A Bear's Vice

Recently I came back from the mountains, first camping trip since I was kid. It was stressful at times (mainly because trying to control two boys can be at times a challenge) but overall I really enjoyed it. Thought it was great to finally put away my stupid iPhone and not have access to the outside world.

I seriously need to do that more often! 

I have come to the realization that having a strong beer is not always great, and sometimes can be just too much in certain situations. When summer comes around I tend to lean toward drinking IPAs, Sours, and light fruit style beers. (Though I will say Old Chub Nitro by Oscar Blues is very good!) Recently I brewed a style of beer I have never made before, a Berliner Weisse. This is German style sour. With an abv of 4.2 or lower, nice lemony sour taste. This is done many different ways, but the way I did this brew was a sour mash.  A sour mash for those who havent taken that journey is simply keeping your mash at 90-100 degrees for 2 days or more. Also to prevent O2 from touching the mash ( too much O2 on a sour mash can lead toward very off putting aromas and flavors - think sewer) I put plastic wrap on top of the grains. 

To try and make the beer a little bit more sour/lemony I used acidulated malt, but I did have one hiccup during the boil,  which was I didn't boil the beer. I ran out of propane, but the good thing is this was actually NOT a hiccup because it is acceptable for this style not to have a boil but rather a very high near boiling temp will work. Though most people that do this style to be safe from DMS and other off flavors boil for 10 to 20 minutes. I did do hops but right when I added the wort in the kettle at near boiling temps for about 20 minutes. 

One thing that I will not do next time, is to add hops to the secondary, it caused a very grassy flavor, luckily I didn't dry hop the whole batch just half, the other half I added oak chips soaked in Chardonnay. That side of the beer turned out nice, but not as sour as I would like.. though with after year or more it should get nice and tart. 

So here is the recipe and cheers!  

Fermentables    Efficiency: 75.0 %            Batch size: 8.0 gal

Fermentable                      Amount               Use                        PPG       Color

 Pilsner (BE)                        6.25 lb                 54 %       Mash    37          1  °L

 Wheat Malt (DE)             4.0 lb                    34 %                      37          2  °L

 Acidulated Malt (DE)     1.0 lb                    8 %                        27          3  °L

 Crystal Rye (UK)              4.0 oz                   2 %        Mash    33          90  °L

Hops

 No Boil time: 20 min near boil

Hop                        Amount  Time                   Use                        Form     AA

Warrior (US)       0.3   oz 10  min                Boil                        Pellet    16.0%

Pacifica (NZ)       1.0   oz 14 days                Dry Hop               Pellet    5.5%

Saphir (DE)          1.0   oz 14 days                Dry Hop               Pellet    3.2%

Spalt (DE)            1.0   oz 14 days                Dry Hop               Pellet    4.8%

Yeasts

Name                    Lab/Product       Average Attenuation

Lactobacillus       Wyeast 5335     0.0%

German Ale        Wyeast 1007     75.0%

1.039 OG

1.010 FG

4 IBU

3.8% ABV

4 SRM 

Sour mash for 2 days with plastic wrap on top of grains. Resting temp for most of that time was 90 to 95 degrees with beginning temp at 148.