I’m starting to move away from the high-ABV beers for the summer, which seems to be starting early in Cincinnati. One thing I’ve liked in the summer has been a nice Berliner Weiss.  Since my first sour is souring, I want something quick.

Enter Home Brew All-Stars.  On page 156, there is a quick and simple recipe of a Berliner Weisse.  Since I want you to buy the book through that affiliate link, I’m not including it here 😛

The Plan

Mash, Pasteurize, Sour, Ferment, Funkify, Complete.

I’m going to do a normal mash and sparge at around 150ºF for 60 minutes to ultimately result in around 5.0 gal of wort.

I’m only going to bring this up to 210ºF to pasteurize. It’s not really required, but if there is anything on the malt, it won’t be there after that.  Post-boil, I am going to acidify down to pH 4.0 – 4.3 per recommendations on Milk The Funk Wiki, reduce the temp to 100, and drop into my new stainless fermenter.

Souring will be a through Lactobacillus Delbrueckii.  I’m going to keep this warm with a water bath with a piece of shit acquarium heater (it’s apparently a known fish boiler, so it should be perfect for lacto).

Fermentation will be S-04.  I’m not messing with liquid yeast for this, and my LHBS didn’t have S-05 that I could find.  And I’m hoping the English-style yeast might have some yeast character.  I’m going to give it 3-4 days to ferment.  Not sure if it will ferment out, but I don’t think that’s important.

Funkification will be with some Brettanomyces Lambicus.  I was hoping to find some Brettanomyces Claussenii, but neither my LHBS nor another LHBS had any. I’m going to let the brett ride until May.

Complete will be bottle conditioning utilizing that brett to hopefully add some funk.

Brew Day

Brew day was an accidental occurrence.  My wife wanted me to check the hot water heater, so I figured now’s as good a time as any to heat up water for mash.  I did miss my mash temp by a bit (I was about 148.7º, I was shooting for 154º).

Preparing to mash in.

A little cooler than what I wanted, I wanted 154.

Heated to 210 for 10 minutes while recirculating through my plate chiller.

Filling the fermenter.

Initial method to keep stuff warm. Didn’t work.

Final method of heating – a heating pad and some insulation, kept the wort in the upper 80s.

Bring on the funk!

Log

2017-03-05: Brew day

2017-03-07: Found that the hot water method of keeping the keg warm was not good enough, so I surrounded the keg with a heating pad and some insulation.

2018-03-08: Checked temperature in the morning, 83°. Checked again in the evening and found the same temperature but was going to taste until I opened the keg and found krausen, so I didn’t mess with it.

2018-03-08: Found this page.  Cussed lots. Skipped the S-04 addition since something is in there.  Taste is clean, though.

2018-03-09: Received a Milwaukee MW102 temperature and pH meter.

2018-03-10: Calibrated and checked pH. 3.85.  Not sour enough.  SG 1.002.  Kinda plain.

2018-03-11: Decided to pitch brett.  Let it ride a week or so prior to bottle conditioning because at this point there isn’t much left for the brett to eat.

Coming up

Adding Lactic Acid in 5 ml increments to make this a little more sour. Yes, I realize that makes it a little one-dimensional, and I’m “cheating”, but the end result is more important than the feeling of sacrosanctness among people that are unlikely to ever taste this beer.

Bottling!

Next Time

Obviously, I am going to try a better Lacto culture, specifically Lacto Plantarum, Omega Lacto Blend, or The Yeast Bay Lacto Blend, or Good Belly (h/t to PricelessBrew on Reddit for that). The funny thing is, I was going to use Good Belly Mango, but since my wife didn’t find it at the store and I was stopping by my LHBS and another LHBS, I decided to use WLP677 because that’s all I could find.

Also, I’m going to hit my mash temp.

Tasting Notes

<<This part is in progress – a picture will be here>>

Appearance: turbid, but not the right turbid.

Aroma: <<placeholder>>

Taste: <<placeholder>>

Mouthfeel: <<placeholder>>

Overall: I understand why people hate on adding acid. I think it works if you use a good acid BLEND as opposed to the LD Carlson Lactic Acid (MadTree Brewing does this in their Shade Blackberry Blackberry Gose). I can taste the fakeness, and it does not taste good at all. This batch was dumped, particularly because I brewed a gose that came out much better.

Cheers!