berliner (the cliff notes version)

I'm not a fan of the character of most sour mashed beers, but they can be OK if you acidify the mash to a pH of 4.5 before adding the grain, and do your best to minimize oxygen exposure during souring. If you don't have a CO2 tank, you can add carbonated water to drop the temperature from the Mash-out down to where the Lacto will thrive, ~115F.

Yep. Some people use acidulated malt, but it doesn't have any "extra" Lacto on it according to Weyermann.

 

I've only sour worted berliners before, but the inoculation process is the same in sour mashing. Like everyone else has said, any uncrushed grain should work fine, since all have natural lacto growing on it already. I used uncrushed pilsner malt for mine - 0.5 lb. I did use acidulated malt in the mash, but that was only so I could adjust the pH of the wort, pre-souring. Let us know how it turns out!

 

What is going to determine me hitting my correct ph? How do I control it if I don't reach my desired level?

 

I assume you mean hitting a lower pH (like 4.5) before souring. You can do this by adding lactic acid. (Not to be confused with Lacto bacteria.) The only way to know for sure how much to add is to measure it with a pH meter. But you can get close using predictive models. BrewCipher's water tab or MpH calculator (both use the same utahbeerdude model) can be used to estimate it.

If using BrewCipher, do the normal mash pH calculations to determine mash additions. Then, turn on the Brew-In-A-Bag parameter on the parameters tab. (This ensures 100% of your water is included in the second pH calculation you're about to do.) Then add lactic on the water tab until you hit the target. The difference between the new Lactic Acid qty and the previous qty (if any, from the original mash pH calc) is the amount to add to your mashout/sparge water. Write it down (maybe on the Notes tab), because you'll probably want to turn BIAB back off (unless you actually are doing BIAB) and undo the additional lactic acid qty on the water tab, so that the recipe reads correctly for the actual mash. It's easier than it sounds. You can do it a lot faster than I just typed it. (Actually I C&P'd most of it.)

 

what's in your water is going to play a major role in your mash pH. how "hard" or "soft" your water is, meaning what minerals and salts are in your water and how much of them are present. you can adjust the pH of your mash by adding different salts to either raise the pH (Chalk/Calcium Carbonate) or lower the pH (Gypsum/Calcium Sulfate)

 

yea, that seems a little overwhelming! My LHBS has acid blend which contains 45% maltic acid, 45% citric acid, and 10% tatartic acid. so i guess im going to have to wait.

 

To date, I have ignored pH levels. I bought some pH strips and will start practicing those principles. What are the repercussions if I decide to brew this beer but have no real way to change the pH? I was trying to make this before school starts up again.

 

If you sour mash or sour wort without lowering the pH, you'll encourage bugs other than Lacto. Unpleasant ones.

 

Head retention and body will also suffer as the Lacto will bread down more proteins at the higher pH to start.

 

I'll brew an extract Berliner soon. I was planning on first pitching Wyeast lacto strain to give souring a head start, followed by their German ale yeast strain after a few days to finish off the fermentation. Should I oxygenate before pitching the ale strain?

Eventually this batch will see some raspberries, but not really pertinent to my question.

 

Some oxygen will be good for the yeast, and the Lacto doesn't mind it.

 

Just finished bottling my first batch of berliner! I did half the batch straight up and the other half with hibiscus. Nice pink color and a nice acidic bite. Now I need lots of patience to help myself not Crack one open.