Brewed up another batch of Berliner Weisse on Sunday, November 12, 2017. I used pretty much the same recipe and water profile as my first attempt, batch #81, except this time I used some acidulated malt to lower the mash pH.
I mashed in at 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain. I used 188°F for my strike water temperature, calculated with Beersmith using 0.6 as the tun specific heat. I usually use 0.3 but that tends to come in low. This time it came in 3.5 degrees to high at 158.5. A tun specific heat of 0.5 would have be better. I had to stirred the mash for several minutes to get the temperature down to 155°F. After 10 minutes into the mash I pulled a sample to check the pH. pH=4.88. That is lower than typical but I decided to let it ride and see how it turns out. A pH in that range for sour mashing would be okay, I think, to help preserve the proteins needed for good foam.
After mashing, I sparked to 6.8 gallons of wort with a 9.2 Brix or SG=1.037. I boiled the wort for 15-20 minutes, put the lid on and a couple of bricks for added weight and let stand until the temp came down to around 105°F at 8:55 pm. I dosed with two Goodbelly Straight Shots, stirred well and took the kettle into the shop. At 9:34 pm, T=102°F.
11/14/17 – 9:00 am: T=66°F, pH=3.36, Vol = 6.2 gallons. The wort smelled like cooked vegetable/cabbage mainly and sour. Boiled the wort for 90 minutes after which I added two gallons of distilled water while chilling to bring the wort level to 5.5 gallons. The chill rig got the wort down to 68°F in six minutes from flameout. I covered and let the kettle settle out for a few hours. At around 1:30 pm, I drained the wort into a fermenting bucket. The yield is approximately 5.25 gallons of wort into the fermenter. pH=3.39, Brix=10.2~SG=1.041.
My video of the wort draining into the fermenter.
At around 2:45 pm, I added two minutes of oxygen at 1/8 setting and then stirred in 300mL of Safale US-05 yeast slurry from the prior batch of Berliner Weisse. This was 1/2 of the yeast harvested from Batch #81. Stirred well, placed an airlock on top and put in the fermenting refrigerator.
I recorded no data to indicate that I ramped up temp as with Batch 81:
