Buchneri), on the other hand, will eat a lot less of the carbohydrates in the wort. Also from OldSock's blog, " the strain sold by Wyeast (5335) is only capable of fermenting about 10-12% of the carbohydrates in a standard wort". If you are going to boil, after using a pure culture to sour your wort, you will have much better results using the Wyeast Lacto.

 

Yeah I ended up reading that about the white labs strain when I was trying to figure out what went wrong. Thanks for the info though. We used uncrushed grain for the lacto this time and everything seems to be going nice. P.H dropped to 3.5 in 5 days. Fermentation started 19hrs after we pitched WLP001 and its been fermenting for 3 days now.

 

gave this a shot on Thursday and so far, so good.
worst part was waiting for the wort to cool to 120 instead of chilling it to that range.
hit it with co2 and let it ride. 36 hrs in and the wort is becoming nicely sour, no bad signs thus far.

Will boil tomorrow and then ferment on a conan yeast cake.
really hoping it'll be ready to serve for a 4th of July party.

Already thinking about doing another batch, such a great summer brew.

 

Let me know how this goes, I have some Conan I was thinking about using for a berliner. Im sure you know this but you might want to trim down that Conan cake if you want more fruit flavors from the yeast. Ive was disappointed the more and more Conan I put into my beers as my supply built up. It became very neutral as it went toward normal pitching rates.

 

Will do. I pitched it onto 1/2 a conan cake from an apa I did previously.
I was mildly worried about underpitching any due to the low ph of the wort. Thankfully it is fermenting away as of today.

I hadn't noticed/known that about conan (re: underpitching). I know temperature plays a big role in getting the great flavors out of conan. I am fortunate that I am able to start fresh regularly with conan, I actually taste heady from the same batch to decide if I'm ok with the generation before growing up a starter. First world problems!

 

Ha nice, Im real jealous now. I didnt see that you were in Vermont at first. I just bough mitch steeles book IPA, evidently he interviewed John Kimmich in there and he mentioned pitching .5M/ml/°P

 

So I soured my wort with a handful of grain for a week then boiled for 15 mins to kill off any critters. Fermented for 2 weeks with 1056 and bottled on 6/7. Tasted a bottle last week and it seemed more tart than the hydro sample and saw some film in the neck of the bottle. Looking at the other bottles, I notice the same film on a few others.

is it possible that the boil didn't kill everything? I'm not concerned with the bottled batch, just worried that all my equipment is now infected. Any ideas?

 

How did this come out man?

 

Kegged my Berliner to. 3.5 ph and tasted great. Clean, light and tart. I was actually really surprised how good it tasted out of the fermenter. Ill post a pic of it in a week once it carbonates up

 

My first was pretty solid but I want to hop one up

 

Yeah I was thinking of doing that myself but I think I'm going to fruit the hell out of some first. Haha. I love a good fruit Berliner

 

Just kegged it this morning. Finished at ~1.010, tasted awesome, light, tart and lemony. Really excited to serve it in a week, can't imagine how good it'll taste when carbed up. Think I was able to get some of the nicer Conan characteristics in there but would like to ferment a little cooler next time.

Time for a homebrew, cheers!

 

Going to mash in on a Berliner a little later on today. Very excited as this will be my first one. Some great info in this thread.

 

Did you pitch a lacto starter for yours or just grain? How long did you boil for? And what did your grain bill/hop schedule look like?

 

What pH is everyone shooting for when kettle souring? I went to 3.5 last time but wonder if 3.3 is preferable.

 

I hit 3.5 as well and it was really nice and tart

 

I mashed on Sunday and soured the wort with 8oz of MO once it got down to 115. It has been held at 110 degrees since then. I have checked the sourness the past couple days and it doesn't seem to be getting any more sour. Its nice and tart now, but I would like a little more. What should I do? Leave it for a few more days? Add more MO? Boil it and pitch more than 8oz next time I brew it?

Other than the sour level, it is very nice. Perfect lemonade color and a great bready nose, no off aromas what so ever.

 

Just grain. Happy with the sourness but may adjust next time when I add some fruit. Did a 15 min boil. I don't notice any DMS but I don't have an exceptional palate either.

Grain bill was
50% Belgian pils
45% wheat
7% Vienna
3% acid malt

Added 1oz of galaxy at 190 and whirlpooled, figured that probably got me to 3-4ibu's