Some experience · 20 litres · all grain
Berliner Weisse
Under 4%, sharply lactic and almost unhopped, finished in three weeks rather than three years. The most refreshing beer in this list and the fastest sour you can make.
Original gravity
1.031
at 70% efficiency
Final gravity
1.006
82% apparent attenuation
Alcohol
3.4%
by volume
Bitterness
4 IBU
Tinseth
Colour
2.6 SRM
5 EBC, Morey
Grain bill
2.90 kg
0.14 kg per litre
Brewed to Berliner Weisse, and all five computed figures land inside the published ranges for it.
OG inFG inABV inIBU inSRM inWhat decides this beer
Temperature during the sour. Lactobacillus wants 38 to 42C and an oxygen-free headspace. Let it drop to room temperature and you will get butyric acid instead, which smells of vomit and cannot be saved.
Fermentables
| Malt | Weight | Colour | Extract | Of grist |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pilsner malt | 1.50 kg | 1.8 L | 37 ppg | 52% |
| Wheat malt | 1.40 kg | 2 L | 37 ppg | 48% |
Colour and extract are read from the malt reference, not typed into this recipe, so they are the same figures every other page on the site uses.
Crushing your ownGrain mill$92.90Hop schedule
| Hop | Weight | Alpha | Time | Contributes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hallertau Mittelfrueh Almost nothing, and added after souring. This style is defined by acidity, not bitterness. | 25 g | 3.5% | 10 min | 4.3 IBU |
Alpha acid varies by crop year and lot, which is why it lives on the recipe rather than on the variety. Brew to the figure printed on your packet and the bitterness will move; the IBU calculator will tell you by how much.
Method
- 01Mash at 65C for 60 minutes.
- 02Boil ten minutes to sterilise the wort, then chill to 40C.
- 03Purge with CO2, pitch Lactobacillus, seal, and hold at 40C for 24 to 48 hours until it reaches about pH 3.3.
- 04Boil ten minutes with the tiny hop charge to kill the bacteria.
- 05Ferment out at 19C and package at 3.0 volumes. Serve within three months.
Numbers for the day
- Mash
- 65 C for 60 min
- Strike water at 3 L/kg
- 71.2 C
- Strike volume
- 8.7 L
- Boil
- 10 min
- Ferment
- 18-20 C
- Carbonate to
- 3.0 volumes
- Priming dextrose
- 167 g
- Yeast
- American WheatWyeast 1010
Strike temperature assumes grain at 20C and priming assumes the beer peaked at 20C after fermentation. Recompute both for your own kitchen on the strike and priming calculators.
For the mashDigital thermometer$12.31
For the fermentTemperature controller$36.00Before you package
Take a gravity reading two days apart and only package when it has not moved. A beer bottled while still fermenting keeps fermenting in the bottle, and the sugar you prime with lands on top of whatever was left. At 3.0 volumes this one needs about 167 g of dextrose for the batch.
To know it has finishedHydrometer and trial jar$21.99