Lucky Charm (Batch 04) & Bauernhof: Recipe

Since I don't do any sort of boil for my Berliner Weisse, I figured this time I could probably stretch 15 gallons out of a single brew session, and luckily it ended up working.  Since I had this much, I'd do a bit of an experiment to change up my traditional Berliner.  I still did 10 gallons of the standard Lucky Charm Berliner Weisse, but for the remaining 5 gallons, I decided to do a saison/berliner hybrid.  For this portion, I thought that name "Bauernhof," the German word for farmhouse, would be appropriate.

I've detailed my "sour mash" process in the past, but in sort, I mash out right into the boil kettle, though from there I do not go to a burner, and don't raise the temperature at all.  Instead, I chill to 80*-100*F, depending on which heat sources I have available and how long I'll be souring for.  I then add this to a CO2-purged keg with a muslin sack of 1/4 lb. of pilsner malt.  This time I did things a bit differently.  For the Lucky Charm portion, I had a vial each of White Labs Berliner Blend (WLP630), although in my experience this doesn't get the beer tart enough.  Since I've had such great experience with Jolly Pumpkin dregs in the past (they sour cleanly and quickly), I decided to use dregs from Calabaza Blanca here in lieu of the muslin sack with pilsner malt.

Given that I wasn't using the lacto that lives on the outside of the uncrushed malt, I didn't do a total CO2 flush this time; in fact, I even oxygenated this time.  (Normally when doing a sour mash you want to avoid any oxygen getting in contact with that mash, as that will encourage the growth of all sorts of nasty critters that will make it smell like vomit.)  So, each 5 gallons of the Lucky Charm portion got a vial of the WLP630 as well as the dregs from a relatively-fresh (December 2013) 375mL bottle of Calabaza Blanca.  The dregs were added the day after the White Labs, as I only had one bottle the day I brewed, and I added that to the Bauernhof portion, along with a starter of Ambrosia Blend 002, which is a mixture of ECY08, Brett C, and Brett Trois.

Here are the full details on the batch:

Batch Number: 87 & 88

Brew Date: June 1, 2014

Bottle Date:

Batch Size: 15 Gallon

OG: 1.029

FG: 1.002 (est.)

Fermentation Temperature: 70-76* F

IBU: 0.0

ABV: 3.5&% (est.)

SRM: 2.7

Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 150* F

Boil: None

Fermentables

8.25 lb. Pilsner

4.5 lb. Torrified Wheat

3.75 lb. Flaked Wheat

Normally I just go 50/50 Pilsner and White Wheat Malt, though I was completely out of the latter this time, even though I thought I had a bucket full of it.  Hopefully this works just as well.

Salts & Water

5.0g Calcium Chloride (into the mash)

12mL Lactic Acid (into the mash)

Resulting water profile is as follows:

Mash pH (est.): 5.42

Calcium: 52

Magnesium: 12

Sodium: 7

Chloride: 47

Sulfate: 27

7.5mL lactic acid added to the sparge water to get it to a pH around 5.5.

Hops

None

Other

3.0 tsp. Wyeast Yeast Nutrient before chilling

Yeast

Lucky Charm:

White Labs Berliner Blend plus Calabaza Blanca dregs

Bauernhof:

Ambrosia Blend 002 (2nd generation) plus Calabaza Blanca dregs

Notes

06.01.2014: Brewday.  20 seconds of pure oxygen to each of the 5-gallon portions.  The two portions that got the Berliner Blends were put in a water bath with an aquarium heater set at 68*F (in my experience this overshoots a bit, so probably ends up at 70*-72*F).  The water bath on the portion of the wort with the saison blend was placed in a separate water batch at 70*F.  This portion also started out with the dregs of a 375mL bottle of Jolly Pumpkin Calabaza Blanca.  I'm trying this here in lieu of using the lacto from raw grain this time.

06.02.2014: The portion with the saison blend was at 74*F this morning after a very warm evening last night.  Basement even got quite warm.  This evening, changed it was back down to 72*F, and altered the controller to keep it here.  The two 5-gallon straight Berliner portions in the other water bath are still set at 68*F, and I added the dregs from a December 2013 batch of Calabaza Blanca to each one, again instead of using the lacto from grain here.  

06.03.2014: Saison portion -- Bauernhof -- was at 76*F this morning.  The temperature probe had slipped out of the Ziploc bag that I have submersed in the water to measure that temperature.  Thankfully it didn't get too warm.  Re-adjusted and it's back down to around 72*F.

07.27.2014: Ready to get the Lucky Charm portions onto fruit.  Both are sitting at a pH of 2.9.  Using the BrewCipher refractometer conversion, gravity is currently at 1.011 before the fruit additions.

For the raspberry-lime, started by adding 10 pounds of raspberries and then transferring.  Looking back, this is double what I used last time with Batch 03, so should be fairly intense.  I'm keeping the lime a little more in check with what I had last time.

Raspberries for the raspberry-lime portion.

For the pineapple-coconut, starting with 5 pounds of fresh pineapple, 22 ounces of fresh coconut meat, and one quart of fresh coconut water.

Pineapple-coconut portion.

Bauernhof received passion fruit puree.  Added two 2.2 lb tubs plus two 14oz packages.

07.29.2014: Forgot to add the lime to the raspberry version on Monday night.  In Batch 03,  I used the juice of three limes and 3 Tbsp. of zest.  I'm looking to add just a bit more here given the additional raspberries, but will take more precise measurements this time.

07.30.2014: This morning, added the zest of 4 limes, which was roughly 3.5 Tbsp. (10 grams) along with the juice of those limes (100mL).  Checked the fermenters and the raspberry version didn't seem to be doing much when I added the lime juice and zest, though there was a decent amount of carbonation coming up when I added the weighted muslin bag with the zest.  There were apparent signs of fermentation on top of the pineapple-coconut version, and Bauernhof (passion fruit) had a nice pellicle.  Will leave all of these undisturbed for a month or so and then check the gravities.

Finally adding the limes.

08.04.2014: Went to check on all of these after a nice camping trip in Michigan.  The raspberry-lime portion is fermenting quite well.  To make sure that I achieve maximum color and sugar extraction, and also to keep out unwanted oxygen exposure, I punched down the raspberries, utilizing a technique often described by Jester King.

"Punching down" raspberries with a sanitized stainless steel spoon.

Ambrosia Lucky Charm (Batch 3): Recipe

This is my third time brewing Lucky Charm, my Berliner Weissbier series, the name of which comes from the fact that my wife, Amy, loves woodruff syrup in Berliners and thinks it tastes like the marshmallows from Lucky Charms.  I can't say that I disagree.

For this batch, I decided to do a sour "mash" for the first time.  Mine isn't traditional in that it's not really the mash that's being soured.  Instead, I plan to sour the runnings.  The procedure is to mash as normal, run off from the mash run into my pot, chill to ~100 F, and then fill two CO2-purged corny kegs.  From there, I put a grain bag filled with a quarter pound of pilsner malt in each keg.  Those are placed in a chest freezer using FermWrap to keep the kegs at 85 F for about a day, at which point I then remove the grain bags and pitch starters of White Labs Berliner Blend.  This "mash" is done to allow the lactobacillus that naturally resides on the raw grain to start to acidify the beer.  From there, the Berliner Blend goes to work.

Base Recipe

Batch Number: 56
Brew Date: January 21, 2013
Bottle Date:

Batch Size: 10 gallons

OG: 1.029 (est.)
FG: 1.004 (est.)
IBU: 0
ABV: 3.6% (est.)
SRM: 2.6
Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 150 F.
Boil: None

Fermentables

5lb 8oz French Pilsner
5lb 8oz White Wheat Malt

Hops

None

Yeast

Lactobacillus (present on raw grain)
Berliner Blend

Notes:

01.21.2013 - Brewday.  After mashing, transferred straight into two corny kegs, and also into a single gallon jug.  All three vessels were placed in a chest freezer with dual stage temperature control, which was set between 85 and 90 F.  The cornies each got a bag with 4 ounces of pilsner malt to soak overnight as a sour mash.

01.22.2013 - After 16 hours, each of the corny kegs had a layer of white film when opened.  I removed the grain bag from each, pitched from a starter of White Labs Berliner Blend, and lowered the temperature range to 68 - 72 F, which is White Labs' recommended range for the blend.  At the 28 hour mark, both kegs and the jug were showing plenty of fermentation activity.

02.16.2013 - Added the juice of 18oz of blueberries (~500mL) plus the juice of one lemon (~50mL) to the jug, along with 1/2 Tbsp of lemon zest.

02.24.2013 - Added fruit to one of the kegs, which contains approximately 4.5 gallons.  I added the juice of 72 ounces of raspberries plus the juice of three limes.  I also added 3 Tbsp. of lime zest.

Lucky Charm (Batch 01): Recipe

RETRO: Post written on July 24, 2014, but set to publish on the initial brew date to maintain order within the blog.

This was my first Berliner Weissbier attempt.  My biggest memory of this one is draining fruited kegs over Fourth of July weekend in 2011, sitting on the deck with my father-in-law in the townhome my wife and I rented in Alexandria, Virginia.

The recipe for the full batch is as follows:

Batch Number: 09
Brew Date: April 3, 2011
Bottle/Keg Date: [Not Recorded]
Batch Size: 5 Gallon
OG: 1.029 (estimate)
FG: 1.002 (estimate)
Fermentation Temperature: 65-70*F
IBU: 4.0
ABV: 2.5% (est.)
SRM: 2.6

Mash: Single infusion at 149*F for 90 minutes.

Boil: 15 minutes

Fermentables

2lb 12oz Pilsner Malt
2lb 12oz White Wheat Malt

Salts & Water

At this point I wasn't doing anything besides filtering the water and adding 5.2 buffer, so that's likely it.

Hops

0.5oz Hallertauer (3.8 AAU) at 15 minutes

Other
Eventual fruit additions, per notes below.

Yeast
White Labs Berliner Weisse Blend (WLP630)

Notes

04.03.2011 – Mashed at 149*F for 90 minutes.  Temperatures pretty much where I wanted them to be.  Used the double sparge technique.  

Ran off approximately 5 gallons and then added about a quart of filtered water to account for the boiloff during the 15-minute boil. 

Added fruit on 05.15.2011.

About 2.5 gallons of each portion.  Base was at 1.005.  One carboy got 24oz of frozen raspberry and 10oz of frozen blackberry.  The kiwi got a little under 3lbs, which was the pulp of 20 kiwis.  Gravity on kiwi portion went back up to 1.015.  Forgot measure berry portion.

Took awhile for fermentation to kick back off. A few bubbles in the blowoff starting the evening of 05.17.