Berliner Weiss Recipe Critique (Sour Mash)

Ok, another Berliner Weiss thread, I know.. but I could really use your guys'/gals' help on a recipe I've concocted from various methods and sources that I've been doing some research on. I really want a refreshing Berliner Weiss for the spring/summer, so I want a fairly quick turn-around on this, and don't want to wait a year for this thing to sour up. I've found that the sour mash method works best for a quick, sour beer with a good lactic, lemony bite.

So, here's my game plan for this one. Is there anything you guys see that looks off? Anything I'm missing? I've done 30+ all-grain batches, but this is my first sour attempt. Just wanna try and nail this recipe for the summertime so that I have enough time to try another batch if this one ends up sucking.

Berliner Weiss

5.25 gal batch

Ingredients:
4.0 lbs. German Pilsner malt
4.0 lbs. White Wheat malt
4 oz Acidulated Malt (for mash pH correction)
Separate 8 oz Acidulated Malt (added during 156° F rest to acidify sour mash - post sugar conversion)
Separate 6 oz uncrushed pilsner malt for wort inoculation
0.25 lb Rice Hulls (added during lauter, after souring of wort)

Mash:
Boil strike water to remove all oxygen.
Cool down to strike temp.
Rest at 148 °F for 60 min
Rest at 156 °F for 10 min
Mashout at 168 °F for 10 min

Sour Mash:
After mash regimen, cool mash to 120 °F. Do not stir or aerate.
Add 6 oz uncrushed pilsner malt to inoculate.
Place saran wrap directly over mash, and seal cooler with lid.
Wrap mash cooler in blankets and keep in small refrigerator to hold temp as much as possible.
After 3-4 days, stir in rice hulls and begin lautering into boil kettle. Collect 5.5 gal wort. Sparge if necessary.

Boil:
.75 oz Willamette hops @ 15 min
1 tsp Irish Moss @ 15 min
1 tsp yeast nutrient @ 15 min

Chill, and pitch a starter of Wyeast 1007 German Ale. Aerate well by splashing back and forth between 2 buckets a few times.

Leave in primary fermenter for 2 weeks at ~65 °F

Cold crash for a few days at 32 °F, then bottle

Thanks in advance!

 

Cool, thanks. Is there a certain way to doing this? I don't keg (yet), so I'll need to get a tank, with a way of dispensing it. Laying a blanket of CO2 on top of the mash, and then sealing the lid right away should keep the lacto from having too much contact with O2 then, correct?

 

I've also heard that topping the mash off with some seltzer water can purge the mash of O2. Then if I were to quickly cover with saran wrap (right at the surface), and seal the edges against the inside of the cooler with some heavy-duty clear tape, I'm wondering if that would work.. I may try it this way first, and if tastes like bile/puke then I'll know I did something wrong and get a CO2 tank

 

True. I'm over-thinking it at this point, ha. I'm torn between both methods. Sour mash, or sour wort...

 

I also hear with the sour mash method, the mash can get real sticky after a few days of souring.. so a lot of rice hulls will need to be used to avoid getting a stuck sparge.

@FATC1TY did you just run your wort off the mash directly into the better bottle, before you tossed the grain in for souring? Isn't there a lot of O2 exposure to it at that time?

 

Well, whichever method I end up doing, I'll be sure to report back! Thanks for all the info/advice on this. I may start this thing in a few days. Whenever I get an evening free..

 

Cool. Mashing tomorrow (Sunday) now. I've got the CO2 setup so am planning on flushing the wort with CO2, putting an airlock on it, and letting it sit in my mini fridge for 5 days. Am hoping to find an aquarium heater for cheap so I can try to keep the temp at least in the 80-90 range for that length of time. I'm hoping it's plenty sour by next Saturday.