Sour Wheat Beer

Grains, malts, hops, yeast, water and other ingredients used to brew. Recipe reviews and suggestions.

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ewaltlaw
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Joined: Sun Feb 16, 2003 11:28 am

Sour Wheat Beer

Post by ewaltlaw »

I want to make a Berliner Style Wheat using partial grain. Someone told me to use Acidulated Malt to get this taste. Any suggestions or reciepts would be great.
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Mesa Maltworks
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Berliner Weisse Facts....

Post by Mesa Maltworks »

The source of the sourness displayed by Berliner Weisse comes from the use of Lactobacillus delbruckii, a bacterium that produces large amounts of lactic acid. I have used Sauermalz (real name of "Acidulated Malt") but as a natural pH adjustment method, not as a flavorative. It might be adequate to point the beer in the right direction, but I doubt that the flavor will be accurate. It would also be difficult to figure out how much to use... remember this is a hyper low gravity style... that makes even the smallest error stick out.

Here is how I've done a BW in which I used all the right stuff:

5 ga., 1.032 SG/8P, 7 IBU

2.2# Pale Ale Malt
2.2# Red Winter Wheat Malt
1.28 Oz. Perle Hop Pellets (7 Alpha) 105 Minutes
1.28 Oz. Perle Hop Pellets (7 Alpha) 90 Minutes
Altbier yeast (Wyeast 2565)
Lactobacillus delbruckii culture (Wyeast 4335)

Hopping: Not a mistype ! The first dose gets boiled for 105 minutes and the last for 90 minutes and that is it for hopping.

Mashing:

1. Dough in to 104 deg. F., hold for 10 minutes.
2. Ramp up over 10 minutes to 122 deg. F. and hold for 40 minutes.
3. Ramp up over 10 minutes to 147 deg. F. and hold for 20 minutes.
4. Raise to 162 deg. F. and hold until conversion test is negative. (iodine test)
5. Raise to 168 deg. F. for 5 minute mashout rest.
6. Sparge @ 168 deg. F.

Pitching: Pitch both cultures into a 60 deg. wort. Ferment until fully attenuated.

Conditioning: Minimum 3 months, better at 12~20 months, 60 deg. F.

Have fun ! This is a cool beer to do but requires patience.

Eric
fitz
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Wait a minute

Post by fitz »

Eric,
You told me wheat beer wasn't sour.
That was my biggest beef with the stuff.
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Mesa Maltworks
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I'm still consistent....

Post by Mesa Maltworks »

Fitz;

In my comments about wheat malt usage in a grist, I stated that from my perception, including wheat malt as an ingredient did not seem to render a sour flavor in the resultant beer. As was noted in the post to ewaltlaw, the sourness of a Berliner Weisse is derived from the use of a lactic acid producing bacteria, NOT the inclusion of wheat malt, or, specific to his question, the use of acidulated malt. Other than the Lambic family, this is the only wheat beer that is intentionally soured that I am aware of. Maybe your orignal post was in response to tasting one of these?

I, shortsightedly, assumed you were referring to the more commonly experienced, commercially available, wheat beers... like hefe, kristal or ales using wheat as part of their grist. My comments regarding the flavor that wheat imparts into beer were based on my perceptions having experience examples of these styles, all of which are not supposed to be sour at all. Knowing that I could not have possibly tasted all of the style examples, I asked for you to give me some brands that I could try in an effort to educate my palate from your perspective thereby gaining some insight. I would still like to do so as I always strive to increase my knowledge of beer style attributes, both in specification and perception.


Eric
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Couldn't recall

Post by fitz »

The wheat beers I tried were ones I bought in Frankenmouth(Michigan) when I was visiting there. I couldn't recall the names of the beers, because this was my first attempts at them, and I didn't like any of the three I tried.
Maybe I should give some those others a try.
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