Nothing says summer like a 3% alcohol sour which tons of carb.  And why not add some fruit!  I bought a bunch of purees from perfect puree based on a recommendation at milk the funk.  the first one i used was for a fruited berliner that ended up winning at a bunch of competitions and got me a brewing session at Unknown Brewing.  Pretty damn cool!  That was a guava puree.  I also bought a blend called “el carazon” after the cocktail it is used in which looked pretty awesome.  blood orange, passion fruit and pomegranate.  i tasted the blend afterwords and I can confirm it tastes amazeballz!  hopefully it works well in a BW.  So I decided to split a batch and bottle half as straight berliner weisse and then fruit the other half.  I have used wine yeast in the past so decided to change it up and try german ale to see how that works out.  fingers crossed.

Recipe Info

Recipe: berliner weisse 3v 1
Style: Berliner Weisse 23A BJCP 2015
Date: 06-23-2017

	Recipe	Guideline Min	Guideline Max
OG	1.030	1.028	1.032
FG	1.007	1.003	1.006
Color	2.6	2.0	3.0
ABV	3.1	2.8	3.8
IBU	0.0	3.0	8.0

Brewery Info

Efficiency: 71 %
Attenuation: 78 %

Mash Info

Weight: 8.0 Lbs
Thickness: 1.25 Qt per Lb
Deadspace: 2.0 G
Strikewater: 4.5 G
Volume: 5.14 G
Temp: 125.0 F

Boil Info

Kettle Gravity: 1.028
Predicted Mash Run-off: 3.78 G
Target Starting Boil Volume: 7.75 G
Boil Duration: 30 min
Evaporation Rate: 1.5 G per Hour
Final Boil Volume: 7.0 G

Fermentables

Weight	% by Weight	Name	Yield	SRM
4.500 Lb	56.0 %	Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann)	82.2	2.0
3.500 Lb	44.0 %	Pilsner (Weyermann)	80.0	1.8

Hops

Weight

Name

AAU

Time

Use

IBUs

Yeast

Amount	Name
1.000 unit	Lactobacillus Blend Omega OYL-605
1.000 unit	German Ale/Kolsch White Labs WLP029

Misc

Amount	Name	Time	Use
0.500 tsp	Yeast Nutrient (Wyeast)	10 mins	Boil

Water

Predicted Mash Ph: 5.49

	Ca	Mg	Na	Cl	So	Bicarbonate
Water	7	3	21	30	24	30
Mash	92	3	21	146	70	30
Sparge	90	3	21	145	68	30
Final	136	4	32	218	103	45
Target	75	0	0	0	0	0

Mash Water

Total Water Treated: 4.500 G
Percent RO / Distlled: 0 %
Water Used: 4.500 G

Mash Water Adjustments

Gypsum: 1.4 g
Calcium Chloride: 4.1 g
Lactic Acid: 1.5 ml @ 88.000 %

Sparge Water

Leftover Mash Water Used: Yes
Total Water Treated: 6.000 G
Percent RO / Distlled: 0 %
Water Used: 6.000 G

Sparge Water Adjustments

Gypsum: 1.8 g
Calcium Chloride: 5.4 g

Notes

125f 10 mins
146f 30 mins
158f 30 mins
168f 10 mins
Boil 30 mins
Chill to 95f
Pitch lacto and hold at 90f for 24 hrs
Boil for 30 mins
Cool to 68 and pitch yeast and hold
When ferment slows add 0.5 lb per gallon of fruit puree
Bottle after total of 2 weeks
Carb to 3.5 volumes

6/27/17 kettle sour day.  normal 3V brewday.  with the omega blend and my volumes i don’t do a lacto starter.  boiled for 30 mins.  cooled to 100F, pitched lacto, purged headspace with CO2, closed lid and wrapped with saran wrap.  set controller for 90F @ noon.
Made a 0.5L starter 50g DME w/ german ale wlp029
6/28/17 pulled sample @ 10am.  pH = 3.01.  Damn.  Omega’s Lacto blend is crazy!    wort tastes good.  a very low level of cheerios / tpp which i always seem to get with this blend.  history / experience says it will age out.  we will see.  boiled for 30 mins and cooled to 64F.  pitched around noon @9pm slow bubbling which is a good sign.  it appears german ale can handle low pH.
6/29/17 1″ kreusen with strong steady bubbling
7/3/17 ~6 sec.  kreusen dropped.
7/10/17 racked 2.5 gallons to 3gallon fermenter w/ 1.25 lbs of el corazon fruit puree.  i purged the fermenter before racking the beer in.  racked rest of the beer to bottling bucket.  2.5 exactly so added 3.5 oz / 99grams of table sugar to target 3.5 volumes.  tastes really good.  still that low level of cheerios present.  FG 1.006.  bottled 20 but just barely.
7/11/17 fruited portion is slow bubbling but no kreusen.
7/12/17 1/4″ kreusen and ~5 sec between bubbles
7/13/17 ”
7/14/17 ”
7/15/17 ”
7/16/17 ~10 sec
7/17/17 ”
7/21/17 moved to bath tub @ 72F.  no bubbling
7/23/17 ”
7/24/17 bottle fruited portion.
2.5 gallons.  FG 1.006.  tastes pretty good.  fruit is dominant but should get good with age.  sour level is solid but not upleasant.  targetting .35 vol so 99g of sugar.  bottle 19 bottles barely
both beers turned out really well.  the fruited version did really well in competition.  the plain bw score OK but did not place as well as the fruited version.  not sure what i would change about the plain version.  it is quite good and too style.  judge comments were all over the place so hard to figure out. some felt it was not sour enough (inlcuding a master level judge) which based on the pH and TA number and my own palate that is hard to believe.  It is solidly sour and on the sour side of all the various kettle sours i’ve had.  maybe just bad luck.