Probiotic berliner weisse??

[klaiguy]

Hi y'all

Berliner weisse is one of my favourite styles to make for the summer time. I usually go for the wild sour mash route for my Lactobacillus (mostly brevis?) fermentation.

I was at the health food store the other day, and came across a probiotic tablet with Lactobacillus reuteri....which got me thinking....probiotic berliner weisse?

Has anyone tried this or had experience with this lactobacillus or am I gonna have to try and culture it up myself? Apparently it is a normal gut commensal in humans and mammals so I might have to think carefully about what I culture it in!

I would be interested if there are any thoughts out there regarding existing experience with this bug and/or ideas about culture ph, temps etc.

Cheers.

 

[The_Glue]

I had the same idea recently.
I've seen some better products with at least 5 lacto strains including brevis, googled some of the mentioned bacteria on the package and at least 3 of them could do alcoholic fermentation. It is not even expensive compared to liquid sour yeast mixes but i don't know if i should try it in beer.
I guess these strains were mutated/selected for the human gut and not for fermenting wort but i dont have first hand experience, might will try it on an extract brew for fun.

 

[Calder]

I've used Lactobacillus acidophilus probiotics several times. Makes a decent beer.

No starter needed nor would I recommend one - it just takes longer with a starter.

My process:

Boil wort (a few minutes to kill everything).
No Hops - Many Lacto species will not work with any hops present.
Add crushed probiotics. Probably at the rate of 1 to 2 billion live cells per gallon.
Use an airlock.
Keep warm for a week (about 95 to 105 F).
Taste to see if soured enough. Do not add yeast until it is sour enough.
Pitch yeast (I don't bother to re-boil), aerate, and brew as normal. Pitch big, the low ph is hostile to sacc yeast.
Dry hop when fermentation is complete.
I am usually bottling at 3 weeks and drinking at 5.

 

[klaiguy]

If you try anything out, let us know how it goes. Details on what products you use and the species of lactobacillus (or other bugs) present would be useful.

I'll do the same but have just put down a batch of wild soured BW recently so it won't be for another month at least.

Probably the best way to experiment would be make a lactobacillus starter to ensure you won't end up with infected garbage!

 

[Osedax]

I made a starter with dog vitamins once. It had amylase and lacto acidophilus in the powder. Apparently, our dog needs that...

Seemed to work really well. Made a very sour and complex berliner but, was very slow even at high temps. I would use it again.