Berliner time.. Bring me your best.

That's a pretty good idea. Did you just keep the crock pot at a low heat for those few days? I've got a kegerator fridge that I can try to rig, at least for the 4-5 days of souring up. Thanks!

 

I've done a sour wort method berliner twice, both times keeping the better bottle in my basement that hovers between 68 - 70 degrees and had no problems. The first time I let it go an entire week and it came out a bit more sour than I wanted. The second time I left it for 5 days and it was just a little less than I wanted, perfect with a little lactic acid added at bottling. I would start checking it at 4 or 5 days, see what you think, then maybe let it ride another day or two depending on what you want the finished beer to taste like. Also, an important thing to remember when tasting is that your full fermentation has not happened yet, so you will still taste the sweetness of the sugars that haven't fermented out yet, and that can tend to mask the full sourness that the lacto has produced. Keep that in mind when deciding if it sour enough for your taste.

 

Yea, I've heard of people wrapping the mash with a ton of blankets to insulate, and adding boiling water to the mash daily to keep the temp fairly high. I may try that, but good to know that it doesn't have to stay super warm to sour up.

 

yep, I kept it on low and filled with water to be safe and make sure it wouldnt burn up.

 

Question on lactic acid addition @FATC1TY : I'm planning a berliner brewday soon. If I'm planning to sour wort in a BB should I add the lactic acid into my sparge water addition or add it into the BB directly? How do you calculate how much to add?

PH Measuring: Any recommended strips or am I wasting my time trying to be cheap :]

 

Ok but how are you figuring out how much acid to draw up and pour in?

 

In the 1970's, the Berliner Weisses brewed in Berlin had a pH of around 3.5.

 

That's post fermentation. I'm pretty sure the discussion was about what pH to bring the wort down to before pitching the lacto.

 

I sour wort until it reaches a ph of 3.8-3.5 then do a quick boil and pitch a healthy amount of a clean fermenting strain of yeast. I've found this produces a very nice Berliner. Clean, tart with a very minimal but nice hint of Brett. The one problem your faced with by doing it this way is a PH in the mid to lower 3's is a tough environment for saccharomyces to thrive in wich can result in incomplete fermentation. I make sure to add some yeast nutrient and pitch around twice the amount of yeast as I would in a normal batch. Another option is to pitch a Brett Strain with your clean fermenting strain (this will take longer to reach terminal gravity because it takes Brett a longer time to ferment out). You could also do 100% Brett fermentation as well.

 

OK. What value are you aiming for in the beer post-fermentation?

 

What do you use to test pH? Looking at Milwaukee MW102 pH meter.

 

No issues with that temperature range?

 

So my wort has been sitting for a week with saran wrap on top and I have purged with CO2 the two times I've taken a sample; however, the last time I took a sample, I see a pellicle has formed. Has this happened to anyone's sour wort? It's my first go around with having an operable CO2 tank, manifold and purge line, so I'm guessing I have not been purging "enough". Just curious if any of the Berliner brewers who do sour wort have had a pellicle form.