PurpleHouse
New Member
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2018
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 0
Hi all. Long time reader, but first time posting here, so hope I'm doing this right.
My first crack at a Berliner Weiss-style has me a little stumped. I first made a 1 liter starter with DME and dumped in the WY5335 Lacto culture, incubating it for 3 days at ~100F until brew day. At this point I still hadn't received my HACH PocketPro+ PH meter, so I based it's sour level by taste, which from reading forums, should taste a bit like apple juice, since the sugar still left in the starter wort will keep it from tasting as sour as a sour beer should. The WY 5335 culture was "born" almost 3 months before I used it, but there is also the aroma of sourness happening along with the apple juice flavor.
I then brewed the wort (5 gal., all grain with decoction, added 1.5 Tbs 88% lactic acid), transferred to carboy and pitched the whole 1 L lacto starter in the carboy - no aeration and put it in my fermentation closet, sitting at ~70. My plan is based on the suggestion of Michael Tonsmeire's American Sour book where he talks about how Jess Caudill of WYeast has had the best results, inoculating his BW's with 5335 and letting it sit at 68F for a week before pitching a German ale strain.
The 1st day after brewing, I got my HACH PocketPro+, very carefully learned how to set it up and manually calibrated it using the ph4 and ph7 solutions, then measured the ph of the wort, expecting it to have dropped a little. Here's how it's gone so far:
02/02 - PH = 4.10
02/03 - PH = 3.92
02/04 - PH = 4.07
I'm not sure what is happening with the readings. I'm manually calibrating the meter each time before testing the wort. On 02/03, I watched the reading climb a little as the sample's temp. rose, so maybe that has something to do with it. Either way, I'm more concerned with the wort not dropping below ph4 by now. I also tasted the sample today and it tastes just like sweet wort. Am I missing something here? Too worried too quickly? I come here to you guys and gals for all kinds of pro-tips, so much respect to the OG's out there.
My first crack at a Berliner Weiss-style has me a little stumped. I first made a 1 liter starter with DME and dumped in the WY5335 Lacto culture, incubating it for 3 days at ~100F until brew day. At this point I still hadn't received my HACH PocketPro+ PH meter, so I based it's sour level by taste, which from reading forums, should taste a bit like apple juice, since the sugar still left in the starter wort will keep it from tasting as sour as a sour beer should. The WY 5335 culture was "born" almost 3 months before I used it, but there is also the aroma of sourness happening along with the apple juice flavor.
I then brewed the wort (5 gal., all grain with decoction, added 1.5 Tbs 88% lactic acid), transferred to carboy and pitched the whole 1 L lacto starter in the carboy - no aeration and put it in my fermentation closet, sitting at ~70. My plan is based on the suggestion of Michael Tonsmeire's American Sour book where he talks about how Jess Caudill of WYeast has had the best results, inoculating his BW's with 5335 and letting it sit at 68F for a week before pitching a German ale strain.
The 1st day after brewing, I got my HACH PocketPro+, very carefully learned how to set it up and manually calibrated it using the ph4 and ph7 solutions, then measured the ph of the wort, expecting it to have dropped a little. Here's how it's gone so far:
02/02 - PH = 4.10
02/03 - PH = 3.92
02/04 - PH = 4.07
I'm not sure what is happening with the readings. I'm manually calibrating the meter each time before testing the wort. On 02/03, I watched the reading climb a little as the sample's temp. rose, so maybe that has something to do with it. Either way, I'm more concerned with the wort not dropping below ph4 by now. I also tasted the sample today and it tastes just like sweet wort. Am I missing something here? Too worried too quickly? I come here to you guys and gals for all kinds of pro-tips, so much respect to the OG's out there.