Wyeast Very Special Strain- Berliner-Weisse Blend- 3191VSS

[BrewerJ]

Well I took a chance and brewed myself 5 gallons of berliner weisse. Having never tried one I won't be able to determine if I brewed a good one or not. I understand that the brett takes a while but what about the lacto. will it be sour after its done with its initial fermentation or will it take 3 months for the sourness to develop.

[MashGordon]

Well I took a chance and brewed myself 5 gallons of berliner weisse. Having never tried one I won't be able to determine if I brewed a good one or not. I understand that the brett takes a while but what about the lacto. will it be sour after its done with its initial fermentation or will it take 3 months for the sourness to develop.

ditto for the lacto, unless you're holding it at 90-100 degrees. after primary, do a secondary in glass at 60-65 and let it go for 6 months or so. slower souring is the way to go, be patient grasshopper...

[BrewerJ]

thanks I have brewed over a 150 all grain batches but this is my first take at a sour beer. If I like the results I just might turn one of my wine barrels into a bug barrel. Is 64-65 too hot i can throw it into a fridge but I don't want to hold up my fermentation fridge for that long.

Any other hints or tips are welcome and appreciated as I am a rookie in this part of brewing.

[MashGordon]

i've got an Oud Bruin going right now. i fermented normally with cal ale yeast and added the roeselare blend to the secondary. i've got it in a cooler part of my house and is about 58-60 degrees. it's been souring for 4 months now and bubbles about once every 2-3 minutes or so.

basically, find a cool dark place and forget it. lacto and brett are tolerant of small temperature changes. they may slow down but they don't really stop.

i pulled out a Zumergy article by Jeff Sparrow from july/aug 2001 and he says 57-77 degrees. and Eric Warner's german wheat book says 59-77.

[BrewerJ]

Well it looks like the hardest part is waiting for the beer to finish. Hopefully the beer is done by June and that will work out perfect. Does star san kill brett? The beer is in the secondary already and I Need to use the empty fermenter(glass carboy) this weekend for another beer. I soaked it in PBW then iodophor and finally star san. I think it should be bug free but just want to make sure. I have a seperate racking can so that the plastic parts don't cross contaminate.

Thanks for all the help!

[MashGordon]

i think that would be fine. i do PBW then bleach solution and finally star-san. i'm guessing iodophore is similar to bleach in its ability to kill just about anything....