Beer Forum

Any one know how long you should age a berliner weisse for? Do you age it say 8-12 months like a regular sour or just very brief like any other beer? Made sours before but never a beliner weisse. Any help or direction pointing would be much appreciated. Cheers

11 months 14 days 7 hours 34 minutes 12 seconds. Unless it's a leap year.

There's a few different methods of making them & they're all going to yield different results. Not to mention you're working with a more unpredictable bacteria strain (as compared to many yeast strains). The best thing you can do is taste it at regular intervals for the first couple batches. They may not finish in the same amount of time, but you'll learn the progression of flavors. It really helps down the road when you think you've got it - when it tastes off, you'll be able to more accurately pinpoint the stage your beer is in.

You could do the traditional sour mash, but I've had much better results brewing like normal, pitching bugs only for the first day or two & then hitting it with the yeast.

Ive done a few sours before n come out awesome. In fact i entered one this yr in nhc. I wasnt sure with the white labs berliner strain if it worked faster than the other bug strains. Mainly due to low percentage of alcohol, malt n light color.(its delicate) lol

I find that berliner weisse sours pretty quickly under the right conditions. I've had the best results with a large, healthy lacto pitch into wort that's already a bit acidic. I always add half a pound or so of acidulated malt to the mash after conversion is complete and then let it sit for another 45 minutes. Depending on how you manage your brew and fermentation, you could go from wort to glass in a month or the beer could never get as sour as you'd like.

With a large healthy lacto starter population and warm ferment temps (100-105F) for 48-72 hrs before pitching ale yeast, then aging in a keg

I have observed 6 -9 mos for proper acidity, YMMV

Thank guys. Im gojna give it a try in a month or 2