I am about to brew a Berliner and take the sour mash approach. I'm throwing in 4 lbs DME until 170, cooling to 100 degrees, then throwing in Pilsner uncrushed malt and covering up with plastic wrap. Should I sour mash all 5 gallons for a 5 gallon batch?
Another question I forgot to add is..I bought the WL Berliner blend yeast. Is this going to be ok alone or should I pitch German ale yeast first, then add the Berliner blend a few days later?
"Sour mash" may be a bit of a misnomer since, as far as I can tell, there isn't going to be a mash. But yes, I think you should "sour mash" all 5 gallons. Or... you're going to boil it, right? So 5 gallons + whatever amount you expect to lose from boil-off, crud left in the bottom of the kettle, etc. Speaking of the mash confusion... why are you taking the DME up to 170? Is that to pasteurize it? To make it easier to dissolve? I may be missing something here, but I am having trouble understanding your process. The WL Berliner blend contains a weizen yeast and so I think you are covered when it comes to ale yeast. No need to add additional yeast.
You are correct, there is no mash, but I am throwing in uncrushed grains to my wort to sour (wasn't sure on the correct wording when doing DME). I'm heating up the water for easy dissolving of the DME. I appreciate the input!
I am going to boil after the souring of the wort for 15 min and add a oz of hallertau. I plan on souring right in kettle for 4 days, then bringing right back to boil to pasteurize.
Yeah, I would call that "sour worting," but the terminology is not important. But wait a minute... if you're sour worting it, then why do you need the WL Berliner blend? That is for souring the beer during fermentation. If you are sour worting, you don't need bugs in the fermentation itself. You can add lactobacillus to the sour wort part of your process, but 100°F is too warm for the WL Berliner blend, because there is a significant risk of off-flavors from the yeast at that temperature. Anyway you appear to be counting on the uncrushed malt for your lacto, in which case you don't need to add anything else.
If you aren't mashing grains, you don't need a mashout temperature. 170F Is unneeded. You'll see all grain brewers use temps of 152F, for conversion, maybe a mash out at 170F and the drop the mash temp down to 120F for the lacto growth. One way of doing it: If you want to sour your wort, that's cool. You need a temp of 90-120F and your uncrushed pils malt. Yes, I'd sour the whole batch. It's easier to tell how sour your batch is going to be this way. I will always do a 5 min boil to kill everything off and I'll add some German hops for a little hoppiness. If you want to use a clean lager yeast after this, you'd be in great shape. A second way of doing it: If you want to just mix up 5 gal of wort and pitch your blend, you can do that. Again, I'd give it a quick boil with a light hop addition, but I believe you'd still be meeting style guidelines to go hopless. <---I'm going to start selling t shirts with this slogan on them. I'm not sure what you'd end up with if you did a full batch souring and then added your blend. I wouldn't sour the wort for more than a day or two if I did this, in fear of something too sour by the time it hit FG. I've never used the blend before, so maybe someone else can chime in here. Maybe you can find out how sour this will make your beer and how much wiggle room you have for adding extra sour.
Do the beer like normal, boil it for about 5-10 min. Full boil. You've not prepared your wort, and then cool it to 110- and toss in some grain. Purge it, do whatever your process is to rid the o2, and then let it sour up. Once it's to your liking, do a short 20 min boil with some low AA hops to around 5 IBU's or so. Chill to pitching temp and then pitch a good amount of yeast, somewhere around lager pitching rates. I usually stick with 1 pack of US05 for a low OG batch of berliner. If you really get into it, look to lower your ph before souring the wort to ensure you can ward off anything that can cause concern for some funky mess. It's also sour worting, as you have no mash going on anywhere.
Why not? Helps to mix the extract as well. I mean- I haven't done an extract Berliner but I have had some amazing Berliners come from my taps.
