Sour Mash Berliner Weisse - Medal Winner!

A Berliner Weisse is one of my favorite styles of beer during the summer months in Alabama. A good description would be a lawnmower beer, the kind you want to drink after cutting the grass and sweating two pounds off. I wanted to brew a 100% sour mash version of this style so I could go from grain-to-beer in two weeks instead of pitching lacto and waiting for it to sour, which could take months.

(Note: This is for a 4 Gallon batch)

Ingredients:

3lb - Pilsner
1lb - Wheat
8oz - Acidulated Malt
0.5oz - Williamette Hops
WLP001

Mash temp of 152F with a 60 min rest time.

Sour Mash Berliner Weisse Beer XML

I used my igloo cooler mash tun since the temperature needed to stay ~105F during the sour mashing. The lactobacillus that occurs naturally on the grain has an optimal growth temperature between 98F - 108F. After  mashing I dropped the temp down to 105F with ice and placed a seedling heating mat under the cooler on a temperature controller. I also purged the free head space in the cooler with CO2 to flush the oxygen out in order to keep the bad bacteria growth down. The next morning the temperature had already dropped to 95F so I placed my fermwarp on top of the cooler and wrapped the cooler in a heavy quilt. After a few hours the temperature climbed back up to 105F and remained consistent.

Now for the fun part, 24 hours later I opened the cooler with boyish excitement. The smell wasn't as bad as I expected, it was fairly vegetal but overall, not putrid. 48 hours later there was still a hint of vegetal aroma but this time, the sourness started to come through. A quick taste of the wort gave me hope it was not going to be an infected mess. There was a sour note but it was not overly sour at this point; maybe a 4 on a scale of 1 to 10.

The next day I sampled the wort again (at this point it had been 72 hours). It was sour... Jaw biting sour.. On a scale of 1 to 10, it was an 8. I ran off the wort and did a 30 minute boil to stop the lacto growth and to kill anything else off that might be reproducing. After a chill down to 70F, I pitched a vial of WLP001. Fermentation was very quick and over in 2 days. I left it on the yeast for a little over a week and my FG reached 1.009.

The beer itself is very beautiful, just what you would expect from a BW. Straw like color that is cloudy and very effervescent. The flavor is sharply sour but finishes a little fruity and sweet. Maybe I will pitch a healthy starter next time to see if that has any impact on flavors and FG.

As I write this, there is not a drop of it left... The keg went quick with the help of friends and I sent the beer off to Walk on the Wild Side in Florida and the Bluegrass Cup in Kentucky. I did receive score sheets back from Walk on the Wild Side already but none from Bluegrass Cup as of yet.

Walk on the Wild Side Score Sheets

Update:

This took third place in the Alabama Brew Off in the Sour Beers category.