Berliner time.. Bring me your best.

I found that the sourness was amplified a bit when carbonated, so keep that in mind.
I image letting it sit another day or two would get ya there.

 

Just kegged our Raspberry Berliner and man o man is it killer!

 

My latest batch went down to 3.2 and I think I prefer it. A pH of 3.2 to 3.5 tastes good to me. I also used pilsner malt instead of 2 row with no boil and have some dms like character. Think I'm going back to half wheat half two row with ten minute boil next time.

 

that's a beauty!

 

Thanks man!

 

I've done this just about every way one can make Berliner Weisse, Gose, or Lichtenhainer. My experience had led me away from sour mashes, sour worting, etc. to blending a clean fermented beer with a soured portion of the same wort. That is, ferment 3-4 gallons with a Kolsch yeast or similar and blend that with 1-2gallons of wort that is soured by a commercial lab culture down to say pH 3.0-3.3. The clean beer pH should be around 4.2-4.3 anyway and you will certainly taste the acid in the blend. This way you won't stress the yeast from having to ferment a wort that is so acidic, which is what causes most issues with this style other than stinky sour mashes from pitching raw grain.

 

I just did a berliner with the sour sorting mentioned on this thread. I got the bad smells on my beer. I still kegged it, but it still smells kinda bad. I wish I could ignore it, because it tastes really good, sour and refreshing, but the bad vomit smell is there... So I'm guessing the issue is o2.

I'm still not ready to write off the sour worting method because I could taste the beer in the background being great. Has anyone corrected the smell issue on a successive batch, and if so, do you have any particular advice??

 

Just a heads up . Make sure you sanatize the carboy you are going to sour in and purge it full of co2 before you rack into the carboy . once I rack I also purge on top just to be sure and haven't had a problem since. The first time we did it we didn't purge with co2 and we got that vomit aroma but since we started purging really well with co2 we havnt had a problem

 

Yea I did the sour mash, got the vomit smells. Purged with Seltzer (Used a whole bottle). Then brought the wort to a boil etc. Post boil the smell was gone.

 

I've seen the seltzer water method on here but the one time I used I got the vomit aroma as well. Granted our process was different when I used it and I think that contributed to it more than anything. Honestly I just purge it with co2 before I put it in the carboy to sour, purge it once its racked in and purge the top when ever I take a reading. I dont actually purge the liquid just the open space. We have brewed 7 batches of Berliner this way in 2 months and never once since had a problem. Everybody has a different method but this is working outstanding for us. Cheers

 

I'm going to transfer my Raspberry Berliner to bottles tonight. I dont know the OG or FG as I broke my hydrometer while sanitizing.

Does anyone have a recommendation for how much priming sugar to use for 5 gallons.

 

Hey @FATC1TY I've been reading up a lot on the sour wort method lately, and have been skimming through this thread so sorry if I'm asking a question that's already been asked here. (This is a long-ass thread!) Of all the sour wort/sour mash methods I have read, they suggest keeping the temp anywhere between 100-115F while it is fermenting with the 1 lb of uncrushed grain. But, you let the wort sour at room temperature? This is good news, as I don't have a way of keeping it at 100-115F for 3-4 days without a heat wrap or anything like that. You said you kept the grain at around 71 room temp? Did this take longer than the usual 3-4 days to start souring up?

I'm wanting to brew a Berliner Weiss for the spring/summer, and it sounds like the rest of the process is pretty damn simple – quick boil, small hop additions, quick ferment etc.

So, I'm gonna simply collect the runnings from my mash in the standard 5.5 gal bucket. Throw in a handful of pils malt, cover the top with saran wrap and let it go for 4-5 days at room temp. Does that sound about right? I'm asking you because I hear this method proved to be pretty promising.

Any advice would be awesome. Thanks, man!

 

Awesome, thanks man. I'll keep tasting it, but leaving it in my laundry room for a few days should get it pretty sour? And I guess no need for saran wrap since I'll be putting an airlock on the fermenter bucket.. but will put some CO2 in there if opened. I'm pumped.. this whole sour wort thing is completely new to me!

 

I just used this method yesterday (short boil). On Thursday I had overcooled my wort to ~100 was shooting for 120ish and left it in the kettle with a #.5 of 2row. Even at room temps it was pretty damn sour in 4 days. I boiled for 20 minutes toss an ounce of mosaic at 10, another at 5 and i"m going to dry hop with 2 more. Good luck

 

Cool, good to know, thanks. I'm probably gonna be keeping it in my laundry room (it's in the basement), but will probably only be around 68F at best.. I guess it won't hurt to try it at that temp. I'll let my taste buds be the judge after about 4 days of souring down there.

 

If you want to continually do sours I would recommend buying a digital P.H meter. It will really help you in knowing the PH of your sour wort and how temp affects it. You would be surprised how a much lower temp affects the length it takes to sour and in some cases how far the PH will even drop. Its nice to know the different levels of sourness in the different ph ranges.

 

I did my berliner in a fridge that I turned off. In the bottom of it I put a crock pot with water in it. It fogged up my glasses when I checked on it but kept the fridge at 100. Since then I bought a ceramic space heater off amazon and I will hook that up to my temp controller instead next time.