On Sunday, December 3, 2017, I brewed up another Berliner-style Weisse. I changed the recipe some just to see what a difference it would make. I used more wheat malt than Pilsner malt. Usually I used the same amount of each.
I mashed for 90 minutes and once I had the wort in the kettle, I boiled it for 20 minutes, put the lid on and turned the heat off. It sat for several hours before the temperature got down to 110°F before pitching the two GoodBelly Straight Shots at 5:25 pm. I mixed up the wort good and replaced the cover and weighted it with bricks. I let that sit overnight. The next morning, the kettle temperature was 72°F at 10:25 am. After seeing that my two prior Weisse brew were mildly sour, I decided to heat the wort back up slowly in hopes that the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) would produce more souring.
12/4/17
11:00 am: Applied heat at 10% PWR.
11:33 am: T=82°F.
11:46 am: T=92°F, PWR to 5%.
11:55 am: T=94°F, PWR to 2%.
12:35 pm: T=96°F, Hour=19, PWR turned off.
2:10 pm: T=90°F, PWR to 2%.
3:50 pm: T=98°F, Hour=22.5, PWR turned off.
4:20 pm: T=96°F, Hour=23, PWR to 1%.
7:55 pm: T=94°F, Hour=26.5, PWR to 2%.
10:00 pm: PWR turned off.
12/5/17
7:30 am: T=66°F.
8:15 am: Hour=39, pH=3.27, 5.4 gallons wort in kettle.
I brought the wort to a boil at 9:03 am, after 36.6 hours of souring, for a 90-minute boil. I added two gallons of distilled water for boil off. The total time of boiling is 110 minutes, 20 minutes on Sunday and 90 minutes Tuesday.
After the boil, I chilled with my chill rig down to 68°F. No ice used this time. This took 12 minutes running the rig in parallel, a water hose attached to each chiller. I will run it next time in series with one hose next time to set how that goes.
After chilling down to 68°F, I emptied the chiller hoses into the kettle and back flushed with the bucket of hot water I collected while chilling until clear water emerged. I saved approximately a quart of wort this way. I had not been doing this in the past.
RECIPE
Batch Size: 5.25 gal
SRM: 2.8
IBU: 7.6
OG: 1.032
FG: 1.009 (PREDICTED)
ABV: 3.0%
Final pH: 3.31 (PREDICTED)
Brewhouse Efficiency: 62% (PREDICTED)
Boil Time: 110 Mins
Fermentables:
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5 lbs German wheat malt, 2.0 SRM
2 lbs Dingemanns Pilsner malt, 2.0 SRM
4 oz Acid malt, 3.0 SRM
Mash
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Mash-in at 157.1°F with 188°F water.
pH=4.91 after 15 mins.
Hops
——-
0.5 oz Hersbrucker (Pellets, 4.00% AA) @ 60 min, 7.6 IBUs.
Other
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1 KICK Carrageenan Tablet (Whirlfloc equiv.) at 15 mins.
1/8 tsp Diammonium Phosphate yeast nutrient at 15 mins.
Water
——–
2.5 gallons mash water
2.4 g Calcium Chloride in Mash
1.8 g Gypsum in Mash
6 gallons sparge water
6.0 g Calcium Chloride
4.2 g Gypsum
0.38 mL 88% Lactic Acid
Calcium 126
Chloride 138
Sulfate 118
Sodium 8
Magnesium 2
Carbonate 13
Yeast
——-
2 GoodBelly Straight Shots, oat flavor.
Safale US-05 from 82-81-US05.
Notes
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12/3/17: Mashed and began souring.
All water filtered and treated with Campden tablets. 2.5 gallons mash water, 6 gallons sparge water.
Mash salts in mash tun. Sparge salts in HLT.
Sparged with 6 gallons of water at 178°F.
Collected 6 gallons of runnings.
Initial boil for 20 minutes to sterilize. Covered. Let cool to 110°F. Pitched GoodBelly Straight Shots and let sit overnight.
12/4/17 Heated and held around 90-98°F for several hours. Cut heat and let cool overnight.
12/5/17 Boiled for 90 minutes. Chilled to 68°F. Let sit for two hours to settle out.
3:45 pm: Collected approx. 5.1 gallons of wort in the fermenting bucket. Added approx. 100 mL thick yeast slurry from 82-81-US05. Mixed well and put in the fermenting fridge at 65°F.
12/6/17 6:00 pm Day 1: Placed the fermenter in my insulated fermenting “closet” set at 65°F.
12/8/17: Found this reference to brewing a historical Berliner Weisse on Milk The Funk Facebook page.
12/11/17 10:40 am Day 6: Set fermenter cabinet temperature to 68°F.
12/13/17 10:00 am Day 8: A view through the air lock hole.
My odd fermentation schedule. This batch, upon kegging on 12/29/17, had a flawful taste that I think is acetaldehyde. Probably gonna pour this one out. Third generation US-05 yeast, odd fermentation schedule? Looks pretty, but the smell is a major turn off.
