Berliner Weiss

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MuckyFunster
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Berliner Weiss

Post by MuckyFunster » Wed Sep 11, 2019 1:40 am

Anyone any experience with Berliner Weiss? There doesn’t seem to be a great deal of chat detailing ‘how to...’ anywhere!

I tried to make a one gallon batch tonight like this -

4 days ago I made a small sour mash following directions from a Brooklyn Brew Shop book -
90g pilsner malt in a cup of water
mashed at 55*c for an hour
then covered in cling film and left to sour.

Then tonight -

410g pilsner malt
460g wheat malt
40g acidulated malt
Mashed at 150*f for 60 mins.
Then I mixed the sour mash and sparged

60 minute boil with 2g Sorachi Ace at 60.

Chilled and pitched champagne yeast.

OG was 1040.

Fingers crossed the mini sour mash will work! Can anyone offer any thoughts?


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ingo
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Re: Berliner Weiss

Post by ingo » Wed Sep 11, 2019 11:17 am

That won't work.
The sour mash is to catch the critters that sour your wort, so you add the liquid from it to the cold wort to sour and ferment. The method is very uncertain though as you never know what you catch.

The classic way is to brew with at least one single decoction (you can skip it) and in that decoction you also add your hops to get a few IBU's. Then ferment the resulting wort with a blend of a top ferementing yeast (not a Weizen yeast), Lactobacillus brevis and Brettanomyces. One fermented out, bottle and store for at least half a year.

The quick and safe way is to sour the wort with probiotic lactobacillus pills before the boil, once sour boil the wort and ferment. This prevents the spoilage organisms to get in your equipment. It will not be a proper Berliner Weisse as there is no Brettanomyces involved that over time gives a Weisse its wine like character,

Lots of info on the milk the funk wiki

Ingo

MuckyFunster
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Re: Berliner Weiss

Post by MuckyFunster » Wed Sep 11, 2019 1:29 pm

Thanks for the info and link. It’s interesting stuff! Though I think a lot of it is probably above my skill level at the mo! I’m still fairly new to homebrewing!

I had read elsewhere about people using Greek yogurt to sour the wort, and I watched a couple of videos showing both that method, and making a sour mash with only a short 15 minute boil. In the end though, I decided on a mini sour mash following instructing from the Brooklyn Brew Shop citrus gose recipe, which I’ve previously made and enjoyed - although I wouldn’t have said it was particularly sour. The salt additions were close to being completely overpowering!

This was the video I decided to go along with

http://youtu.be/ohhXiKwYYsg




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MuckyFunster
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Re: Berliner Weiss

Post by MuckyFunster » Wed Sep 11, 2019 2:27 pm

This is an interesting one too...

http://youtu.be/ucHtiqFm1eI


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Jocky
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Re: Berliner Weiss

Post by Jocky » Wed Sep 11, 2019 3:56 pm

You need to have the mash or wort sour before boiling. The boil kills off the lactobacillus that sours the wort otherwise.

A sour mash technique is ok, but a bit hit and miss. Plus you have the stink (as shown in that video) as non-lacto bugs do stuff in the presence of oxygen, and you need to keep it quite warm.

If you're willing to spend a few pounds on either a packet of sour pitch from lallemand (https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product ... our-pitch/) or Omega Labs lacto blend (https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product ... lus-blend/) then it's easy to make a 'hit' every time.
Basically you'd do a normal mash, boil your wort for 10 minutes (without hops), then dump in the sour bugs you've bought into the kettle and keep it at room temperature (20-30c).
In 18-36 hours it'll be soured (try it as you go along), and then you just boil it for 60 minutes, add hops if you want, and ferment as normal.
Ingredients: Water, Barley, Hops, Yeast, Seaweed, Blood, Sweat, The swim bladder of a sturgeon, My enemies tears, Scenes of mild peril, An otter's handbag and Riboflavin.

MuckyFunster
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Re: Berliner Weiss

Post by MuckyFunster » Thu Sep 12, 2019 3:26 pm

Ive had a read through some of the Milk the Funk wiki site, and I joined their Facebook group too. Wow! It’s pretty involved and interesting stuff. Some of the Facebook members have some pretty impressive kit to work with!

I considered buying the Sour Pitch stuff about a year ago, right after I tried my first shop-bought sour beer (Thornbridge Tart). I’m sure it was only £2 or £2.50 back then, but it never seemed to be in stock! I’ll maybe give that stuff a go next time! I’ll probably try souring the entire wort some time too, like you described, Jocky. Thanks for the info!




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ingo
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Re: Berliner Weiss

Post by ingo » Thu Sep 12, 2019 4:14 pm

MuckyFunster wrote:
Thu Sep 12, 2019 3:26 pm
I joined their Facebook group too.
:) Yeah, it's a nice bunch and quite a bit of science every now and then. Lots of pro brewers and yeast labs among the group. The only reason I use FB.

Ingo

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