Brewday: JFK Berliner Weisse

After mash out, I covered the surface with
gladwrap to keep oxygen out

My first all grain brew was a berliner weisse. It was light, wheaty and sour and I didn't like it much at first. It took me several bottles before I got the taste for it but then I came to crave it. I've never had a commercial berliner so I have nothing to compare it to but I've enjoyed the ones I've made and it's come to be a yearly brew for me. In fact, it's the only brew that I've consistently brewed at a seasonally appropriate time over the last few years.

My process has evolved each time I've brewed it but each time I've gone with souring the wort. It makes for a good sourness and a beer that's ready to drink within 3 weeks. It's probably not the most complex sourness but I'm ok with that, the wheat and pils malt along with the sourness make it plenty interesting enough as well as light and refreshing.

I've soured the wort in an esky for 2 days, gone with a 15 minute boil before chilling and fermenting, I've used temperature control so I soured the wort at 38C in my urn and then pasteurised it at 70C for 30 minutes before chilling and fermenting, no boil. This time I'm sticking with the temp controlled souring and pasteurisation but no boil. This time though I'll add brettanomyces to some bottles for a bit of added complexity as it ages. I'm also toying with the idea of dry hopping 1/2 of it with Aramis and possibly something like ginger and lemongrass.

The great thing about this beer is that the brewing is spread over a few days so I could do the whole thing on my own. It's nice to have the freedom to brew by myself midweek.

It sat at around 40C for 46 hours. I used the
temp controller to maintain the heat.

JFK Berliner Weisse (20L batch)
OG: 1.032
FG: 1.006
IBU: N/A
EBC: 4.1
ABV: 3.4%

Recipe
60% Best Malz Wheat
40% Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner

20g Aramis @ pasteurisation

US-05 yeast


Process
Mash:
Stepped mash: 68C (40 minutes), 72C (15 minutes) and a 78C mash out.

I added 2g CaSO4, 5g CaCl2 and 2g MgSO4 to the mash along with 3.5ml of lactic acid for pH correction.

Transferred to a better bottle after
pasteurising and chilling.

Souring:
After the mash out I hooked up my STC-1000 and left it to cool to 40C, around 7 hours. Once it was down to 42C I chucked in a handful of grain and laid gladwrap on the surface of the wort.

There was visible activity by the time I woke up the next day and the aroma was the same as the other times I've brewed berliners.


Pasteurisation:
After Added the hops and heated to 70C and held there for 20 minutes. Then cooled.


Fermentation:
Pitched a packet of US-05 and fermented at 18C


07/01/14 - brewed

09/01/14 - pasteurised & pitched yeast

Berliner Weisse

I've never had the chance to drink a commercial Berliner Weisse. It's an old German style: low alcohol, sour wheat beer. To be honest, I'd never heard of it until sometime last year. However, thanks to the internet I have not only heard of it but also managed to brew one. It was a fun brew, my first all grain effort and first go at doing a sour wort.

I mashed it at about 68'C in the hopes of giving this low alcohol beer some body. The grist was 50-50 pils and wheat malt. Then the wort went into a spare eski at around 40'C. I chucked in a handful of grain and placed gladwrap onto the surface of the liquid to keep air out and closed the eski. It sat and festered for 2 days as the bacteria on the grain went to work on the wort. Then I boiled it, hopped it very lightly (~8 IBUs) and fermented it with US-05, aiming for a clean yeast profile and sourness as the star.

'JFK'
Berliner Weisse, 3.2% alc.
Brewed 12/11/11.

Aroma: Wheat, citrus and a pretty obvious lactic aroma.

Appearance: Pale straw, very pale and very clear. It pours with a large fluffy head that dissipates over 5 minutes leaving only a thin ring around the edge of the glass.

Flavour: Sharp sourness is the first impression along with prickly carbonation. There's a hint of citrus and wheat, lots of wheat. The finish is all about the malt, particularly the wheat.

Mouthfeel: Moderately high carbonation. Relatively thin body but still has some body. Doesn't finish too dry.

Overall: Not a complex beer but then that's not the point of this one. It's refreshing and easy to drink. It's worked well on hot days while watching the cricket. I tried it with some plum syrup which cut the sour and left the malt and sweetness of the fruit to do their thing. Worth a try. I'm happy with how it turned out although I'd really like to have something to compare it with. I'd like to try it again using Wyeast 3068 or using their Berliner Weisse blend and see how that goes.