I’ve often heard WY1007 recommended for fermenting a Berliner Weisse that has already undergone lactic acid souring (i.e., sour mash, sour wort, lactic primary, etc.), since it seems to work even at lower pH ranges. Does anyone know of any dry strains that work well at lower pH ranges for something like this?
I’m planning on brewing a few batches of Berliner Weisse this spring, but I don’t have easy access to liquid yeast. I was hoping one of the usual suspects that I already have in my fridge (US-05, S-04, 34/70), or something else I can pick up now and stash away for a quick brewday, would work OK as a substitute.
I made a Berliner at the beginning of summer and I did a sour mash for 24 hours. It didn’t get sour enough and I should have let it go for another day or two. I used US-05 and it worked fine, but I didn’t measure the ph. so it might not have been that low.
I don’t have personal experience of fermenting a nice and sour Berliner Weiss with US-05 but a lot of people do use US-05 although it is unclear how sour their BWs are. US-05 throws off a peach ester that I don’t notice in highly hopped beers, but notice in low hopped beers. If you want to be traditional, US-05 would not be a good choice although a BW might taste great with peach ester.
I’ll bet S-05 will be fine. Definitely rehydrate and use a fresh pack. Oxygenate and add yeast nutrient at pitch. If you can use slurry from another lightly flavored, low gravity beer, do it.
If not, then the US-05 strain is your next best substitute. I have tasted several BW’s made with this strain as the finishing yeast and they were quite clean and tart.
I’ve used 05 in a sour worted beer that was down into the upper 3 ph range. I pitched a much larger volume than normal and it still took the yeast some extra time to ferment the beer out. It took about ten days for active fermentation to end. I harvested the yeast and have since reused it on a second sour worted beer and it fermented through it much quicker.