2016 Advent - December 5: Berlintermites - Berliner Weisse

[pet lion]

Just catching up on this one today. A nice, hazy straw coloured brew that is just tart enough to really enjoy. My bottle was also low on the carb end.

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[Highland Brewer]

Interesting brew. Enjoyed this style too for first time. Bottle undercarbed enjoyed every drop

[jmacdonald]

Tried this today. Bottle was flat with no carbonation at all.

[mumblecrunch]

Undercarbed but I didn't care; I'd have been quite happy to drink it dead flat. I guess I've been lucky with my sour beer experiences because I don't even know what people are talking about when they say "sour mash flavors". This was great, a nice sharp sourness with some grain balance. I'd kill a keg of this in a hurry.

[Keith]

Tasty beer Jimmy. Enjoyed this around the camp fire tonight.

[jtmwhyte]

how long/what psi do you generally use to purge co2? I have a big tank with a dual reg and can purge my electric kettle, I'm just curious about how you do it.

[Lisa J]

I'll be interested to see how mine turns out. I didn't purge the O2 from the wort, but I covered the surface of the beer with plastic wrap so that no O2 could touch the surface. We'll see...

[Jimmy]

how long/what psi do you generally use to purge co2? I have a big tank with a dual reg and can purge my electric kettle, I'm just curious about how you do it.

I have a ball lock/triclover fitting that I hook to the bottom of the conical and purge at about 5-10psi. I don't use full flow though, just enough that it's bubbling through, and I usually leave it for about 1.5 minutes or so.

Doesn't have to be done this way though - a hose on the end of the reg, submerged and bubbled through the wort should work just as well.. Or co2 purging the headspace would be fine too.

[Jimmy]

I'll be interested to see how mine turns out. I didn't purge the O2 from the wort, but I covered the surface of the beer with plastic wrap so that no O2 could touch the surface. We'll see...

Did you do the souring process already? If so, how did it smell after souring?

[LiverDance]

I usually just take my connector off and blow in some c02 under the wrap that covers it. About 60 seconds is what I do


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[Lisa J]

I'll be interested to see how mine turns out. I didn't purge the O2 from the wort, but I covered the surface of the beer with plastic wrap so that no O2 could touch the surface. We'll see...

Did you do the souring process already? If so, how did it smell after souring?

Actually, it seems to be coming right along. Looks like the plastic wrap directly on the surface of the wort did the trick. It's souring nicely, and the PH is about 4-ish at the moment. Should be ready to boil in the a.m.

[Jimmy]

I'll be interested to see how mine turns out. I didn't purge the O2 from the wort, but I covered the surface of the beer with plastic wrap so that no O2 could touch the surface. We'll see...

Did you do the souring process already? If so, how did it smell after souring?

Actually, it seems to be coming right along. Looks like the plastic wrap directly on the surface of the wort did the trick. It's souring nicely, and the PH is about 4-ish at the moment. Should be ready to boil in the a.m.

Good stuff!

[Lisa J]

Actually, it seems to be coming right along. Looks like the plastic wrap directly on the surface of the wort did the trick. It's souring nicely, and the PH is about 4-ish at the moment. Should be ready to boil in the a.m.

Good stuff!

It's good and sour now! Ramping up for the boil...

[Jimmy]

Think I'll brew this soon myself... Been a while since I last brewed it.

This one will probably get some fruit added.

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[Lisa J]

Think I'll brew this soon myself... Been a while since I last brewed it.

This one will probably get some fruit added.

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I would really appreciate some guidance on brewing this with fruit. If you have some wisdom to share, that would be great. I wanted to try the "naked" version first to try to get the acid balance right, but love the idea of a sour cherry, grapefruit, etc.

I've gone from wondering if this would ever sour to thinking it might be a little TOO sour. We shall see...

[spickup]

I think I'm going to hop on the bandwagon and give this one a try.

[Lisa J]

Boil complete and yeast pitched, but I seem to have an efficiency issue. I only hit an OG of 1.020. I think this one will end up as carbonated grapefruit juice. I think I need to adjust my efficiency in my Beersmith equipment profile and try again. Is it possible that the same little bugs that made it super-sour ate all my sugar?

On the upside, I think this will be an awesome "post-run/post-gym" beverage.

[Jimmy]

Boil complete and yeast pitched, but I seem to have an efficiency issue. I only hit an OG of 1.020. I think this one will end up as carbonated grapefruit juice. I think I need to adjust my efficiency in my Beersmith equipment profile and try again. Is it possible that the same little bugs that made it super-sour ate all my sugar?

On the upside, I think this will be an awesome "post-run/post-gym" beverage.

Did you adjust your boil time in beersmith to compensate for the 15 min boil rather than the standard 60 min boil?

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[Lisa J]

Did you adjust your boil time in beersmith to compensate for the 15 min boil rather than the standard 60 min boil?

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I thought about that, but when I adjust the boil time in Beersmith between 60 min and 15 min, it actually doesn't change the projected OG (the IBUs change slightly). When I originally built the recipe in BS, I used my standard Grainfather profile. I adjusted the boil time later (when I clued in to the 15 min boil.) Maybe I should try rebuilding the recipe from scratch in Beersmith and see if it comes out differently. Perhaps it is confused...

[Jimmy]

Did you adjust your boil time in beersmith to compensate for the 15 min boil rather than the standard 60 min boil?

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I thought about that, but when I adjust the boil time in Beersmith between 60 min and 15 min, it actually doesn't change the projected OG (the IBUs change slightly). When I originally built the recipe in BS, I used my standard Grainfather profile. I adjusted the boil time later (when I clued in to the 15 min boil.) Maybe I should try rebuilding the recipe from scratch in Beersmith and see if it comes out differently. Perhaps it is confused...

The OG should drop when the boil changes from 60 min to 15 min.

I'm not sure if that's the only place that you would have lost efficiency. Technically, you should have better efficiency with this beer compared to most, because of the low OG.

What did beersmith tell you your pre boil gravity should be?

[LiverDance]

When switching the boil times keep an eye on the boil off rates


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[Lisa J]

The OG should drop when the boil changes from 60 min to 15 min.

I'm not sure if that's the only place that you would have lost efficiency. Technically, you should have better efficiency with this beer compared to most, because of the low OG.

What did beersmith tell you your pre boil gravity should be?

So, I rebuilt the recipe, changing the boil time from 60 min to 15 min before adding the grain bill (same for both). The old recipe gives an estimated OG of 1.032 (didn't change when I switched from 60 min to 15 min) and the est pre-boil gravity was 1.027. The new recipe (identical grain bill), built with a 15 min boil, gives an OG of 1.029. This makes more sense, but I only squeaked out an OG of 1.020. So I'm losing efficency somewhere else.

I used the "Single infusion, full body, batch sparge" mash profile - not sure whether this is correct for the Grainfather or not.

[Jimmy]

Have you ever checked your pre boil gravity?

There's a chance you're always low on pre boil, and your boil off is higher than expected - meaning you wouldn't necessarily see a drop in your OG.

I'm not sure what else would cause a drop in efficiency with this beer.

Was your post boil volume correct?

[MitchK]

I wouldn't be surprised if you got some fermentation during your souring if you just hucked raw grain in there - probably contained yeast too. How warm did you keep it? A high temperature like 110f would probably help prevent wild yeast from working.

[Lisa J]

I wouldn't be surprised if you got some fermentation during your souring if you just hucked raw grain in there - probably contained yeast too. How warm did you keep it? A high temperature like 110f would probably help prevent wild yeast from working.

I set the temp on my Grainfather at 110F - didn't think I'd get an fermentation. My recipe was definitely whacked out by the boil time.