Berliner Weisse Fail

At what temp have you been cellaring it? Lacto likes it warm...about 110*F. All your options seem reasonable...except the drainpour.

 

Brett isn't being incautious -- it usually just works. Adding pedio, on the other hand, that would be gutsy.

 

Brett's basically just a yeast, though, especially if you're using Brux or Brett C. Lambicus is a bit more unpredictable.

 

It IS a yeast.

 

Don't drain pour it. You can do a lot with it since it doesn't taste bad. Blend it, flavor it, age it more, add more bugs. But try keeping it warm for an extended period of time, like GreenKrusty101 said.

 

I brewed 10 gallons of berliner in February. I pitched the berliner blend of yeast from White labs and it didn't really tart up much at all in the 5 months it's been aging.

I added 7 lbs of peaches (pitted, frozen and then defrosted) to it a few weeks ago. Pulled a sample on Sunday and it was tasting pretty nice. Still not tart enough for my liking, but the peaches added that extra flavor to carry it from boring to very quaffable. Try it!

 

For once I can say add brett and not be a smart ass when I say it. Seriously, pitch brett lambicus, throw some fruit in it and wait.

 

I had the same problem with my first Berliner (damn you white labs blend) and pitched Lambicus. It now tastes like a slightly tart, funky wheat lager. Surprisingly, its refreshing as hell, just wish it would've been more sour.

 

I did a a sour with the Berliner weisse from white labs in conjunction with their B. lambicus. I used 6 lbs of munich 10 and 6 lbs of pils and a lb of cara, did a single decoction mash, used some old world hops to bitter to about 15 IBU's one addition at 60min. (90 min boil), and fermented warm (around 85-90*) for 2 weeks or so with just the Berliner weisse blend and racked off onto the Brett, apricot puree, and a modest amount of oak. I let this go for about 6 months then bottled. In hindsight, it would have been better to just let the beer go, but I didn't... I got all rushy and bottled. Anyway, along the way the beer smelled like dirty socks (so I named it "dirty socks and apricots"), but then cleaned out to this funky, tart wonderful beer that has actually really improved with the time in the bottle, though there is some bottle variation- the beer is really fucking good. I still have a few bombers and that was two years ago.

With what to do with your beer: steam a bunch of mussels and clams for everybody. Berliner weisse steamed shellfish=awesome.

 

If your problem is largely a lack of tartness, you can just add (to taste) some lactic acid at bottling. I've done this for 2 Berliner Weisse beers in the past. FWIW, these were my mother's favorite homebrewed beers. I really need to make some more...

 

Did you not consider doing a sour mash? A traditional Berliner gets it's tartness before primary fermentation. If you do a successful sour mash, you should be able to drink it within a few weeks. There won't be many complex chains and fermentables left over in a beer that low in ABV, for bugs to really make it tarter, post primary.

 

No it doesn't. In the Berlin method of pitching a mixed culture of lactobacillus and yeast it acquired sourness during primary fermentation.

 

Ah so this is a traditional method I will be doing on Tuesday, assuming my order comes today. Thanks to JackHorzempa for this one. Hope it sours more than some of the results posted above, I love this style really sour

Berliner Weissbier
OG 1.030 FG 1.04 IBU 0 SRM 2-3 ABV 3.3%

Ingredients:

· 2.5 lbs. German Pilsner Malt

· 2.5 lbs. German Light Wheat Malt

· Wyeast 5335 Lactobacillus

· Wyeast 1007 German Ale

· No hops used

Brewing:

Water: target (in ppm) 80 Ca++, 11 Mg+, 95 SO4--, 100 CL-, for both mash tun and kettle.

Lactobacillus Starter: 4-7 days prior to brewing, add 5335 Lactobacillus pack contents to a sterilized 1 liter 1.020 DME starter. Incubate at 90°F.

Brew day: Mill, then mash the grains at 151°F for 75 minutes in 3 gallons of water. Recirc for 15 minutes before running off to kettle. Sparge with ca. 3 gallons of 172°F water. Boil for 15 minutes. Cool wort to 90°F and DO NOT aerate.

Fermentation: Pitch Wyeast 5335 (1 liter starter) and maintain a temp. between 80-90°F for 6-8 days, let pH drop to 3.3 (gravity will hardly drop). Then pitch Wyeast 1007 Activator (again no aeration) and let ferment at 68°F until terminal gravity is reached. Keg or bottle.

 

Sour mashing has been traditional technique since the early 1900's. I cannot think of a Berliner still brewed in Berlin that is not sour mashed. Bahnhof's Berliners are all full or partial sour mash, and they opted for the technique to eliminate the inconsistencies.

http://eurekabrewing.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/44-traditional-berliner-weisse/

 

Well, according to the article you linked the original, synonym traditional, way to brew it was this. Sour mash is more modern technique, which seems backwards to me, but that is what the article states.

"The old way to sour a Berliner Weisse was to get the sourness from lactic acid producing bacteria during the fermentation."

I am sure Ron will explain what he means, as he seems, from his writings, to really enjoy this style, and be quite versed in its history.

 

That's not what Schönfelld described in "Die Obergärige Biere und ihre Herstellung", published in 1938. What he describes is the classic mixed lactobacillus/Saccharomyces primary fermentation.

Nor what's in "Leitfaden für den Brauer und Mälzer" by Rudolf Dickscheit, published in Leipzig in 1953:

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.nl/2008/05/berliner-weissbier-ddr-style.html

Schönfeld worked at the VLB and wrote extensively on Berliner Weisse. I trust him more as an authoruity than anyone else. He wrote extremely detailed descriptions of brewing Berliner Weisse.

Bayerischer Bahnhof doesn't even brew their Gose the traditional way, let alone their Berliner Weisse.

There are currently no Berliner Weisses brewed the traditional Berlin way, unfortunately. I can think of only one straight Berliner Weisse brewed in Berlin: Kindl. Which was always a crap example of the style.