Some beginner questions about this extract Berliner recipe.

[tectactoe]

Hello there. I am very new to the world of homebrewing, but am enjoying every minute of it. I've only made a few brews so far, but look forward to making more. I'm still working with extract brews, so bear with me...

I was looking for an easy Berliner recipe for the upcoming warmer months and found this one:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f72/quick-dirty-berliner-292973/

I think I'm going to attempt it, although I have a few questions. I haven't used these forums before and much of the terminology is still new to me, so any and all help/insight is appreciated.

- What exactly is meant by "full volume boil" ? Is that when you add all the ingredients at once? if not, can the dry extract be added after boiling?? is that "okay"?

- I'm confused about the yeast instruction "Re-hydrated in sanitized (boiled) water and NO SUGAR 10 min before pitching. No starter." Did he add the yeast to boiled water and then pitch it in the brew? if so, how much water? and what does "no starter" mean?

- for the "souring", did he just add lactic acid to the brew? mix it in straight?

- lastly, it says the fermentation is only 3 days, and it doesn't say anything about priming sugar when bottling (he kegged his)... can I assume that the normal amount of priming sugar must be used if I plan on bottling?

Thank you everyone for the help, sorry for the noob questions. I am very interested in growing and learning about homebrewing, so I guess you gotta start somewhere.

 

[satph]

Boil for 15min - I do a full volume boil, you could add the extract after boiling if you are concerned about color but I wasn't.
...
Re-hydrated in sanitized (boiled) water and NO SUGAR 10 min before pitching. No starter.
...
Fermented for about 3 days, moved to 4C once finished and let settle for 1 day. Moved to keg and soured.
...
64.24g/19000ml=.338% lactic acid. rounded = .34%

"full volume boil" = Simps boiled with all of the ingredients in the pot. He also said it was okay to add the extract after the boil.

Read this about rehydrating yeast. The water is boiled to sanitize/sterilize it. Then cooled before you add the yeast. If you add the yeast to boiling water, you'll kill it. The link suggests 1 cup of water for rehydrating.

Here's a discussion on the flavor that lactic acid adds. It adds a sour taste. Simps added 3380 ppm of lactic acid (.338%* 1mm), and GilaMinumBeer says the taste threshold is 400ppm while "Lambics have anywhere from 492 to 3600ppm." Simps also noted that Berliner Weisse average .38% lactic acid.

Simps says fermentation was complete before kegging. So I would assume he force carbonated it in the keg. You can use a calculator to figure out how much priming sugar you need to add. The BJCP guidelines say Berliner Weisse should be highly carbonated.

 

[woozy]

- What exactly is meant by "full volume boil" ? Is that when you add all the ingredients at once? if not, can the dry extract be added after boiling?? is that "okay"?

With extracts it's okay to boil only *some* (maybe half) the water, add the ingredients and then top off to the full amount. By "full volume" he means he's starting with the full amount of water so he won't have to top off. That's all.

The dry extract can be added any time.

- I'm confused about the yeast instruction "Re-hydrated in sanitized (boiled) water and NO SUGAR 10 min before pitching. No starter." Did he add the yeast to boiled water and then pitch it in the brew? if so, how much water? and what does "no starter" mean?

He added it to boil*ed* water. Past tense. He's worried about sanitation so he boiled the water. Then he let it cool down. (*don't* add yeast to boiling water.) How much water? Mmm, 1/2 a cup should do it. Maybe there's more to it than that. Read the link on rehydrating.

A "starter" is where you feed your yeast a little sugary psuedo-wort to wake the yeasties up and get them going and to boost their numbers before you toss them into the actual wort. You often do this with liquid yeast and some folks consider this the norm. He's simply saying he didn't use a starter and just pitch the rehydrated yeast directly.

- for the "souring", did he just add lactic acid to the brew? mix it in straight?

I haven't done sours so I can't help you with that.

- lastly, it says the fermentation is only 3 days, and it doesn't say anything about priming sugar when bottling (he kegged his)... can I assume that the normal amount of priming sugar must be used if I plan on bottling?

Mmm, seems a safe bet but again, I've never done sours. But unless someone or something says otherwise I'd assume so. Use the priming calculator link.

 

[tectactoe]

Wow thanks for the quick replies! I will be sure to check out all those links!

One more question (should have asked before) - let's say I wanted to give this Berliner a fruit flavor. Say raspberry Berliner... what would be the best way to do that? Some kind of raspberry concentrate during fermentation? Raspberries during the boil? Is there any suggestions or something I can read for guidelines on fruiting your beer?

Thanks again

 

[tectactoe]

One more (probably stupid) question - this is five gallon batch, so does that mean you start with five gallons of water to boil, then add water to equal five gallons again after boiling / before fermenting?

Thanks

 

[woozy]

One more (probably stupid) question - this is five gallon batch, so does that mean you start with five gallons of water to boil, then add water to equal five gallons again after boiling / before fermenting?

Thanks

That's a good question, and the answer's kind of ambiguous.

Technically a full volume is larger than 5 gallons and you anticipate your boil off rate so that you end with exactly 5 gallons. All-grain brewers do this all the time. Typically they start with 7 gallons and boil down to 5.5.

I've read many times on extract brewing, however, where they meant what you did. Start with the total or gestimate a little more and then top off.

Usually, there's nothing at all wrong with topping off. Especially with extracts. I'll have to reread the original recipe to try to second guess whether/why this was important.

....
Added later....

Ah! He didn't add any hops so he only boiled for 15 mins. Okay, in this case very little, maybe a quart or so will boil off. [If I were you I'd start with about a quart over and accept whatever is left as close enough I recind. I *would* top off]. In theory there's nothing wrong with topping off but I wonder if there's something about the souring that makes the recipe developer weary.

...
and later still.

Okay, when saying he did a full volume he is merely noting so for his notes and observing that *he* did a full volume the one time he did it.

You absolutely don't *have* to do a full volume if you don't want to. And if you don't have a kettle large enough that's a good reason not to. Likewise wort chilling efficiency is another.

 

[tectactoe]

Wow, thanks again for the great replies and all of the help!