Berliner Weisse lacto experiments

[Hommel]

I've been testing out different lactobacillus sources and wrote up my findings so far. I thought others might find it helpful / interesting:

Experiment 1 (grain, probiotic sources)
http://www.hommelhomebrew.com/hommel-homebrew/berliner-weisse-experiment-1-lacto-sources

Experiment 2 (commericial sources)
http://www.hommelhomebrew.com/hommel-homebrew/berliner-weisse-experiment-2-lacto-sources

 

[WhamFish]

You did a very nice job here. I've been running some less structured experiments myself but haven't had the time to document as you have. I defiantly appreciate the effort.

If you get up to doing this again, you may try some good belly probiotic, I've had good results and it is apparently hop tolerant

-Cheers

 

[Calder]

Nice write up. I've used acidopholis probiotics a few times with great success. I think I have used about 1 to 2 Billion cells per gallon. Once it gets going, it doesn't take long to double its population.

In your experiments you will find acidophilis doesn't like hops(at all), don't even mention them when using it. As I said, I've used them several times with success, but had one failure. I used some starter wort that I had brewed up; a gallon had had a couple of hop pellets in it, boiled for maybe 5 minutes - didn't do anything.

I never boil prior to adding yeast. Usually dry hop is the only hop addition I do.

I will watch for more updates.

 

[eric19312]

Good write up.

Would be interesting to see you repeat this at a higher temperature. One of the advantages of the lacto first sacc/brett second is supposed to be that you can let the lacto cook pretty warm. Would be nice to know if there is really a difference between 95 and 115 in terms of souring.

Second you should consider gravity measurements. When I follow sour fermentations I use my refractometer to see in relative terms if the fermentation is consuming sugar. I watched a berliner I did recently with Gigayeast fast souring lacto go from 1.032 to 1.008 before I got around to pitching brett. My guess is your 2-row was a heterofermentive fermentation and there wasn't much sugar for the sacc to eat once you pitched it. Of course it will be Non Alcoholic beer after boiling the alcohol off so dumping makes sense to me

 

[Calder]

Second you should consider gravity measurements. When I follow sour fermentations I use my refractometer to see in relative terms if the fermentation is consuming sugar. I watched a berliner I did recently with Gigayeast fast souring lacto go from 1.032 to 1.008 before I got around to pitching brett. My guess is your 2-row was a heterofermentive fermentation and there wasn't much sugar for the sacc to eat once you pitched it. Of course it will be Non Alcoholic beer after boiling the alcohol off so dumping makes sense to me

The gravity changes will depend on whether it is a heterofermentative or homofermentative lacto bacteria.

 

[berebrando]

Big respect for the day to day measurements. Cheers to you!

I did an experiment at the 5 gallon volume recently, trying to identify a bacteria that would work well in my brewery. I don't have any great results to report. In fact, I was severely disappointed with the strains that I tested.

I brewed a 9.3 Plato wort (two row with 20% wheat) and 5 ibu. I pitched several different pure cultures and blends of yeast and/or bacteria. I have a feeling that, based on your findings, my bacteria was subject to some adverse conditions during shipping. I have a feeling that the strains I had shipped from Chicago were frozen along the shipping route, for example. The best result was a batch fermented with dregs of Sante Adairius - 90% attenuation and 3.47 pH. My L delbruckii (WLP) only got the pH down to about 4 with 85% attenuation. Weird. I'll give the L brevis another chance based on your findings.