So I am going to take a stab at brewing a Berliner Weisse. I have never brewed this style before and decided to go with White Labs 630 to get it started. The 630 is a blend of weizen yeast and lacto. From what I have read, the Lacto can be slow to grab and the blends may not sour to a high level. My question, is adding a vial of lacto in addition the blend a solid option? Or should I just let the blend do its thing?
If adding both the lacto and blend, I was thinking of adding the lacto for 2-3 prior to the yeast. Sour/infected beers are a new frontier for me but I am excited to get started.
There are numerous approaches to brewing them, your approach is solid. You didn’t mention much about the rest of your procses, but I’d consider 50:50 pills / wheat, 149 mash, no boil, (brought up to 180), less than 5 ibu in mash hop.
I’m still working the kinks out of my process to get mine tart enough.
AO
It will help. I would pitch the lacto vial warm ~85F. Even keep it warm for a day if you can. Sample and add the blend when it’s getting tart. (Let it cool before adding yeast)
Awesome! Thanks for the suggestions. I am going 65% pils and 35% wheat. 150 single infusion mash with no decoction and 2-3 IBU. 1 minute boil. Preparing to brew this one is so strange for me as it is significantly different than my normal brew days…not to mention I am somewhat new to sours.
Are you considering serving with the syrups? I found more people were willing to try it when I offered the citroensirup and Himbiersirup to go with the BW…
I have considered the syrups. I also have 20 pounds of tart cherries that I want to use. Thinking of maybe racking onto cherries. I will just let the spirit move me. ha.
Pitch the mix at 100F to kill off the yeast and get the lacto very active. Keep above 90F as best as you can for 2+ days while keeping out air. Let cool and when it hits pitching temp pitch German Ale yeast. That’s if you want it to get really sour.