What the Berliner Weisse is going on???

[brewinhard]

Cuvee Renee is a pretty tasty gueuze. It is brightly sour which, as Chris says, will go nicely in a berliner. I have seen dregs in these bottles although they were minimal. Try to find a fresh bottle if possible.

[JimL]

Update on my brew:

I added a Wyeast pack of lacto and I have a healthy ferment going on now. I must've had a bad vial or I abused it somehow.

[brewinhard]

Made a 1 qt starter with my lacto (no aeration) last Friday. Not a lot of activity going on, but the wort seems to be fermenting. I wanted to step this one up before I brewed on Sat. but man is this a dusty critter. The lacto in my starter looks brownish white (not as white as yeast collecting in the bottom of a crashed starter) and I just hope they are doing well. I pitched the lacto into starter wort that was about 105-110 degrees and figured with the cooler smackpack liquid it would probably bring it down to around 100 or below (hopefully). Since then, it has been at 80's or so for the majority of the days. I guess I am beginning to see how much lacto REALLY needs to be produced to make a true "Champagne of the North." Onward with the BREW!


-brewinhard

[Joos]

Not gonna name names, but have you guys that are saying "lacto takes a while to sour" ever brewed one? sour mash for 48 hours or just rack the wort onto raw grain. 2 days and you have a ridiculously sour beer! then pitch the yeast (or boil even though its not the traditional way )

[brewinhard]

Have done partial batches that were sour mashed and then blended back in with main mash with good, clean results. But I have yet to sour a whole mash and have heard that it can sometimes be unpredictable producing garbagey off flavors if it goes awry. My lacto starter is 7 days old and rocking now. Wanted to step it up, but was wondering how I would know when this bacteria is done fermenting the wort and how low it will drop the starter gravity. Maybe wait a couple more days, chill, decant and add more starter wort? Any thoughts?

[JerseyBrew]

I followed the approach in Brewing Classic Styles and pitched both yeast and lacto at the same time. 4 weeks later I have a mildly sour beer. I was planning on waiting another 2 months to see what develops. I think it should be moved to a secondary to prevent autolysis. Is it worth pitching something extra or will the lacto continue to sour?

[brewinhard]

I too had the same results and aged my b-weisse in a keg for an additonal 3 mos. without any noticeable increase in sourness. Even after more aging in the bottle I didn't have any more sourness up to six months. I would recommend either pitching another pack of lacto before packaging or even some dregs from some interesting sour beers (lambics, gueuze, etc). Then give these some aging time and see what happens. I am going to step up my lacto starter for another week and build up the populations big time before pitching into my wort. I also plan on letting the lacto rip for 48 hrs or so before pitching ale yeast hoping that the ale yeast can still overcome the drop in pH as the lacto works on the sugars.

[brewinhard]

Update-

Decanted my 1 qt lacto starter that I let go for 10 days. Had a nice whitish layer of lacto on the flask bottom. The fermented wort tasted sharply acidic, sour, and tart (exactly what a good B-weisse should be). Added 1.75 qt of wort to the lacto in the flask in hopes of building up the population even more before decanting and pitching into my batch wort. I am hoping that pitching a ton of lacto will make this style finally work for me!