I'm in the middle of a busy spell where a chance to brew anytime soon looks slim.
To break the drought, I'm toying with the idea of doing a quick Berliner Weisse-esque beer. I could get it done in a couple of hours by mashing and running off straight into the FV. The boil is skipped.
It's fermented with ale yeast and lactobactillus. Does anyone have any experience with a beer like this?
This is my plan at the moment. I'd welcome any input:
23L volume
1.8kg Pilsner malt
1.8kg Wheat Malt
42g Tettnang hops
Wyeast 3638 Bavarian Hefe yeast saved from previous brew
Handful of uncrushed malt grains as a source of lactobactillus
SG:1.050
1) Mash with the hops. Batch sparge straight into the FV.
2) Cool, aerate and add yeast.
3) Allow yeast to ferment out.
4) Transfer to secondary with uncrushed grains. Can I add the grains straight to the beer and leave them there? Or should I use a hop bag to dip them in for a few days and then take them out?
5) Leave for a long time to allow the lactobactillus to work. Will a pelicle form?
6) When the lactobactillus looks to have finished, possibly when the pelicle drops, bottle.
Brewday 26/07/07: Experimental Berliner Weisse with pics
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PGSteamer
Brewday 26/07/07: Experimental Berliner Weisse with pics
Last edited by PGSteamer on Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:16 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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steve_flack
I've tasted Kindl Weisse - it was like drinking battery acid. Awful - and I like sour beers like Cantillon Gueuze.
Would it be easier to use a bacteria culture from Wyeast? Also 1.050 is a bit high to be in style (if that bothers you) try halving the OG and lowering the hops down to 10 IBU-ish.
EDIT: I just noticed no boil....hmmm interesting. It's usually very short anyway.
Would it be easier to use a bacteria culture from Wyeast? Also 1.050 is a bit high to be in style (if that bothers you) try halving the OG and lowering the hops down to 10 IBU-ish.
EDIT: I just noticed no boil....hmmm interesting. It's usually very short anyway.
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PGSteamer
Thanks for your advice and encouragement gents 
I'll ignore the derogatory comments on the very tasty Kindl Weisse 
I've tried to balance your suggestions with what the homebrew shop had in stock, my spontaneous whims and what I could actually do with my equipment and came up with:
15L batch
1.36kg Belgian Wheat Malt
1.59kg German Pilsner Malt
28g Saaz hops (2.8% AA)
Here's some piccies!!!!!!
1) My little brewery ready for action in the kitchen.
2) Measuring out the strike water.
3) Heating the strike water.
4) The grist, freshly crushed yesterday at the homebrew shop.
5) Doughing in.
6) The mash/lauter tun wrapped up in some towels for extra insulation. My temperatures were a little off, so I ended up diluting the mash with various amounts of cold and hot water until settling at 150degF.
7) B*llocks. An hour into the mash and I realise I forgot to add the hops (no boil for this one.) Here I am, adding them late.
After a longer than planned 2 hour mash, here I am catching the first runnings for recirculation.
9) Running off straight into the FV. This run off was amazingly slow. I had the tap all the way open but only a trickle came out. Ended up taking over an hour, batch sparging, to fill up the FV. Perhaps it was the wheat rich mash combined with the filtering effect of the hops that slowed things down? Furthermore, my bleddy fiddling loosened the tap thread on the then full FV, causing it to leak. Had to quickly grab my other bucket, pop on a tap, clean, sanitise and transfer the wort to save the day.
10) My yeast starter, ready for pitching once the wort has cooled. I do have an immersion chiller but I'm too lazy to sanitise it. I usually just plonk it in the boil to sanitise, but with this session being sans boil I just skipped this step. I can always kid myself that I'm following the traditional lambic method of cooling overnight in the open air.
Ended up overshooting the SG. It's 1.063
Overall a mildly annoying brew session. Took twice as long as I was expecting with a few too many niggling hiccups. Though nothing went badly wrong.
I didn't want to take the SG and IBUs too low. This is my first ever attempt at a bacteria beer, and what with the uncrushed grains being an unreliable source of a pure lactobactillus, I want some hop and alcohol buffering power against any runaway infections. Fingers crossed on how this one turns out.
I'll ignore the derogatory comments on the very tasty Kindl Weisse I've tried to balance your suggestions with what the homebrew shop had in stock, my spontaneous whims and what I could actually do with my equipment and came up with:
15L batch
1.36kg Belgian Wheat Malt
1.59kg German Pilsner Malt
28g Saaz hops (2.8% AA)
Here's some piccies!!!!!!
1) My little brewery ready for action in the kitchen.
2) Measuring out the strike water.
3) Heating the strike water.
4) The grist, freshly crushed yesterday at the homebrew shop.
5) Doughing in.
6) The mash/lauter tun wrapped up in some towels for extra insulation. My temperatures were a little off, so I ended up diluting the mash with various amounts of cold and hot water until settling at 150degF.
7) B*llocks. An hour into the mash and I realise I forgot to add the hops (no boil for this one.) Here I am, adding them late.
After a longer than planned 2 hour mash, here I am catching the first runnings for recirculation.9) Running off straight into the FV. This run off was amazingly slow. I had the tap all the way open but only a trickle came out. Ended up taking over an hour, batch sparging, to fill up the FV. Perhaps it was the wheat rich mash combined with the filtering effect of the hops that slowed things down? Furthermore, my bleddy fiddling loosened the tap thread on the then full FV, causing it to leak. Had to quickly grab my other bucket, pop on a tap, clean, sanitise and transfer the wort to save the day.
10) My yeast starter, ready for pitching once the wort has cooled. I do have an immersion chiller but I'm too lazy to sanitise it. I usually just plonk it in the boil to sanitise, but with this session being sans boil I just skipped this step. I can always kid myself that I'm following the traditional lambic method of cooling overnight in the open air.
Ended up overshooting the SG. It's 1.063
Overall a mildly annoying brew session. Took twice as long as I was expecting with a few too many niggling hiccups. Though nothing went badly wrong.
I didn't want to take the SG and IBUs too low. This is my first ever attempt at a bacteria beer, and what with the uncrushed grains being an unreliable source of a pure lactobactillus, I want some hop and alcohol buffering power against any runaway infections. Fingers crossed on how this one turns out.
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steve_flack
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PGSteamer
I'll have you know I enjoy the 'battery acid' qualities of the straight drink 
On a hot day, a small bottle of the stuff is straight from the top shelf. It's more of a medicinal than sessionable drink.
The secondary will be in a glass carboy, hopefully preventing access to enough oxygen to turn it to vinegar. But the primary FV will have to be sacrificed - I've a feeling even bleach won't be enough to clean out the nasties.
On a hot day, a small bottle of the stuff is straight from the top shelf. It's more of a medicinal than sessionable drink.The secondary will be in a glass carboy, hopefully preventing access to enough oxygen to turn it to vinegar. But the primary FV will have to be sacrificed - I've a feeling even bleach won't be enough to clean out the nasties.
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Vossy1
