Berliner Weisse Take IV

This will be my fourth attempt at a Berliner Weisse Beer.  This is low alcohol wheat beer with a lightly sour flavor.  They are traditionally soured with lactobacillus which works fairly quickly.  For this batch, like my last one, I'll be brewing the beer with a blend of brewers yeast and lacto Brevis which produces a nice level of sourness and a bit of complexity otherwise.

It is a very simple beer with pilsner malt, wheat, and no hops (which inhibit lacto).

This will be my first kegged Berliner Wisse (first kegged sour beer in general).  The beer should end up at around 3% which should be perfect for the remainder of the summer.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 3.5 lb Pilsner
• 3.5 lb Wheat Malt
• 4 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• NA
• Yeast:
• Blend of Belgian Trappist Ale Yeast and Lacto Brevis
• Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 1/2 tsp CaCl
• 1/2 tsp Gypsum

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 5.75 gal
• Mash:
• 150 F for 90 min
• Boil:
• 5 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• Ambient Basement Temps (mid 60s)
• Primary Duration:
• 4 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.029 (Target 1.026)
• Efficiency:
• 64% (Target 59%)
• FG:
• 0.998 (Target 1.003)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 100% (Target 88%)
• ABV:
• 4.1% (Target 3.0%)

Brewing Notes:

• 7/11/21 - Brewday - 12 PM to 4 PM - Including Setup and Cleanup
• Took my yeast culture out of the fridge to warm up.  It's been probably 2 years since I used it.  Added a bit of sugar to wake it up.  Will let this sit during the brew day and then I'll decide if it's worth using

• Brought 10 gal of spring water up to 175 F
• Milled my grain.  Added CaCl and Gypsum to it
• Moved 6 gal of spring water to the mash tun and cycled through the RIMS and grant until the temperature was settled to 160 F
• Stopped the RIMS and added in the grain and stirred well to eliminate dough balls.  Let this sit for 10 min
• Cycled the RIMS for 90 min

• Transferred the beer into the boil kettle.  Added water on top of the grain bed as I went to do a modified fly sparge.
• Collected until we had 6 gal or so.  Started heating the kettle after collecting 4 gal and had it at a boil near the end of collection.  Added the wort chiller very soon after bring it to a boil and then brought back to a boil to sterilize.

• Chilled down to 80 F
• Transferred to a brew bucket.  Let the wort fall a couple feet to aerate.  Pitched the entire jar of yeast during the transfer
• Measured the gravity as 1.029.  Collected about 5.75 gal which was a bit over 6 gal when the yeast was added.
• 7/13/21 - No sign of fermentation 2 days later.  My yeast cake must be bad.  I'm adding some lager yeast (WY2124) to hopefully ferment.  I also have some lacto soured beer which I'll use to sour the Berliner up to a good level.
• 7/14/21 - A pellicle has formed on the surface of the beer
• 7/15/21 - The airlock was finally bubbling
• 7/31/21:
• It's been 3 weeks since I brewed the beer. I'm going to transfer to the keg today
• The beer has a bubbly pellicle still

• Sampled the beer.  Measured the gravity as 0.998.  It's not sour at all unfortunately.
• I decided to add in some previously soured beer.  Decided to use 1 gal of soured beer from my Sour Blond Fermenter #4 for this.
• Moved beer to the keg
• 9/30/21 - Tasting Notes - This is a very interesting beer.  It has a nice pleasing sourness to it which makes it easy drinking and refreshing - about on the level I'd expect for a Berliner Weisse and it also has the wheat malt character you get from the style.  The dynamics are quite a bit different though with a fairly assertive Brett character in the beer - it is quite a bit more complex than a just a lacto soured wheat beer will be.  I'd say it's a bit closer to Lambic than Berliner Weisse although the level of sourness is quite a bit toned down compared with my Lambic inspired Sour Blonds.  I think it's very nice although I'd probably stick to the normal lacto soured version for the next one.