Souring a Berliner Weisse

[peaceandbacon]

I want to brew a berliner weisse and sour it using a handful of grain during fermentation. Can anyone tell my whether or not the yeast will collect on the grains and drop them out of solution? I would really like to avoid having to filter them out...

[brewinhard]

You might have better luck making a smaller starter with the grains first (think 2 quarts or so), then use that to innoculate your main batch with providing the starter goes in the right direction. Otherwise you might just be ruining a larger batch of beer that takes more time and money to make.

[peaceandbacon]

A starter may be a good idea. I know the lacto that im hoping to get from the grains takes a long time to work so i was planning on keeping the beer in the carboy for at least 2-3 months. How long do you think it would take to make a proper starter? Also, im only making a 4 gallon batch this time b/c there is a good chance it may be a bust.

[Quin]

Listen to the Will Meyers - Cambridge Brewing Sunday Session. He goes over his procedure which used malt for the lacto inoculation. He used 50 lbs of unmilled malt in about 310 gallons. I used his procedure to turn out a berliner weiss which was really sour and ready in about three weeks.

Yes, the grains will settle out.

[peaceandbacon]

Quin, I will listen to that Session for sure. I guess I haven't reached it yet in the archives. Thanks.

[peaceandbacon]

I listened to the Will Meyers Sunday Session and his process sounded pretty solid but I am hoping to use the grain in the fermenter post boil rather than in the mash tun. My mash tun is a converted cooler and I want to avoid contaminating future beers. My plan was to dump in a few ounces of grain with or a few days before the yeast. Definitely gives me something to think about though. I may have to tranfer the wort from the mash tun to a seperate bucket to sour in and then tranfer to my boil kettle.

[Quin]

Bacteria in a fermenter would be more of a concern for me for future beers than bacteria in a mash tun. It would be less of a concern with glass or stainless fermenters, but would contaminate all plastic or soft parts that come in contact with the beer post fermentation.

The grain, grain dust, and mashtun are covered in lactobacillus during a normal brew session. It is killed off during the boil.

That was the novel part of his process. By using the mash tun for souring and then transferring back to the kettle for a short boil, the bacteria are contained on the hot side of the brew equipment. Everything on the cold side is "bacteria free" as usual.